There's Something in the Barn (2023) by Magnus Martens

Director: Magnus Martens

Year: 2023

Country: Norway/Finland

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Creature Feature; Horror/Comedy

Plot:

Arriving at an inherited house in Norway, an American family prepares to turn the inherited property into a new bed-and-breakfast location for travelers in the area, but the more they try to impose their customs to accomplish it the more they anger the sacred elf protecting their property and must try to stop its rampage.

Review:

There was a lot to like about this one. The main starting point here is the rather fun and light-hearted atmosphere that generates quite an enjoyable time. The classic setup involving the family who are out of their element and out of touch with the customs and traditions of the location but trying to fit in with their usual decorations manages to be quite a fun scenario here. The means through which they start to make it feel at home ends up allowing for a creative counter-behavior setup where the son is initially curious about until he reveals about the elf living there which soon gives way to his desire to stop them from continuing their disrespectful traditions as they try to get acclimated in the community. Not only is all of this quite fun in terms of supplying a solid setup for later on with the elf’s desires to keep the traditions in check while they start to win over the locals with their non-traditional ideas and customs but it all provides the proper context for the later shenanigans to come.

This setup provides quite a lot of fun once it shows the destructive nature of his actions inflicted on the family. Already well aware of what the elf is capable of, the scenes of it show in practice, from the destruction of the Christmas decorations to the violent reaction after the party, this sets the film in motion rather nicely with the family being unwilling to acknowledge anything is wrong and only angering him further. By the time it gets to the final half, where the vicious elves have had enough and begin launching a slew of invasion attempts to overrun the house and start attacking everyone they can, this features a lot of fun action and battles between the two that escalates to some great destruction of the house and surrounding areas. As this all features tons of great work on the design of the creatures who are extremely effective in their full-scale action scenes and fine comedic slapstick gore, these provide the kind of enjoyable factors to hold this one up overall.

There aren’t too many issues here but it does have a few minor flaws. One of the main issues here is the rather unsettling and somewhat unnecessary cultural humor that comes about here that grows somewhat tired the more it goes on with the amount of time it keeps going on about the fish-out-of-water Americans being clueless about the Norwegian customs. This is mainly based on the locals’ reactions and comments to the family’s queries for help and using that to brush it off when it’s quite obvious there’s something wrong as the continued use of the storyline where their American customs are put to the test. The other drawback to this one is the somewhat convoluted finale that manages to have a lot going on since there are a lot of storylines at play here, from the race to save the family, the attempts at appeasing the friendly elf, and the neighbor getting involved with all the chaos going on, and it can feel too complex at a point that doesn’t need it. These factors are enough to hold this one back somewhat.

Overview: ****/5

A highly enjoyable holiday-set genre effort, there’s not much to dislike with this one as the highly effective setup and enjoyable action show off far more positive factors to make this come together incredibly well. Those who are curious about this one or appreciate this style of holiday-themed fare will have quite a lot to have plenty to like about it while only those who are turned off by these factors should heed caution.