‘It’s a Wonderful Knife’ Movie Review: A Mirthfully Bloody and Syrupy High-Concept Holiday Slasher
Photo from RLJE Films
From Jeremy Kibler
There’s been a recent trend of high-concept slashers made out of tried-and-true gimmicks, whether it’s a time-loop, body-swapping, or time-travel. Happy Death Day cleverly put a macabre twist on “Groundhog Day,” Freaky came out of Freaky Friday, and last month’s Totally Killer played with the past and future like Back to the Future. Now, It’s a Wonderful Knife is a pretty irresistible slasher spin on, well, you know — Frank Capra’s wonderful Christmas staple about one George Bailey living in a parallel reality. So, this time, every time a bell rings, a killer dressed as an angel gets their kill on.
It’s Christmas Eve in the angelic town of Angel Falls. Goody-two shoes Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop) is just about to celebrate with her parents (Joel McHale and Erin Boyes) and gay jock brother Jimmy (Aiden Howard) when Dad is recruited to push a land-development project forward for his boss, Mayor Henry Waters (Justin Long, in a spray tan with pearly-white choppers). While Winnie goes off to a party with Jimmy and friends, they get attacked by an Angel-dressed killer. Winnie’s best friend Cara (Hana Huggins) gets slashed to death, but Winnie ends the rampage.
A year later, with the community allegedly renewed and stronger than ever, Winnie’s life is no longer going as planned. Besides her best friend being murdered, she doesn’t get into the photography program at NYU, her boyfriend has been cheating on her, and her parents seem to favorite her brother. Standing under an aurora, Winnie wishes she was never born. Well, her wish is granted, and it’s like Winnie never existed and the “Angel” killer is very consistent, killing every few weeks. Can Winnie stop the murders and get back to her original reality?
Pairing director Tyler MacIntyre (2017’s wickedly clever Tragedy Girls) with Freaky screenwriter Michael Kennedy makes total sense here. Blending very similar sensibilities when it comes to meshing humor with a slasher concept, It’s a Wonderful Knife does not shy away from the blood-red corn syrup. It also doesn’t hold back on the syrupy sentimentality of small-town Hallmark Christmas movies with a beautiful queer relationship at its core.
Leading the way is an earnest, spirited Jane Widdop (Yellowjackets), who makes for a solid heroine as Winnie. She comes across best, however, in developing a sweet connection with an endearingly quirky Jess McLeod as “Weirdo,” a social outcast whose name is actually Bernie. Seemingly playing the worst person in every horror movie, Justin Long is perfectly weaselly and smarmy, laying on the toxic Christmas cheer as Mayor Henry Waters. In a pretty expansive cast, genre favorite Katharine Isabelle can’t help but pop with the most personality and be a lot of fun as Winnie’s profane lesbian Aunt Gale Prescott (we see you, Kennedy).
Clearly of a lower-budgeted ilk, It’s a Wonderful Knife still makes the most of its production. Little production-design details are a treat, like a movie marquee and one of Henry Waters’ real-estate sign taglines (“I’m the best. Fuck the rest!”). To extend even more welcome affection for Scream, or rather Scream 2, there’s a tense set-piece in Winnie’s home where she and others must step over the knocked-out killer. Not to mention, the Angel killer’s glossy white face mask and robe give one a taste for how Ghostface might dress for Christmas.
While its execution doesn’t always match the dream concept, It’s a Wonderful Knife should make for a mirthful holiday alternative to those who don’t just watch horror movies around Halloween.
Rating: 3/5
It’s a Wonderful Knife hits theaters on November 10, 2023.
