If you're going to remake a classic film, you should try to deliver something new, and It's a Wonderful Knife certainly tries. Taking the basic plot from Frank Capra's 1946 Christmas movie, this film adds a slasher into the mix, and the results...
Well now, it's 5 am. This is rather early for you to be writing, Chris.
Oh great, the Ghost of Christmas Past is back. As if this sudden bout of insomnia isn't enough to deal with.
I told you I'd be checking in with you. And I see you're working on your third review, and the month is almost half over. You're behind, as usual.
I thought you Christmas ghosts were suppose to teach people lessons about life, not taunt them.
What's the difference? We taunt people by reminding them of their failings in life, and they learn a lesson.
What? That can't be right.
Just think about it while you're righting this review. Seems quite fitting. Bye!
Oh, this day is starting out great. Insomnia, a visit from that pesky ghost, and I have to start my work week in about six hours. How could things... You know, I'm not going to ask that, I'm just getting to the review.
The film takes opens on Christmas Eve in the town of Angel Falls, as real estate tycoon Henry Waters (Justin Long: Live Free or Die Hard, Drag Me to Hell, Tusk) is trying to convince the final property owner holding out to sell, so he can develop a luxurious shopping center. The man refuses, and is soon murdered by a figure dressed in white.
Meanwhile, Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop: Yellowjackets) is heading out to a Christmas Eve party with her friend Cara, the granddaughter of the man refusing to sell his property to Waters. To no one's surprise, the killer crashes the party, killing Cara and her boyfriend, then attempting to kill Winnie's brother Jimmy. But Winnie takes him out first and, surprise, the killer is Henry Waters.
Have to say, the killer's look is iconic. I can't think of another slasher wearing white so well.
The film cuts to a year later, and Winnie, along with Angel Falls, isn't having a great time. Her family is ignoring the events from last year (and I should mention Winnie's father worked for Waters), Henry's brother Buck confronts her, her application to NYU was rejected, and she gets a pink tracksuit as an early Christmas gift, while Jimmy gets a truck.
Heading off to a party, Winnie runs into Bernie (Jess McLeod: Van Helsing TV series), a social outcast everyone, including Winnie, calls "Weirdo." When asking about her boyfriend, Bernie suggests looking in the backyard, while some other party goers tell her to check out the laundry room. The laundry room was the right answer, as Winnie finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her for over a year. Confronting Bernie about her misdirection, Bernie replies she was only trying to protect her. Though I'm not sure why.
This ties into a problem with writer Michael Kennedy's (Freaky) script, so I need to explain now that Winnie and Bernie have no real connection at this point in the story. It makes no sense why Bernie would be so protective of Winnie, until later in the film. But let's get on with the plot.
Contemplating suicide, Winnie goes out to the waterfront and, while viewing the lights of the aurora (a rare sight for Angel Falls), she wishes she was never born. And wish granted, as she witnesses a man killed by the slasher she didn't kill, now dubbed The Angel.
Buck is now the sheriff, Henry is the mayor, and her family doesn't recognize her. Even worse, her brother Jimmy, and her aunt's (Katharine Isabelle: Ginger Snaps) partner were killed by The Angel. Winnie heads back to a party at the house she went to last year, only to find everyone smoking crack rather than drinking. She meets with Bernie again, and, at some point, asks her to be her Clarence. Yep, if the title wasn't enough to clue you in, we get this reference.
Bernie takes Winnie to her house, and we get some insight into Bernie's fractured family. Bernie also questions the timing of Winnie's appearance, as a party goer was killed by The Angel. Fortunately for Winnie, the slasher attacks, Bernie takes her to the movie theater she works at, and they deduce The Angel is killing the children of property owners Henry Waters wants to buy from, causing them to sell out and leave the town.
Um, it appears Bernie might be might be a bit of a conspiracy nut. You might want to rethink your choices in friends, Winnie.
Winnie decides to make things right, and, of course, slasher mayhem ensues.
As I said earlier, if you're going to remake a classic, do something different with the story, and this film does. It's not about the lives Winnie changed, but the lives she saved by killing Henry. And the film reveals that Bernie was contemplating suicide this Christmas, making Winnie the Clarence figure. While the script never develops the idea fully, it's a nice twist.
Okay, SPOILERS IN THE NEXT SIX PARAGRAPHS.
Unfortunately, Kennedy's script has some flaws. While I'm fine accepting the aurora somehow grants Winnie her wish of never being born (it does add a deadline for Winnie, as the aurora is fading), Henry's mystical powers to enthrall a crowd of followers needs some explaining. The crowd is obviously enchanted, as their eyes are glowing, and how Henry got such power is never explained. And though the spell is broken, Henry's followers are forgiven for their actions because, well, they were enchanted. The script absolves their complacency, and that's annoying.
My other issue with the script is where I start treading on thin ice. So please, read everything I have to say before posting comments.
Winnie and Bernie end up as a couple by the end of the film, but the script doesn't give us a reason why this happens. Sure, Winnie is surrounded by gay couples. Her aunt is in a relationship with a woman, and we have a scene of two male jocks kissing at the party in the opening act. And, as they should, no one questions it.
But Winnie starts the movie with a boyfriend, and nothing suggests she's questioning her sexuality. Okay, she finds out he's cheating on her, but the script never gives us an indication that this would somehow lead to Winnie starting a relationship with a woman. And let's be honest, Bernie is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, leading me to further wonder why Winnie falls for her.
Oh, we are so going to be a couple by the end of this film, because the script says so. No other reason.
Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with the romantic ending. I just wish Kennedy's script had done more to show why it happened. And he does it, in his script for Freaky. If you've seen the film, you know I'm referring to the kiss between Millie, who's trapped in a male serial killer's body, and Booker, who has a crush on her. It's a wonderful moment that the script builds up to in a realistic fashion. But Winnie and Bernie becoming a potential couple isn't as well developed.
I know such sudden realizations happen (Cassanda Peterson's coming out story is a perfect example). But the script feels as if Kennedy wanted the romance to happen and wrote it in, without developing why it would happen. Again, I'm not saying the two shouldn't have gotten together. But the script makes it feel that Winnie, upon discovering her boyfriend is cheating on her, decides to start dating women, which makes the budding relationship feel cheap. I'd have liked the script to give us some justification for the romance, rather than expecting us just to accept it.
END OF SPOILERS.
It's a Wonderful Knife is a fine holiday slasher flick. The cast is great, and director Tyler MacIntyre (writer of Five Nights at Freddy's and director of a segment of V/H/S/99) delivers some great moments (the attack at the theater in the final act is really well done). While I think had Kennedy done a bit more work on the script, this could have become a holiday horror classic. Even if it falls short of that goal, it's still a fun little watch if you're looking for some Yuletide fear.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for Yuletide fear.
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