Sint; keeps your presents in your hiding spot

Apparently in America it is already quite common to either celebrate Christmas or to watch a horror film with Santa Claus doing all kinds of scary and twisted stuff. We don't have Santa Claus, we have something far better than some dude dressed in red and a stupid sleigh towed by nine flying reindeer, we get a dude dressed in red riding a horse who has helpers coming through the chimneys to bring us gifts from Spain. Santa Claus is based on the Coca Cola commercial and was never part of the original American history, as the original story comes from Spain and Turkey where a bishop either saved some kids from being put in pies, part of the Sweeney Todd legend or gave some desperate girls coins so they could get wed. Today I learned a whole different story about our gold old fellow that frightened the heart of some of the viewers, mine included, but I like a little scare every once in a while.

Sint is a horror film about Saint Nicholas by Dick Maas, one of the better Dutch directors, especially when it comes to the somewhat more scaring films like "de Lift" (the Elevator. According to the new legend in the film, Saint Nicholas was a murdering bastard of a bishop who fell from grace and started hacking away on people. In the end he got burned on his own ship, that is the reason why "zwarte pieten" (black petes) are black, because they got burned to death, alone with our holy saint. Now every time when the 5th of December, the day he died, comes along and a full moon is gracing our sky, Saint Nicholas will come and murder whoever he finds.

You can already guess, the film included lots of close up of the burned faces, zwarte Pieten hacking away of innocent children and a grinning Saint Nicholas who drives around on a horse that is half burned. It was rather entertained and it was a good piece of Dutch cinema. When you watch a lot of films you start to distinguish the way certain countries make their films. At least to me it is obviously a Dutch film, it has all the characteristics of a film made in the flat lands, full of blasphemous and direct lines and with a little humour thrown in food good measurement but not as cheesy as the Americans. The French have a very distinct style too, everything they do seems a bit romantic even when it has downright tear drawing sad and awful scenes. In America every is dramatic and the screen is cramped with product placements, cluttering your mind with useless brand ads.

So enjoy. Your holy-day will never be the same.