Although it isn’t wise to make a sweeping generalization, there are some production/distribution companies that make me dread whatever movie I am about to sit through. Wild Eye Distribution is one Uncork’d Entertainment is another. I wasn’t expecting greatness from a cheap British horror movie about a killer Christmas tree, but my heart sank when I saw the words “Uncork’d Entertainment”. It sank even further when I noticed that it was directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield (who gave us the horrible Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey).
Thankfully, this was a fun bit of nonsense. While I wouldn’t rush to recommend it to many people, there are friends of mine who should enjoy this as much as I did.
You could write the plot on a grain of rice, but I will summarize it here. A killer is brought back to life, but he ends up taking on the form of a Christmas tree. Quite frustrated by this turn of events, he nonetheless sets out to kill the young woman who helped to get him caught and executed, and that young woman is attending a party that also has a few of her friends there, upping the potential bodycount.
Co-written by Frake-Waterfield and Craig McLearie (the latter having a filmography chock full of titles that the more innocent and casual film viewer might assume are all parodies . . . but we know better), this has some of the flaws you would expect, but at least counters the worst elements with a healthy sense of humour and self-awareness.
Sarah Alexandra Marks is a decent enough female lead, and she’s surrounded by a surprisingly solid mix of wannabe tree victims, and Marcus Massey voices the killer tree in a way that helps to make this much more fun than it otherwise would have been. You do get some people who stand out for the wrong reasons, of course, but it’s hard to fault people for not being able to elevate such a silly script and concept.
The kills aren’t brilliant, mainly due to the poor quality of the CGI used, but they’re strange and entertaining. The runtime is brisk, it somehow barely feels like a feature while also paradoxically feeling a bit padded out in places, and the finale works because of everyone involved embracing the silliness.
Bizarrely, the more I think about this while writing this review, I have to accept that I quite enjoyed watching this nonsense. It’s no Treevenge, but you could pair it up with that wonderful short and have yourself a fantastic double-bill of killer tree carnage. Once again, I end a review with a sentence I never thought I would write.
6/10
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