T&K's XMas (2024) Advent Calendar - Day 8: There's Something In The Barn

 2023, d. Magnus Martens - Crave

Since we were in the Scandinavian region last time (Iceland, posing as Finland), it only seemed fit to visit a neighbour with this Norwegian Christmas horror-comedy.

The film hides nothing.  There's no mystery as to what's in the barn that is teased out in any way. In the prologue, an older man goes into his barn and tries to burn it down, only to be confronted by a quick-moving, snarling gnome-like creature.

The thing in the barn is a "Barn Elf", and the old man's property is inherited by an American, Bill Nordheim (Martin Starr, Party Down) who drags his family to his ancestral homeland for a fresh start.  Teenage daughter Nora (Zoe Winther-Hansen) is viscerally upset by the move, and Bill's wife Carol (Amrita Acharia, Game of Thrones) faces her challenges with relentless optimism.  Son Lucas (Townes Bunner) immediately discovers the thing in the barn and is freaked out, until he meets a man in town who tells him all about Barn Elves and their rules:

1) No changes
2) No bright lights
3) No loud noises

With these in mind, Lucas makes friends with his Barn Elf, feeding him, and in turn, the Barn Elf keeps the barn and the property tidy, shoveling the snow, chopping the wood. But since nobody else believes Lucas, they violate the rules, piss off the barn elf, and find themselves under attack.  But turns out a Barn Elf, though, fast, isn't particularly strong, nor invulnerable, and so when the family gets the upper hand, the Elf calls in reinforcements who emerge from tunnels criss-crossing the countryside.  It's a full-blown Elf attack.

The movie aims for a lighthearted comedy horror tone, and seems to be going for a real Gremlins vibe, but struggles with the balance and the consistency. 

It's an incredibly weak film with respect to the family drama. The fact that Carol is the kids stepmom and still trying to find acceptance is handled in a pretty clunky way, and whatever the kids are going through is definitely spoken, but never resonant emotionally. When Bill finally explains his motivation for bringing everyone to Norway, it really doesn't make sense (the film could have totally talked about housing prices in the US or economic issues, but goes for "a new start" which rings empty).

I found the performances wildly uneven. Acharia was trying to hide her accent and play a pampered Californian, but none of it came off as authentic or even comedic...it was a caricature that did not work at all. Starr, who I almost always find a welcome supporting player, is tasked with the leading man role as an oblivious dad type, and despite his years of comedic acting, has a difficult time with it. I never understood where his character was coming from, what was motivating him. Both kids, though, were pretty decent.

In trying for that Gremlins-vibe, though, director Martens takes the murder to the extreme a little too often (the sight of the Santa dangling from the barn by Christmas lights with an icicle through his throat is grim, and when the elves run over the local constable with her own snowmobile and then grind her up with the tread, splattering the family with her blood and sinew...it's really over-the-top and quite funny, but way out of place in what should be a "junior horror"

There are two solid running gags in the picture... the first is every time the TV is turned on and the channels are flipped through, they're all only playing cross country skiing spots shows. The second is any time one of these Americans asks if anyone has a gun, they always receive the response "This is not America, we don't go around and shoot each other in the face".

The kills here get pretty sloppy. They're so often like that joke in Austin Powers where the guy is in the path of a steamroller, and has plenty of time to move out of the way, and yet doesn't. Most of the deaths in this were avoidable. 

I was entertained somewhat. The siege of the Barn Elves was pretty fun as was the Barn Elf mythology, but without a strong foundational layer, a base of characters to really like or care about, and character motivations that didn't feel like such cliches, it was hard to fully invest in. Even if it were more committed to the comedy, it would have helped. There were definitely funny bits ("When all was said and done, this was a pretty good Christmas" seems like a final line from a much funnier, more satirical movie) but not leaned into nearly enough.

Not that it needs to be a competition but the better watch is Rare Exports.