by Scott Batchelor, Contributing Writer
It’s a Wonderful Life is an absolute classic, as a perfect story with the perfect message. Lots of people have it on their yearly holiday viewing rotation, and it’s a story that has been satirized into oblivion. There have been some big swings in the horror genre as of late to switch up the classic slasher formula. A lot of those swings end up at least getting on base. It’s a Wonderful Knife continues the trend of decent ideas that should have focused on characters as much as the concept. It attempts to combine a classic story with a scary twist, and while it just misses the mark, there is nothing that would make me consider it a bad watch.
It’s Christmas time in Angel Falls, and the mayor, played by Justin Long, is trying to get the stubborn people of the town to sell their property so he can develop more properties to line his pockets. One of the more detrimental aspects of this version of the story is how quickly we move through the “before wish.” Our cast of clichés is fleshed out in some pretty non subtle ways: One character lets us know of a character’s sexual orientation by saying, “A rainbow ornament for my gay son,” followed very quickly by, “You’re never on time, Sis.”
The killer, dubbed “The Angel,” gets in a few kills before Winnie, our…final girl played by Jane Widdop… gets the upper hand and kills him within the first 15 minutes of the film to set up the premise. One year later, Winnie is still suffering from the PTSD of losing her best friend, but the rest of her family and friends just want her to get over it, and the speed in which we move to the meat of the movie took me out of the experience. On Christmas Eve, Winnie is upset about her brother getting a new truck, and her track clothes take a hard turn, as Winnie bursts out regarding why nobody wants to talk about the murders. This leads to everyone telling her to get over it, which then forces her towards the famous bridge for Winnie to make the wish of never being born.
I have a pet peeve in movies which sometimes makes it hard for me to fully get on board: When a number of characters act so unnatural just to force the movie in a certain direction. In this case, the family and friends seem to not only ignore Winnie’s trauma, but they dismiss her as well. The family is not shown to be so dysfunctional that they don’t care about Winnie. They try to show their love in odd ways, but nothing that would suggest they don’t care about Winnie’s mental wellbeing. I get she needs to feel alone for the plot to work, but this all seems far too cruel.
Now that Winnie feels like she has nobody in her life, and everything is gone down hill, she finally makes the “George Bailey wish,” and our twist is now complete. The major difference between this film and the source material is at which point the wish comes into play. It’s a Wonderful Life spends a majority of the movie allowing us to get to know the characters in Bailey’s life so we can really feel the impact of him being gone. This updated horror version forces Winnie to get there with such little character development that, by the time we get the alternate reality, we are not as moved by the consequences of life without her.
Winnie learns that because she never stopped The Angel, he was never caught, and proceeded to kill 27 people over the course of the year. The town is now worse off for it, and only Winnie seems to be motivated to try and solve the murders once again. She teams up with the people you’d expect based on the previous reality, but there is a small wrinkle to the killer in the non-Winnie universe that feels forced because of the caliber of talent they have on screen. As for characters, it does not feel earned at all. Even less so when they try to explain it.
With a climax that feels rushed, the deeper we get into the third act, the more I am trying to keep up with the threads. The basic premise was already established, but new elements get added at such a late stage that it left me wheeling from trying to keep up with what the characters seemed to have figured out much faster than the viewer. Even the falling action feels out of place. While not a perfect first half, I was at least mostly on board. The back half really falters, but thankfully, it does enough to at least warrant some praise.
However thin the plot may be, the dialogue and jokes do land more than not. Sean Depner as the mayor’s doofy brother Buck gets some good chuckles, and Jess McLeod’s Bernie has decent chemistry with Widdop, which creates a dynamic allowing you to at least root for the heroes. There are some real chuckles and some very clever uses of cinematography for the gruesome kills. The actual plot doesn’t entirely work, but the idea is at least unique and the performances are enough to make this a soft recommend.
Rating: It Was Just Okay
It’s a Wonderful Knife is currently playing in theaters
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