A present development in slasher movies is having beloved ideas go on murderous rampages. Films Winnie the Pooh: Blood and The Mean One function characters like Winnie the Pooh and not-The Grinch-but-totally-The Grinch turning into brutal killers. Into this comes It’s A Wonderful Knife. The movie is a slasher take, on you guessed it, Frank Capra’s beloved traditional It’s A Wonderful Life. In lesser fingers, this movie would be a part of these others as a cynical and instantly forgettable movie. However, due to a fun script and a recreation solid, It’s A Wonderful Knife will get to be greater than a violent and ironic tackle a beloved Christmas traditional.
If you’ve seen It’s A Wonderful Life, you’ll be able to simply guess the premise of this. Despite the nice they do, teenager Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop) needs they by no means existed. In doing so, they enter a world the place the world is a lot worse off with out them. Only this time, not being born means Winnie did not cease the killer referred to as The Angel. So now, that killer has spent the final yr on the unfastened. Certainly George Bailey by no means nervous if his lack of existence meant a murderous rampage by no means passed off.
That premise is as absurd because it sounds and there’s loads of logic holes. However, the movie has a secret weapon in screenwriter Michael Kennedy. Kennedy co-wrote the script for Freaky with Christopher Landon, who additionally directed the movie. A slasher movie tackle Freaky Friday, it labored due to Kennedy and Landon’s script willingness to totally decide to the thought of a teenage lady swapping our bodies with a slasher. Kennedy brings in probably the most acquainted parts of It’s a Wonderful Life and places a comedic slasher movie spin on them. Turning the Mr. Potter determine, performed by the person with Hollywood’s most punchable face Justin Long, into a man prepared to homicide is a lot of fun. And very like Freaky, the script for It’s a Wonderful Knife may be very queer pleasant. There’s sympathetic lesbian aunts (considered one of whom is horror nice Katherine Isabelle!) and Winnie’s brother is a homosexual soccer hero. The gag with the rainbow Christmas tree decoration (“You’re going to have to hang that up every year now”) is a fun nod to oldsters which are overly supportive of their queer youngsters.
The most creative thought within the script although isn’t the murderous tackle Frank Capra’s traditional. The movie explores what occurs to the ultimate lady after she survives and the way that impacts them. It’s one thing that audiences by no means actually expertise even in slasher sequels, the place characters seemingly have to alleviate their earlier experiences. Widdop’s Winnie wrestles with the horrors of the earlier Christmas. Sure, she saved the city and her brother from a lunatic, however she additionally misplaced her finest buddy and killed a man in self protection. These experiences genuinely hang-out her and solely her. In the grand scheme of issues it appears absurd to wish to erase your existence. But for a lonely teen grappling with trauma, possibly not being born feels like a good factor.
As fun because the script is, director Tyler MacIntyre veers the movie extra in the direction of the comedy than the horror, not essentially discovering a good stability between the 2. That’s not saying there aren’t well-staged kills or that it’s poorly directed. He shoots the opening scenes like a Hallmark film that in a short time goes off the rails. He has fun staging the kills and places in some fun grotesque violence. The Angel, as an illustration, kills a stoned teen as a strobe gentle goes off and ending in entrance of a window the place the celebration ignores the homicide is a spotlight. But a lot of the deaths come throughout as campy greater than horrifying. The ridiculous face on Justin Long’s killer Henry Waters as he dies initially of the movie works in that scene as a result of his character is absurd. When one other character, key to the movie, comically stumbles into a movie show after being stabbed later is humorous, however the appearing undercuts that’s character’s significance to the movie.
Speaking of appearing, there’s Justin Long’s efficiency on this movie. His efficiency isn’t out of step with the movie however his character appears extra excessive than every little thing else. Long portrays Waters as a man with a ridiculous haircut. He speaks in a weird, excessive pitched Southern accent that comes and goes. He’s nominally the villain however he’s not very threatening in any method. Watching his efficiency, it’s laborious to find out if Long thinks Waters is a parody of a conservative politician like Matt Gaetz. There’s a half the place his character simply begins killing folks in entrance of a crowd nonplussed by the violence. It’s a pointed piece of social commentary on fascist management. Yet it’s carried out by a man, who even for a conservative, appears unlikely to be taken critically or elected to public workplace.
In the tip although, It’s a Wonderful Knife is a fun addition to the Christmas slasher subgenre. Its supply materials is solely a launching pad for a fun idea even when it doesn’t absolutely mix each its naughty and good sides. Tyler MacIntyre and Michael Kennedy clearly get pleasure from each horror and Christmas movies. What they’ve created is a fun diversion for folk merely in search of a bloody good Christmas time.
It’s a Wonderful Knife is at present streaming on Shudder.
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