It's a Wonderful Knife

We have another movie that takes a classic Christmas, such as It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and give them the treatment of making them a Christmas horror/slasher movie; these kinds of movies could work, or they cannot depend on the premise. The movie It's a Wonderful Knife (2023) has a premise that could work in a horror movie with good things about it, but the way things are setup and how the movie executes the main plot with its twist, it will either not make sense, or it will not fit with what the movie is trying to do.

The main character Winnie Carruthers played by Jane Widdop, though the performance is good, the character herself can be standard or unlikable at times, though it has a couple of moments where she is at least a good character; she has some smart moments when going up against the killer, and the reasons for why she makes her wish could have been better. The mayor played by Justin Long, has a good and weird performance, but it is obvious who he really is, and his character is hated by other people because of him owning the town; his character does not do much except to look and seem suspicious because of a killer running around. Also, I will add that there are a lot of side characters that just seem like horror annoying cliches.

I like the look of the killer with it dressing in all white, and it being an angel fits what the premise is based on; the killer does brutal bloody kills either with a stylized knife or Christmas items; despite the fitting killer and the entertaining brutal kills, the way the movie executes the idea in the movie was poor. The reasons why people do not like the main character or ignore her did not make sense, and when certain things are revealed, I was a bit confused and was wondering about the direction it was going to take; also, the movie was not that despite being called a horror comedy, there were only little scenes that could be unintentionally funny.

The movie It's a Wonderful Knife (2023) is not awful, but it has a promising premise that would have worked if the main character were more likable, the execution of scenes was better, the reveal of the killer was less obvious; this is not a movie that will become a Christmas horror movie that people are going to rewatch that much, instead you might watch it and forget it a couple hours after watching. It has good things about it that are entertaining, but the movie in the end is a standard Christmas horror movie that could have been better than what we got.

I want to defend this movie's honor. I can't believe I just typed that sentence. But It's a Wonderful Knife seems, perhaps, a bit misunderstood.

First of all, it's absolutely meant to be ridiculous. If that wasn't clear by the title, you definitely should not watch this. But it pokes fun at classic slasher tropes and Hallmark films, while using its biggest influence (It's a Wonderful Life) in a creative, horrific, and heartwarming way.

It's not a deep film - of course it isn't - but don't close your eyes to the little digs at toxic positivity and following a rich, charismatic leader blindly. Those are fun little dashes of social commentary, like a delicious, unexpected seasoning on what you thought was going to just be a sugarcoated treat.

I don't normally do reviews but this one had so many bad reviews I felt I should add one on what I think.

. I liked it. I thought it was cute. It had a rather uplifting story about how anyone can make a difference and how important family can be.

It wasn't really a horror movie, it was more about how helping one person can make a difference in their life.

The main character was very likable and the bad guy was somebody you couldn't wait to see killed.

The characters may be may have been over the top, but it made the story interesting watching.

I think it's a good movie for somebody who just wants to watch a Christmas story with a little bit of horror.

I've been really enjoying this horror trend lately of a whodunit-slasher with a creative twist. Every one of them I've seen so far has been really enjoyable. So I had high hopes for 'It's a Wonderful Knife'. Sadly this was the first one to get it wrong in my opinion.

I had hoped for a really clever story where the search for the identity of the killer would coincide with the main character doing her alternative universe thing. This was not really the case. It's a very mucky story and it's often unclear what exactly is happening and what character's motives are. It was not the story I wanted to see.

The other big problem was that the characters were not likeable enough. All the other films like this have had really likeable characters, particularly in the lead role, and it is easy to get behind them and follow their journey. That was not the case here.

The film goes for some laughs, but is rarely funny. The killer is kind of menacing, but the characters are so flat and unfleshed out that it sucks a lot of the tension out of the kills. So the film is also rarely scary. None of the characters ever seem to have a proper emotional reaction to things that happen either. All in all the film was a disappointment. 4/10.

I really enjoyed the movie. I thought Justin Long was great and the whole concept was pretty cool. Almost like a Freaky Friday or Totally Killer. The cast did decent for what they were working with. The kills weren't original, but the gore and effects were pretty sweet. I'm a huge fan of both Joel McHale and Justin Long. Joel from "The Soup" days, and Justin from Jeepers Creepers and, most recently, Barbarian. I love how versatile Justin Long is. He can play Jess' boyfriend in New Girl and be the biggest dork, then play an evil Mayor in Its a Wonderful Knife and absolutely kill it! If you like cheesy slashers with gore and fun kills, you'll enjoy this.