It’s a Wonderful Knife: It’s a Bloody Miracle!

Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop) lives with her family in idyllic Angel Falls.  Her father, David (Joel McHale) works for Henry Waters (Justin Long), a rich real estate developer who is attempting to buy up property to build a shopping center.  The last property that needs to be obtained belongs to Roger Evans (William B. Davis The X-Files) and his granddaughter Cara (Hana Huggins), Winnie’s best friend, and they refuse to sell. On Christmas Eve, a masked hooded figure, dressed all in white goes on a killing spree, murdering Roger and Cara, and attempting to murder Winnie and her brother Jimmy (Aiden Howard).  But in a freak turn of events, Winnie kills the murderer.  A year later, Winnie is not handling the traumatic events of the previous Christmas well.  Her family and the whole town are prospering mainly due to her killing the killer, but act like nothing has happened and largely ignore her pleads for help.  When she wishes that she were never born, she is transported to a world where she never existed.  The Angel Killer is still at large with over 26 people having been killed, including Jimmy.  The town is no longer quite as idyllic, with many of her friends wasting their lives.  Her family is falling apart and the only one she can find to help her is the strange girl, Bernie (Jess McCleod), whom everyone calls “Wierdo”.  Can Winnie and Bernie do what they need to for Winnie to get back to her own world, or will they succumb to the Angel Killer? Watch and find out!

This is a fun little slasher comedy film that was a lot better than I expected it to be.  It isn’t “Wow! That was awesome!” good, but it was relatively entertaining and there were a few chuckles and some nice tender moments. As you would expect, the film pays homage to a lot of the Christmas movie classics, specifically It’s a Wonderful Life.  The production value wasn’t great, but it was sufficient, there were some lighting and editing issues, and a few of the special effects looked a bit fake, but these are very small details.  The film isn’t that gory, which I appreciate, and the story moves along at a good pace.  The script by Michael Kennedy was well written and the dialogue felt natural, and the exposition was well handled by giving us the needed information without it feeling like forced. Although the plot was a bit predictable with few surprises.

The actors all do a good job defining their characters and motivations. Justin Long does a fantastic job as henry Waters, his smarmy personality being highlighted by a fake smile full of ultra white veneered teeth. I also appreciated the LGBTQ+ representation throughout the film.  Jimmy is a star football player and the family’s favorite child and happens to be out and proud.  Winnie’s aunt is also a lesbian and by the end, there is a bit more representation as well. All in all, the film was fun to watch and entertaining, but nothing amazing and is rather predictable.