It's a Wonderful Knife

We saw this as our local theaters "mystery movie" where we get to watch a movie before it comes out for a discount, without knowing what movie we're going to see. It started out as a promising comedy/slasher spin on "It's a Wonderful Life", but as the movie went on it made less and less sense and went from slapstick funny to just dumb. Instead of just an alternative spin on the main characters life, the second half tried to incorporate supernatural elements to explain the ridiculous plot twists but they just didn't work and fell flat. Even at $5 watching this movie just wasn't worth it. I can watch better movies on streaming services at home.

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.

Not very well written, or well thought out. It seemed like they came up with a cool title and idea, then rushed it into production. The dialogue sounds like it came from a first draft and was very hard to take seriously.

The slasher element isn't very interesting because you know who it is from the trailer/opening scene. The jokes aren't all that funny either. Which puts this movie in a very grey in-between of being oddly watchable, yet unbearable all at the same time.

Felt like a straight to streaming movie yet I saw it in a theater so props to the studio for that I suppose. Haven't been a fan of these types of slashers though with Totally Killer and the like.

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.

It's A Wonderful Knife has such a ring to it, I just had to see it. Now was it a good or bad film, I'm still not completely sure on either end of that spectrum.

On one hand, we have a horror great, Katharine Isabelle, and a handful of cast members that try their hardest to convey their characters in a way that feels festive and lighthearted. On the other hand, we have some extremely cheesy writing and a tone flip flops around like a fish gasping for air.

Some of the films choices made zero real world sense and it felt like those choices were just there to propel the film forward, and propel forward it did. The runtime is short and brisk, at just under 90 mins, which did not give the film room to focus on any particular thing except poor Winnie and her mission. There were a few things I wish they had spent more time on and some things I wished were missing from the film entirely.

Overall, you could do better and you could do worse. Although there was some pretty shotty directing and writing, the film was still entertaining and short enough to get through without too much strain on the audience. I will say, it was not necessary to see in theaters. I may have had more fun with this film watching it on TV as opposed to the big theatrical experience.

2.5 Christmas' out of 5.