Santa Claus vs. The Devil – Re-broadcast Watch Party!

It’s Christmas and the kids are passed out (hopefully)! Break out the eggnog and join us for a rebroadcast of Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff‘s legendary live-riff of SANTA CLAUS VS. THE DEVIL (1959), recorded during The Mads’ livestream on December 15, 2020, followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with very special guests Andy Kindler (Bob’s Burgers, Maron) and J. Elvis Weinstein (MST3K, Freaks and Geeks)!

PLEASE NOTE: This rebroadcast will be via Twitch. You can read more about Twitch here.

Purchasing a ticket to this event grants you:

• An instant download of the event for you to keep forever
• Livestream access to The Mads Are Back: Santa Claus vs. The Devil on Saturday, December 25, 2021 @ 10pm ET (an email with a private Twitch link will be sent to you at 9pm ET)
• Livestream access to any future rebroadcasts of this event
• Free access to any upgrades made to the downloadable version (occasionally audio/video will be improved for their rebroadcasts)

Did you already purchase a ticket to the original broadcast of this show? Then you automatically receive access to this! Check your email for instructions, and email chris@dumb-industries.com for any assistance on accessing.

A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit the Friends In Need Food Shelf in Minneapolis.

Viewers will be able to tune in from anywhere in the world.

SANTA CLAUS VS. THE DEVIL (1959)

Santa Claus (sometimes also known as Santa Claus vs. the Devil) is a 1959 Mexican fantasy film directed by Rene Cardona and co-written with Adolfo Torres Portillo. In the film, Santa works in outer space and does battle with a demon named Pitch, sent to Earth by Lucifer to ruin Christmas by killing Santa and “making all the children of the Earth do evil”.

A dubbed and slightly edited English-language version was produced for U.S. release in 1960 under the direction of Ken Smith. It was lampooned on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The film was considered to be a financial success over several holiday season theatrical releases in the 1960s and 1970s. Broadcast of the film also became a holiday tradition at several U.S. television stations. The film garnered at least one award, winning the Golden Gate Award for Best International Family Film at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1959.

The film was also featured in the fifth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (episode #521), which first aired on Christmas Eve 1993. The devil Pitch became a recurring character on MST3K, played by writer Paul Chaplin. Chaplin said, “It’s kind of a fun movie, and we all enjoyed it”, noting that he made “quite an attractive demon”. The episode may be the origin of the phrase “nightmare fuel”; during the movie, Crow T. Robot calls an animatronic Santa “some good old-fashioned nightmare fuel”, and the phrase spread through MST3K message boards.