It’s a Wonderful Knife – An Overly Serious Holiday Slasher

It’s a Wonderful Knife is a new Christmas themed slasher that puts a horror spin on Frank Capra’s timeless classic It’s a Wonderful Life. The film takes place in the small town of Angel Falls and follows Winnie Carruthers (Widdup), a year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve. Feeling less than wonderful about her own life, Winnie wishes she’d never been born and as a result, found herself in a nightmare parallel universe where things are much worse. With the killer having never been stopped, she must team up with town misfit Bernie (Jess Mcleod) to stop them and get back to her own reality. While a decent enough Christmas slasher that certainly entertains in the moment, it is also one that could have been so much more.

The biggest thing that holds It’s a Wonderful Knife back from reaching instant holiday classic status is how serious it decides to take itself. Instead of having a more playful and fun tone like recent slashers such as Totally Killer and Thanksgiving, the film plays things completely straight and suffers because of it. It had the opportunity to be self aware and funny but it decides to take a more dramatic route and despite being labelled as a horror comedy, there are barely any laughs to be had outside of Long’s delightfully hammy performance as the town mayor, Henry Waters. It also doesn’t do nearly as much with its premise as it should outside of its opening act and doesn’t have as much in common with the film it’s parodying as one would hope. Whether it was a budget issue or something else entirely, it doesn’t feel like this fully utilizes its great premise and its many fresh ideas, especially the longer it goes on featuring many predictable reveals. The third act is easily the weakest part of the entire film, and it’s in that final act where the rest of the film’s problems begin to become more apparent and noticeable.

But as flawed as it is, the film is still an enjoyable holiday slasher, delivering an entertaining and enjoyable over the course of its breezy 87-minute runtime. It makes good use of its Christmas setting and has a lot of fun with its small-town wintery environment. The kills are actually effective and memorable, and the look and design of the killer is pretty cool. The opening 15 minutes start things off with a bang and might honestly be the best part due to how fast-paced and brutal it was. Widdop is rock solid as Winnie and is very easy to sympathize with. Meanwhile, McLeod impresses as Bernie and has good chemistry with Widdop and their characters affecting relationship helps carry the film through its bumpy third act. McHale is also good in a mostly serious role as Winnie’s father David and while he may be too over the top fun some, Long is a total hoot and major scene stealer as Waters. Long at times feels like he’s in a completely different film but he’s easily the best part of this film and would have definitely been better had it had the same kind of energy and tone he was going for.

In the end, It’s a Wonderful Knife could’ve been so much better, especially considering the many great recent slashers this year and the talent behind it, but still provides a solid watch around the holidays. For those who are not fans of Christmas horror or slashers in general, this film is likely to do very little to convert audiences. However, for those who are fans of this horror subgenre and want to put something new in their rotation this holiday season, this will more than get the job done. Just don’t expect anything great.

still courtesy of RLJE Films and Shudder

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/