Santa Claus is coming to town… just in time to get mauled by a rampaging werewolf. Visiting her mum for the festive period, grumpy, punky YouTuber Lucy (Katherine Rodden) and pal Dustin (Charlie Preston) suddenly find themselves on a mission to save Christmas when they are thrown into conflict with the bloodthirsty Werewolf Santa himself.

Written and directed by Airell Anthony Hayles, this comedy-horror is a cut above the usual B-movie concept smash (Velocipastor, Wolfcop, generally most things with ‘cocaine’ or ‘shark’ in the title), bringing a refreshing level of earnestness to the battle between Scrooge and (werewolf) Santa.

In the best of Christmas movie traditions, Rodden’s Lucy is an enjoyably misanthropic lead, a more palatable version of Dashcam‘s Annie Hardy. The film makes its horror bona fides felt with a cameo from the venerable Joe Bob Briggs and Blighty’s own Emily Booth, co-starring as Lucy’s mum, Carol (Christmas Carol, geddit?).

In a canny use of the found footage format, Hayles keeps the actual Werewolf Santa just obscured enough not to look ridiculous while also playing up the more magical elements of the story. Eschewing the subgenre’s usual semi-improvised feel, the writing is tight and funny, with snappy interplay between the characters. Even better, there are no scenes in which a character stares directly, breathlessly, into the camera before being dragged off, kicking and screaming, into the darkness. Indeed, it’s so well-shot that one might occasionally even forget that we’re watching a found footage film here.

While the low budget is evident in some rough animation and use of on-screen text, this is a creative use of the format, enriching the story and cleverly hiding some of the seams. A particularly toothsome – if slightly dog-eared – addition to the Christmas canon.

Werewolf Santa is out now on DVD and digital platforms.