Santa Claus wreaks havoc in Once Upon a Time at Christmas

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Lionsgate is preparing to spread some Christmas fear, having scheduled director Paul Tanter's holiday horror film ONCE UPON A TIME AT CHRISTMAS for an appropriate December release in both the US and the UK.

The tagline for this one is "Couples that slay together stay together", and the film is said to paint the snow red with blood while telling its story, which was scripted by the fittingly named Christopher Jolley. If Jolley didn't have other credits, I would be assuming that was a pen name created specifically for this movie.

Meet Santa and Mrs. Claus: he’s a one-eyed fiend, she’s a curvy, bat-swinging blonde. This serial-killer couple is terrorizing the holidays in an upstate New York town with a series of horrific homicides. Though the victims seem random — a mall Santa, a smooching couple, an innocent family — high-schooler Jennifer and clever cop Sam begin to unravel the sinister pattern behind the slayings. Can they stop the murders before Christmas comes — and there’s no one left to celebrate?

The film stars Laurel Brady, Susannah Mackay, Simon Phillips, Sayla de Goede, Brook Fletcher, Barry Kennedy, Jeff Ellenberger, and Devon Mary Doherty.

ONCE UPON A TIME AT CHRISTMAS will be making its UK premiere at the British Horror Film Festival on November 2nd, and will have its North American premiere at the Blood in the Snow Festival at the end of November. Its release will follow soon after – Lionsgate is giving it an iTunes / VOD release in the UK on December 11th. The next day, the film will be released on DVD, VOD, and iTunes in the US.

Check out the trailer below to see if ONCE UPON A TIME AT CHRISTMAS is a movie you'd like to fit into your holiday viewing schedule.