On Christmas Eve, Henry Waters (Justin Long), a rich real estate asshole who is trying to gentrify a quaint little town, murders the last old codger who won’t sell his home. He then sets his sights on killing some partying teens when a teenager named Winnie (Jane Widdop) electrocutes him to death. One year later, everyone but Winnie seems to have moved on from the trauma of that night. Feeling depressed and unwanted on Christmas, she wishes she was never born. By doing so, not only does the killer come back to life, but he’s now become mayor of the town which allows him to constantly get away with murder. It’s then up to Winnie and the town weirdo, appropriately named “Weirdo” (Jess McLeod) to stop Waters and get back to her own timeline.
It’s a Wonderful Knife is basically Scream Meets It’s a Wonderful Life. The title itself almost sounds like a gag you’d see on The Simpsons or something. It’s actually similar in tone to another movie that tried to graft an old classic onto a slasher chassis, Freaky (which makes sense since it was written by the same guy). However, it’s not nearly as successful or entertaining as that film. Also, the way Long’s character turns the town into a veritable shrine to himself is reminiscent of the alternate 1985 scenes in Back to the Future 2.
While the structure and plotting are clever, the slasher scenes are mostly ho-hum. If only the filmmakers had put as much thought into the stalking and suspense sequences as they did the It’s a Wonderful Life homages, this might’ve been a modern classic. As it stands, it’s a case of close, but no cigar. The killer’s get-up is kind of lame too. It looks just like Ghostface, but all in white and with a blank white mask to match. You’d think a costume like that would be impractical considering how much blood gets on it. I mean, how does he get the blood stains out from scene to scene? Or does he have a never-ending supply of costumes? You know it’s a problem when you’re thinking about stuff like that instead of concentrating on whether or not the characters will make it out of the house alive. I did like the fight scene in the movie theater while the “Let’s All Go to the Lobby” ad was projected over the action though.
The cast is strong, which helps neutralize many of the film’s shortcomings. Widdop makes for a likeable lead, and she has genuine chemistry with McLeod. Long makes for a funny villain as he really leans into the character’s yuppie scum persona. We also have Joel McHale doing some fine dramatic work as Winnie’s grieving dad and Ginger Snaps’ Katharine Isabelle is a hoot as her feisty aunt.
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