Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin’ Out review
An unexpected sequel to an unexpected movie. Expect something awesome.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin’ Out
Directed by Casper Kelly
Written by Casper Kelly
Starring Andrea Lang
Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin’ Out Review
Adult Swim Yule Log was perhaps the biggest surprise of 2022. Surprising due to its quality, sure…but also due to its very existence. Stashed inside of a traditional yule log video that people love so much…the crackling fire quickly gave way to an inspired slasher comedy involving a flaming log, time travel, aliens…and pretty much anything else you can think of. It was the Christmas equivalent of throwing every wacky idea at the wall…and watching almost all of it stick. The movie, also known as The Fireplace, was completely on brand for writer/director Casper Kelly…creator of the legendary Too Many Cooks experience for Adult Swim. Well…he’s done it again. The killer log is back! And it’s coming for the Hallmark channel.
Zoe (Andrea Lang) returns as the sole survivor of the flaming log’s original massacre. She’s lost her fiancé, her job, and is suffering from extreme PTSD. Her best friend Jakester (Chase Steven Anderson) suggests they head out of town. A car accident and a blocked road later, they find themselves in a place called Mistletoe…just in time for the annual Yule Log festival. This isn’t just any town. Mistletoe is a Hallmark Christmas movie brought to life.
Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin’ Out is a much more straightforward movie than its predecessor. The original film found crazy ways to expand itself inside of a one setting cabin location. Branchin’ Out has an entire town to play with. It provides a far more standard plot than The Fireplace. In some ways, it goes in the opposite direction. Instead of getting more outlandish as it develops…Adult Swim Yule Log 2 quadruples down on its faux-Hallmark movie concept.
Having never seen a Hallmark Christmas movie…I can only guess at the accuracy of Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin’ Out. It certainly feels like what I believe those movies to be. Zoe (literally) runs into a series of sexy men (a fireman, a construction worker, a farmer…several others in a running joke) before being rescued by the newly widowed single father and owner of a Christmas ornament store whose livelihood is under threat from a dastardly corporate ornament store across the street! If that’s not a Hallmark movie I don’t know what is. That widower’s name is Birt Card. Short for Birthday Card. Because of course it is.
For her part, Zoe believes she is trapped in a horror movie. She carries her trusty axe with her everywhere in anticipation of the killer log’s return. Though she may be seduced by Mistletoe’s charms…she isn’t wrong about being in a horror movie. The killer log escapes its police evidence locker and resumes its quest for vengeance.
Most of Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Brancin’ Out sticks to the Hallmark aesthetic. There are moments of the original’s wildest impulses sprinkled in, of course. Say, for example, yule log hunting Santa Claus who attempts to cleanse the world of the evil log by burying it in consecrated ground. Or…when Birt’s mother appears to Zoe in miniature form inside of the freezer after being pricked by the sliver of the yule log that escaped Santa’s efforts…but before she is transformed into a yule log monster hell bent on destroying Mistletoe. Yes…Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin’ Out is still insane.
But it’s also a credibly funny Hallmark movie parody. Whether Zoe is running into a man taking presents to an orphanage or finding herself in an unintentional love triangle with a wealthy man whose Helicopter she wants to use for escape…Branchin’ Out is a very funny movie. There is an entire saccharine plot here for people who love those sorts of things. It just happens to be sent up for laughs…and is under constant threat of a flaming, murderous, yule log.
All roads lead to the annual Yule Log festival (it used to be a mistletoe festival…but people though it was too rape-y). By the time Adult Swim Yule Log gets there…it’s gone confidently off the rails. There’s nothing out there quite like a Casper Kelly crafted spectacle. They are as fun as they are unpredictable. Even within the sweetly predictable framework of a Hallmark movie. Kelly doesn’t abandon his main inspiration…even when a log monster is raising a log army to massacre the town of Mistletoe at the annual Yule Log festival. How can anyone read that sentence and not run right to Max to click play? You should probably do that.
Scare Value
Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin’ Out is far more straight forward than its predecessor. Instead of finding stranger ways to play inside its one location…Branchin’ Out marries itself to the unintentional comedy of the saccharin seasonal specials that litter the Hallmark channel. It’s hilariously committed to recreating the style…and making another yule log massacre out of it. Another surprise movie. Another surprise winner.
3.5/5
Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin’ Out Link
Streaming on Max
