Sinterklaas is coming to town...to kill you?
A few years back I stumbled across a film called SAINT (or as it known in the Netherlands, SINT). First of all, you have to understand that the Europeans often have very strange thoughts on holiday characters. Just look at RARE EXPORTS. This 2010 Dutch film is about Sinterklaas, who is a little bit like Santa Claus except he has blades on his staff and he comes in the middle of night to murder people. The tradition dates back to 1492 when a corrupt Bishop was killed. The people in the town don't realize the history of the celebration and so they dressed as Sinterklaas and his army of murderous ghosts known as the Black Peter.
Listen, there are some things that do not age well even after just 10 years. Privileged white kids putting soot on their face to look like Spanish Moors as the tradition goes... not so good. Also the brazen misogyny of our lead character Frank does not make him overly endearing upon re-watch. That being said, this is a surprisingly effective horror film with a simple premise that sticks to its guns and doesn't try to do too much and therefore succeeds. The standout in the cast is Goert/Kurt, a police officer who's been obsessed with the murderous possibilities of Sinterklaas since his family suffered a horrendous attack 40 years earlier. I watched a dubbed version which is on Amazon, so it's a little distracting at times. But still, Bert Luppes’ performance as the only man who believes has a tortured David Duchovny hint to it. The effects in the film are pretty satisfying and the cinematography is strong. The highlight has to be Sinterklaas galloping across the roofs of the houses on his Snow White Horse, the police in hot pursuit. Also, there is the added benefit of this thing being set on December 5th, so if are you trying to create your Advent calendar of holiday horror films you can start early with this one and build up to more specifically Christmas-themed options.
Side bar on the Black Peter (the Zwarte Piet). Just so you understand the tradition, the Black Peter were always white men in black face who wore colorful clothing and feathers in their caps. They were black, supposedly, because they climbed down chimneys to leave gifts in the children's shoes. See, in the Netherlands, Sinterklaas doesn't have to do all that much work. He doesn’t even have to know if you’ve been bad or good. He has a big book that tells him that fact. If you've been bad, apparently, the Black Peter would stuff the children in a sack and take them to Spain – which I guess sort of says how the Dutch viewed Spain. The George Floyd protests and subsequent Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the Netherlands in 2020 appear to have had a significant effect on the acceptance of Zwarte Piet's traditional (blackface) appearance among the Dutch public. A June 2020 survey saw a drop in support for leaving the character's appearance unaltered: 47% of those surveyed supported the traditional appearance, compared to 71% in a similar survey held in November 2019.
Another fun fact about the film: evidently there was significant parental concern in Amsterdam around the original release. The terrifying poster of Sinterklaas with his mutilated face was confusing and frightening to children who still believed in the legend. A legal complaint was filed requesting removal of the posters from streets and cinemas. The director argued that if parents could make their children believe that Sinterklaas existed they could also inform their children the man on the poster was not actually Sinterklaas. The court sided with the director.
Finally, the director’s name is Dick Maas. His big breakthrough was a 1988 slasher flick titled AMSTERDAMNED.
