Bad Santa poster

Bad Santa (2003)

Film · 1h 32m · Rated R

Comedy, Crime, Drama

A foul-mouthed con man in a Santa suit finds his bleak holiday heist complicated by an innocent child.

Campy, with dark satire. A comfort watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on Max.

Bad Santa parents guide

Moderate sex and nudity, and some violence, about what an R should carry.

Scare
Not scary
Jump scares
None noted
Gore
Light gore
Some blood or injury, briefly.
Violence
Some violence
Some fighting or peril.
Sex and nudity
Moderate
Moderate means a sex scene or nudity on screen, even brief, or sexual violence that is described or implied but never shown.
Language
Strong
Frequent strong profanity or slurs.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

How gory is Bad Santa?
Light gore and some violence.
What is Bad Santa rated, and is it OK for kids?
Moderate sex and nudity, and frequent strong language. The R is earned, so not for kids.

What is Bad Santa about?

You'd better watch out - Willie T. Soke is coming to town, and he doesn't care if you've been naughty or nice. Willie's favorite holiday tradition is to fill his sacks with loot lifted from shopping malls across the country. But this year his plot gets derailed by a wisecracking store detective, a sexy bartender, and a kid who's convinced Willie is the real Santa Claus.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

Bittersweet. It earns its ending, but not everyone gets what they want.

Cast and crew

Directed byTerry Zwigoff
StarringBilly Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Brett Kelly, Lauren Tom, John Ritter

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Bad Santa is on our Christmas, Comedy on Max and Crime on Max lists.

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.