Director(s): Tyler MacIntyre
Writer(s): Michael Kennedy
Starring: Jane Widdop, Joel McHale, Katharine Isabelle and Justin Long.
Runtime: 1h 27 minutes
Rating: R
Our Rating: ★★★ Good / Interesting Concept
It’s beginning to look lot like murder. What an awful pun, but I needed a way to introduce –It’s a Wonderful Knife, which is obviously by the title a reimagining of the 1946 Frank Capra directed James Stewart film, It’s a Wonderful Life. In the 1946 version George Bailey is deciding on unaliving himself when he is visited by his guardian angel, Clarence, who shows him what life would have been like in his small town had he never lived.
In It’s a Wonderful Knife, we meet Winnie Caruthers (Widdop) who saved her town, the idyllic Angel Falls, from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve one year previously, but after wishing she had never been born, she finds herself in an alternate universe in which she doesn’t exist, allowing the killer to slaughter once more.
Luckily for us it only took Tyler MacIntyre one hour and 30 minutes to tell this story instead of the two hours it took for Capra. The pacing of Wonderful Knife is decent in the beginning of the film in fact we get three deaths in the first 15 minutes. Cool. However, in the second half it moved a bit slower. That was done to set up a plot line between Winnie and a side character that later emerges as a major character, which it looked as if it is going to take a romantic turn. The romance part of the storyline was dropped, because it frankly was unnecessary. Warning -This is a little bit of a spoiler statement, but this character serves of the “Clarence” of this film.
The central storyline of course involves a serial killer called “The Angel” who at the start of the film appears to be choosing his victims for a very specific reason, however in the second half of the movie the reasoning becomes very blurred. Very. Also, he manages to pop up in places that make no sense. Although, we are supposed to suspend reality, the kills and where they occur is asking us to suspend logic, reality and even gravity completely. I’m usually on board with that, but in this film it was too noticeable and the kills were not fun enough to make up for the nonsensical. And there is a huge twist with the killer at the last of film that did not land like I believe the writer intended.
The cast (Jane Widdop, Joel McHale, Katharine Isabelle, and Justin Long) of Wonderful Knife all do what is required. Scream King Justin Long is very unlikable as he should be for his role of Henry Waters. Also, hat tips to Joel McHale (David Carruthers, Winnie’s father) who has a scene in the film where he does some legit bonafide acting. Honestly, I’m used to seeing him do comedic roles, so the idea of him being vulnerable was shocking to me. Scream Queen Katharine Isabelle is wasted in this, she does what she can with the role. But, again she is wasted in this small supporting part. I am unfamiliar with Jane Widdop’s other work, because (looks around room) I have not watched Yellowjackets, but I have no problems at all with her performance in this film.
Overall, It’s a Wonderful Knife is a decent Christmas slasher film, it has some great moments, but then it meanders in places. The first 30 minutes offer some good entertaining minutes, unfortunately it starts to lose steam in the middle. Also, some of the characters are unnecessary and really offered nothing to this film, well I guess they help make up the on screen body count. Warning -This is a little bit of a spoiler statement, according the town’s sheriff the offscreen “The Angel” killed 27 people.
To end on a positive Christmas note, I would say if you want to watch mid-level holiday slasher film with a some good though sporadic comedic moments then definitely check this one out.
‘It’s a Wonderful Knife’ streams on Shudder December 1st.