Shudder Saturday: The Christmas Spirit (2023)

In the way of many traditional slasher movies, The Christmas Spirit begins with a tragic accident that leaves someone burdened with a load of guilt to carry around with them for the rest of their life. The guilty individual is young Cole (Jordan Kronis), a broken soul who grows up to be a troubled adult (played by Zion Forrest Lee). Cole wants to make something special happen that should undo the torment he feels, and he's constantly prompted by The Christmas Spirit (Nicolas Grimes). What will it take to make something special happen? Well, it involves kidnapping a teenage girl (Maggie, played by Matia Jackett) and waiting for some miracles to happen.

While I have started this review with mention of a slasher movie trope, it's important to note that The Christmas Spirit is certainly not a slasher movie. It's not even a horror movie, for those who may be tempted by the poster and plot summary. It's partly a thriller and partly a very dark comedy, with the comedy coming to the fore in a wonderful middle section.

Working with a number of people he seems to value as frequent collaborators, writer-director Bennet De Brabandere arranges everything into an enjoyably subversive Christmas movie. When you think about each individual element - the "imaginary" friend, the plan to save Christmas/fix the past, a lead being targeted by others because of a strange belief - then you can see how well this plays around in the Christmas movie sandbox.

Lee is very good as Cole, a man who spends a lot of time arguing with himself, and someone only he can see, as he wrestles with his conscience while trying to correct a horrible mistake. Jackett is even better, particularly in the earlier scenes that have her character playing along with the kidnapping as she thinks it's a bizarre, but safe, way to make a point on social media. She's endearingly oblivious for a while, but comes around quickly enough to avoid looking like a complete idiot for the entire runtime. Grimes is perfectly gruff and direct as the titular spirit, Eman Ayaz (billed here as Charlotte Ayaz) is a lot of fun as Maggie's friend, Gina, and there are assorted supporting players, such as Alexander Nunez, Chris Handfield, Christian Potenza, Tavaree Daniel-Simms, and Enzo Massara (billed as Enzo Campa), all doing good work.

It's rough around the edges, and cannot always hide the low budget, but this does what it sets out to do very well. Okay, I didn't care so much about how things played out in the third act, but the very last scenes are as sweet and satisfying as any you will find in a thousand other Christmas movies, ensuring that I still had a smile onn my face as the end credits rolled.

7/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing, and ALL of the links you need are here - https://linktr.ee/raidersofthepodcast
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share