It's a Wonderful Knife

It was a slasher Christmas movie that was quite well shot and put together with a half decent idea,

so kudos for everyone else involved with it to make it so awful,

the script was just so terrible it was just awkward to watch, the story went nowhere, I genuinely can't believe this was made how it was,

nothing makes sense, like nothing at all, the writers didn't even attempt to make a coherent story,

it was just painful to watch the actors go through the awful script

I didn't think i could hate a movie that was essentially a christmas slasher movie so much, i don't mind cheesy, i don't mind low budget, i don't mind ridiculousness, but this is none of that, this is just bad.

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.

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.

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 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.