It’s a Wonderful Knife (Review)
It's a Wonderful Knife is the latest addition to the holiday horror film line up. The film had a minimal theatrical run in November and then released exclusivley to horror streamer Shudder on December 1 to kick off the holiday season. Is it worth a view? Let's dive in.
In the film, Winnie's (Jane Widdop) life is less than wonderful one year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve. When she wishes she was never born, she finds herself magically transported to a nightmarish parallel universe. With the murderous maniac now back, she must team up with a misfit (Jessica McLeod) to identify the culprit and get back to her own reality.
Right away if you're thinking the plot sounds a lot like the classic It's a Wonderful Life, you would be correct. The film is the horror version of the classic holiday film and it works pretty well for the most part. The cast is solid and charismatic enough for us to care when mayhem begins but the story is pretty generic. I just don't think there is enough time to flesh out characters enough for us to really connect with them, while they are still likeable - the subtance is rather absent.
Jane Widdop and Jessica McLeod eat up most of the screentime. The two have some good chemistry together making their characters stand out the most. Justin Long is also in the movie and this is the most unique performance I have ever seen from him. He has a spray tan and some fake white teeth or something with a southern accent and it was honestly, not working too well for me. He was fine at some times but for the most part, this performance from his end didn't do much for me in the slightest.
The dialogue is something that could have been cleaned up a lot. While yes - the film does serve as a slasher so it could get a pass on some of it, a lot of horror movies that are considered slashers from this year did much better with dialouge including the sixth installment of the Scream franchise, Scream VI and even new holiday horror comer Thanksgiving which has some smart and witty lines to keep an audience invested. This film struggled with that in more than a few scenes so if they make another, my hope is they invest a little more time into the characters and dialouge.
Director Tyler MacIntyre does a fairly solid job with action shots and chase sequences. There is enough suspense between shots to keep the audience on their toes and the musical score behind the action helps with that a lot. This is the first time I have seen anyting behind his credentials but it's enough to make me want to check out more.
The design of the killer is something I really liked. The white drapey angel suit with a blank mask works very well. As a slasher fan, I appreciated a lot of the kills in the movie. They used a lot of holiday decorations and surrounding antiques to make them creative and exciting to watch on screen. Most of the kills are on screen which is something else I throughly enjoyed as well. The white on the angel's costume also worked well with blood splatters since it was visibly brutal. I wish they would have utilized that more and kept the costume red as each kill progressed.
In the end, the film is a pretty fun time. It's not the most memorable slasher, but it is for sure one that could be added to your annual holiday watch list if you are a big time horror fan. It's worth at least one watch.
