Directed by:
René ManzorScreenplay:
René ManzorComposer:
Jean-Félix LalanneCast:
Alain Lalanne, Patrick Floersheim, Brigitte Fossey, François-Eric Gendron, Franck Capillery, René Manzor, Louis Ducreux, Stéphane LegrosVOD (1)
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Thomas, a young boy lives with his mother and grandfather in a mansion, where he loves to play with his electronic games. His mother is the owner of a large shop which, on Christmas Eve, employs a suspicious-looking man as Father Christmas. When he has a row with a customer, the man is dismissed. He swears he will have his revenge and climbs into the lorry that takes the toys to the mansion, where Thomas is left alone with his beloved and fragile granddad. When a man dressed as Santa Claus breaks into their home, the boy is delighted to come face-to-face with Father Christmas, not yet realising that he is in fact a dangerous psychopath... Thomas, very intelligent and resourceful child, will do whatever he can to save himself and his granddad, leaving much of his childhood innocence behind. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (1)
The central motif of Deadly Games (1989), an unfairly forgotten Christmas gem of French provenance, is the loss of childhood innocence and the degradation of illusions relating to Christmas. This unacknowledged forerunner of the holiday classic Home Alone (1990) pits an inventive boy, who is spending Christmas Eve alone with his half-blind grandfather in a huge house, against a deranged maniac in a Santa Claus costume. Dressed up like Rambo, the boy has the whole house littered with booby traps and secret passageways, by means of which the tables are turned on the violent intruder in the game of cat and mouse. On the one hand, Deadly Games is a highlight of 1980s children’s adventures with a bleak atmosphere, while on the other hand it is a very thought-provoking reflection on the theme of imagination and its cruel confrontation with reality. Starting with the young protagonist, but also including his mother, grandfather and even the costumed intruder, each of the main characters represents a particular period of childhood. After its suspenseful climax, the film leaves the viewer with the difficult question of whether it is better to bid farewell to the illusion of the Christmas myth and accept reality, or to hold on to a fantasy that has been cruelly defiled.
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