Recently making up for lost time, I managed to treat myself to a double-bill of Adult Swim Yule Log and this sequel. While I knew this was a sequel, I didn't expect it to actually lead on from the events of the first film. I mistakenly assumed that both films would just make use of the traditional yule log visual to frame whatever story writer-director Casper Kelly wanted to tell. What Kelly has instead delivered is something much more impressive, two separate instalments working in different ways, but also perfectly complementing one another to provide one brilliant tale of Christmas madness.
Andrea Laing is Zoe, a woman quite rightly terrified and scarred by the traumatic events of Adult Swim Yule Log. Still believing that she is in danger, she is convinced to get herself away for the holiday season, somewhere she can just lay low and avoid the trappings of Christmas. That looks far less likely when she ends up stranded in the little town of Mistletoe, a place that pretty much positions Zoe in the middle of a standard Hallmark Christmas movie. There are a number of clumsy hunks, a nice man who owns a small business (played by Michael Shenefelt), and an irritating influencer (Jesse Malinowski) who might be useful as Zoe tries to find a way out of the town. To say any more would risk spoiling some of the dubious delights here, and there IS a lot more packed into this.
With different targets in sight this time around, Kelly shows how good they are at crafting material informed by the style and genre tropes being played around with. This has a number of obvious gags and plot points, but also makes use of standard aesthetics to push things further (we have changes in lighting, music, and even aspect ratios as our lead character moves from potential horror to potential Hallmark moments). Arguably the most impressive part of the whole thing, however, is how it manages to feel like such a natural progression from the first film while also including even more head-spinning turns and tangents.
Laing is very good in the main role, playing her part as a pretty straightforward potential final girl, even when in the Hallmark festive rom-com scenes. She's the heart of the movie, and it helps that she is just as much aware of the tropes swirling and clashing around her as the viewers are. Shenefelt is good fun as he plays up the unbelievable sweetness of his character, Malinowski is a fun and brash presence, and Sharon Blackwood (playing Nana), Asher Alexander (as Jason), Chase Steven Anderson (as Jakester), and everyone else excel, whether they're providing comic relief or at risk of being caught in the middle of the surreal yule log terrors.
Absolutely superb stuff from start to finish, although it often feels a bit more subdued and traditional with how the narrative plays out (compared to the first film), Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin' Out is further proof that people should keep giving Kelly the resources and opportunities to make any kind of films that he wants to make. Because the results have been consistently brilliant so far.
8/10
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