Slasher film pitch

As Christmas is coming up, I thought it would be appropriate to pitch a Christmas-themed slasher. Many slasher films use a gimmick, and ones centring around holidays in particular, these include:
          
April Fool’s Day (1986)

Black Christmas (1974)

And the working title for my film, ‘Red Christmas’, is intended as homage to the last one. Both films have since been remade, which shows the continuing popularity of the sub-genre, and demonstrates that my film would be a big draw at the box office.

The film would be a typical slasher in many ways, although it would be interesting to play around with what we expect of the genre. The identity of the antagonist remains hidden; and it’s revealed through use of flashback that he was formerly a department store Santa who lost his job over a scandal, and the murders he commits are his way of getting revenge on the people he believes have wronged him. In accordance with Todorov’s theory; his actions upset the current state and the remainder of the film is the struggle to achieve a new equilibrium, this being achieved at the film’s climax.

In terms of characters, the film would play to established types mostly, but there would be a couple of countertype ‘twists’, such as an apparent jock/scream queen character who becomes the main protagonist and turns out to have hidden talents that help them eventually defeat the killer, as well as having a shared history that makes them binary opposites.

The opening scene would be of a cold winter’s evening, and we follow one character making their way home. We become aware of a figure in a Santa costume walking on the other side of the road, but it’s treated as a background event; until he steps forward and slashes the characters throat. This would be shot and edited extremely quickly, disorientating the audience and reminding them to pay close attention throughout the rest of the film.

Shooting would be very easy, as the film mostly takes place on Christmas Eve on the one street; it could even be possible to have one house doubling for multiple buildings through use of editing. A snowy backdrop would be a particularly striking example of mise en scene

The film would have black comedic elements, not due to cracking jokes as in some slasher films such as ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, but through use of irony. The ending would cut between children opening presents and bodies being wrapped up in a mortuary.