Director: Becca Hirani (as Rebecca Matthews)
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Heading off to visit family, a woman’s attempts at gift-giving with a special antique nutcracker to help reconnect with her family finds that the doll has come to life with the spirit of a killer inside causing it to start killing those around her causing her to find a way to stop its rampage.
Review:
This one was a pretty solid and enjoyable genre effort. One of the better elements present here involves the rather fun atmosphere that provides a setting for this one to evoke the holiday spirit. Due to the purpose of the visit at that time of year, the ornaments and decorations brought up here generate the kind of fine yuletide atmosphere where the warmth of the lights and the homey vibes of everything offer up quite a lot to like. To be around this kind of environment when it gets perverted is a fine touch here as the visual of the being going through this environment offers a fun festival feel.
This perversion is brought about nicely through the sequences offering the stoic wooden being coming to life and stalking others. The idea of the doll bringing the conduit for the giant nutcracker to come to life and start stalking others around the property is a fine explanation while getting the chance to generate short ambush scenes where it appears out of nowhere to confront the disbelieving victim. That leads into the solid finale where its presence is known but still is able to run rampant on the family attacking them in the house which offers a series of fun scenes involving creative kills and a clever method to stop it.
There are some issues with this one that hold it down. The main drawback is the rather confusing nature of the killer nutcracker coming to haunt the family, as the initial implication and setup look to be purposeful and intended. However, the later revelation here makes it come off as an accident with the mix-up and the reveal about the figure’s history that not only stops the film cold but feels contradictory. The other issue here is the sluggish pace at the first half which focuses way too much on a lame family drama angle between the sisters that delves into a wholly underwhelming long-simmering jealousy angle that’s quite clichéd and undeserved, leaving it slow to start. These factors are what keep this one down overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
A solid enough holiday-themed genre effort, the positives featured here are fun enough to overcome a couple of minor flaws that crop up to hold this down. Those who appreciate this kind of genre effort or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like here while those who don’t like this style should heed caution with the film.
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