Elves

No budget campy rip-off that feels very awkward, improvised and amateurish for most of the time but manages to be fun in its violence, cheapness and incoherence.

Z-grade goodness.

So a week ago we watched the prequel, The Elf, and were mildly impressed. There were real attempts to be creative, and the doll in a spooky doll movie actually, get this, moved around on camera and stuff. (Take that, nearly every Anabelle knock off). The main weaknesses were the acting and the plot, the latter of which was just awful.

So imagine our utter disappointment when we pulled this up hoping for some improvements and discovered what an absolute waste of time it was. Random nonsense happens to an array of equally dull characters who's actors and actresses can barely muster the effort emote. Audio issue abound as some folks mics can seem to be actively trying to avoid being in the movie by cutting out at a whim or simple being inaudible over the soundtrack.

The cover makes you think that wacky elf doll be back with his homeys to mess some folks up but don't be fooled. Most of the "horror" comes from snapchat filters being applied poorly to some faces along with a random masked killer, some crazy lady, and an ugly burnt doll unrelated to the original. How are they connected? Will the characters of these separate threads collide? Who cares when the threadbare plot can't be arsed to try and make sense. This time people get possessed. Why? No one knows? What is with the naughty list game, we didn't need this to have an elf kill people in the first movie? Your guess is as good as mine.

Nearly the entire runtime of the movie was spent wishing it would end or my power would go out.

The cover caught me and I like the idea of killer elves. The movie, unlike High Octane's customized cover, lacks rich colors, depth, or masterfully created killer elves. This film stars a lot of white walls, campy acting and a contrived plot. It's a solid attempt but has the feel of a beginner indie film for sure.

Why did I do this to myself? There was ample forewarning before I ever pressed "play," and I knew exactly what I was committing to. As it is I've seen too many other features of this nature. Yet here we are. Unsurprisingly, 'Elves' is poppycock. The only question is if writers Justin Price and Laura Beaumont and director Jamaal Burden intentionally made a film of utmost terrible schlock, or if they aimed higher and altogether lacked the resources or capabilities to achieve it. Is this purposeful pablum - a bone-dry parody, even - or utmost incidental misfire? I haven't seen any other movies involving anyone participating here, so I can make no judgment except on this picture's merits. All I can say is - for your own sake, don't watch this.

The assembled cast members have few if any other credits to their names, and those other titles certainly appear to be on the same level as 'Elves.' Are they all terrible actors? Given the near-absolute lack of nuance or heart in their inauthentic, disinterested, stilted performances, that's a distinct possibility. In the delivery of their lines, in their reactions, and in the most rudimentary movements in any instance, it's hard not to feel like they're not even trying. But in fairness, the material is so desperately thin that I think even award-winning world-class artists would struggle to make something of this. And Burden's direction is - well, a burden to behold. No subtlety, no mindfulness, no care, amateur camerawork and poorly considered shots - and at the same time that he seems to be feeding his cast lines and instructing them scene by scene, there's also a staggering disconnect between Burden and the actors, as though neither player nor director had any concern for what the other was trying to accomplish in any one moment.

There are microscopic fragments of ideas underlying the screenplay. Any attempt to expand upon these ideas, or provide explanations of them, is astoundingly weak, contrived, absolutely unclear and sometimes seemingly contradictory, shattering whatever suspension of disbelief we may have carried with us into this experience. Why, the mechanism of "the naughty list," the way that "the game" and "the elves" are supposed to operate in-universe, is never evident - not for lack of trying, but because the movie makes the core of its own plot wholly confused and incomprehensible. Characters are such hollow set pieces that they barely exist, and dialogue is rotten, repetitive, and generally carelessly penned. Scene writing is haphazard, artless, and flailing in its sloppiness - and, again, very repetitive. And the narrative is all this - and brazenly disjointed, increasingly fractured and muddled, and monumentally specious, beyond comparison to any other film that readily comes to mind. Those special effects that are employed are below the bottom of the barrel - I can't believe I'm saying this (for the second time in one month), but productions from The Asylum are far more believable and fastidious in their rendering than this.

Every element of the film's technical craft and rounding details are either abysmal themselves, or so dubiously overwhelmed by all the other tawdriness on hand that they become totally negligible. And when I speak to the putrescence that 'Elves' represents, I mean it wholeheartedly: the specks of story ideas from which the picture is built do not begin to outweigh the witheringly rancid waste of time it is otherwise, in every imaginable way. So many of these 80 minutes fail to make sense as they present to use, ensuring the entirety is a godawful mishmash of purely foolish gobbledygook.

There is no value here, and no reason whatsoever to watch it. If 'Elves' isn't the worst movie ever made, it's only because it's effectively tied, on par, with too much other cinematic sludge.

Avoid.

A haunted elf doll traps all who end up on it's naughty list in a deadly game...of murder.

Once your in the game, your in...and must do whatever the elf says.

It's kill or be killed...or even, sometimes, kill and be killed.

It's latest victims are a group of friends who have been lured into it's grips by the sole survivor of the last round of the game.

The only way out is to fulfill the elf's demands under it's watchful eye.

Through death.

Or by sending back them to Hell (as, apparently, there are several...though you'd never be able to tell, if they didn't specifically mention it).

This is one of those D-grade "home-made horrors", with uninspired kills, paltry special effects, and virtually no gore.

The acting is bad, the cinematography is basic (and at times oversaturated), and the story is full of plot holes.

Really, the only reason anyone would ever watch it, is because they ran out of other Christmas-themed horror films to indulge in (like I have)...or by accident.

It's far inferior to the 1989 film of the same name...though, it's not as bad as The Elf (2017)...but it's pretty damn close.

Proof that literally anyone can make a movie in the digital age.

1.5 out of 10.