It’s a Wonderful Knife review.
A Christmas slasher with a twist…It’s a Wonderful Knife provides some real holiday fun.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
It’s a Wonderful Knife
Directed by Tyler MacIntyre
Written by Michael Kennedy
Starring Jane Widdop, Jess McLeod, Joel McHale, Katherine Isabelle, Justin Long, Cassandra Naud and William B. Davis
It’s a Wonderful Knife Review
There is a recent trend in horror to take the classic slasher story and put it in a blender with another type of film. Happy Death Day was slasher meets Groundhog Day. Freaky combined it with the body swap movie. Totally Killer recently mixed it with time travel. Now we have It’s a Wonderful Knife. It shouldn’t be too difficult to guess what movie it takes its inspiration from. The concept, like those listed before it, works. It may not go far enough to work for hardcore slasher fans…but it has a decent amount of mass appeal.
The best aspect of It’s a Wonderful Knife may come before the opening title even appears. It begins with an extended opening…one that presents a full truncated slasher movie. Surprising deaths, an immediacy that is often lacking in the genre, a full resolution…It’s a Wonderful Knife does an excellent job setting up the world it will play with while delivering a fun short slasher story. Given the concept of the film…everything is going to change once our lead character Winnie (Jane Widdop) heads to the bridge to imagine a world where she was never born. This changes the slasher game a bit…since Winnie already knows who the angel cosplaying killer is. She already killed him in her reality.
That killer is played by Justin Long…adding another all-time creep to his impressive resume of horror movie creeps. Here, he is Henry Waters. Waters wants to own the entire town of Angel Falls…but one hold out sends him over the edge and on a rampage. Winnie stops him…saving her brother and freeing the town from his tyrannical reign in the process. If she was never born…Waters wouldn’t have been stopped. The world she inhabits after having her wish granted is a very different, sadder one than the one she left behind.
Now…this may sound like a lot of spoilers we’re getting into. I promise you…it isn’t. Although there is a movie’s worth of narrative in the first act of It’s a Wonderful Knife…it’s all just setup for the change that will occur. Winnie is now stuck in an Angel Falls where she has no friends or family. No one knows who she is. Worse…Waters runs everything and nowhere is safe. Her father (Joel McHale) is a broken man following the death of her brother. Her friends have all lived full lives without her.
With a solid premise and a nice twist on the formula in its pocket…It’s a Wonderful Knife sets a high floor for itself. Unfortunately, it rarely rises above it. It doesn’t mine the material for the comedy that would have come easily. This is a serious story…but also an absurd one. Allowing it to laugh at itself a bit more wouldn’t have been out of place. It rarely offers anything new in its kill scenes either. Outside of an artistic use of flash photography late in the going…it’s all standard stuff. There is an urgency and suddenness to the killer though…which is appreciated.
Despite these omissions, It’s a Wonderful Knife breezes by with the help of an excellent cast. Widdop is a strong lead. Jess McLeod equals her as Bernie…the local outcast who serves as the only person Winnie can count on in the new world. Justin Long is excellent with a broad, fun performance as the big bad of Angel Falls. Genre stalwart Katherine Isabelle has a fun role as Winnie’s Aunt. McHale nails his big scenes and does a fine job differentiating the happy real-world version of his character from the destroyed one in the new one.
It’s also a very Christmasy movie. Decorations everywhere…bells jingling…a giant tree in town’s square. The whole production. We always have time for more Christmas horror…especially when they nail down a solid premise like It’s a Wonderful Knife does. There are definitely things it could improve upon…opportunities that it doesn’t take advantage of…but the overall package makes for a watchable and entertaining holiday treat.
Scare Value
It’s a Wonderful Knife has fun with its premise. It doesn’t quite push it hard enough for either laughs or horror…but you’ll have a fine time with it. The current trend of merging slasher movies with other genres continues to pay off. This might not quite measure up to Happy Death Day, Freaky or Totally Killer…but it still offers more than your average slasher movie. Plus…more Christmas horror is always welcome.
3.5/5
It’s a Wonderful Knife Link
In theaters November 10 – Fandango
It’s a Wonderful Knife Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of It’s a Wonderful Knife, check out these other new releases: That’s a Wrap, The Nun II, Blood Flower, Perpetrator, Killer Book Club, Scream of the Wolf, Final Summer, A Haunting in Venice, #chadgetstheaxe, Elevator Game, The Conference, The Puppetman, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, Dark Harvest or HeBGB TV
