422: The Advent Calendar (2021)

SPEAKER_02 0:04

We all needed the Cokehead dude to go.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Daisy's greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. You come here often? If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Total joke, a waste of time, or a slash. Totally killer. Pun intended.

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We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

You clicked on the link.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

And the classic horror connoisseur, John.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

If you're a nurse, you can watch my private parts.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

This week we're continuing the holiday season by exploring a French film focused on a seasonal gift of German origin.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

And if you support the show, you'll also get to hear our B side at the end of this episode where we get into what cursed objects would make great holiday gifts.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

But this week's film stitched together themes of longing, loss, and even desperation. But it's all framed through a traditional calendar. The film actually follows a woman who's gifted a novelty calendar that at first seems to provide candies and toys. But with each day that she opens a calendar, her reality begins to distort. And while the calendar seems to gift her things she only ever dreamed of, she soon learns that true cost is naturally more than she bargained for. This week we're talking about the 2021 film The Advent Calendar. Who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_02 1:43

This movie was, I will say, nowhere near on my radar until I think Binks brought it up as an idea for the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

This was the first time for me hearing of it and watching it, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

It seems like a fitting holiday horror fill-in, though. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Okay, yes, I understand that the premise of this movie is very much seasonal. It is. It's an advent calendar. There's a countdown to Christmas. Does it feel seasonal? It doesn't. It's like I think this movie evokes for me the feeling you get celebrating Christmas in South Florida, where you're relying on there being a lot of seasonal warmth. Well, not warmth, but like the joy warmth, you know what I mean? The seasons, greetings of it all. You want some of the cold weather, you want some of the holiday cheer and the vibes, and that's just absent in South Florida. It's another day, just like maybe you can wear a hoodie outside. And that's how I felt watching this movie. So going into this, when Binks recommended this, okay, it's a French film, it's a Christmas movie, it's an Advent calendar. I was expecting more Christmas vibes than this movie could possibly provide. And yet, here we are.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Here we are. It's interesting to me because I was in Germany when I was something like, I don't know, maybe like third grade. I was living there for a couple of years. And so when we get into Advent, I start to expect my brain is like programmed to look for Bratwurst and Gluevine and like have those smells in the town market. And so I was hoping I would get a little bit of that, like brought back to me, a little nostalgia, actually, and and kind of feel ready for the holidays, feel that that cold air around you. I think like you, Chris, I just didn't really, you know, feel that. I think looking at the trailer, I imagined instead it was going to be grungy, like maybe as as grungy as the collector, maybe something like a you know, a straight to DVD saw adjacent film where it just feels kind of icky. I don't know why the trailer put that into my brain, but I think just from the description, I was like, okay, you know, expecting one thing. And then I see on screen going, oh, yeah, that's that's pretty different.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Maybe that's where I messed up. Maybe it's the fact that I didn't watch the trailer and I thought, surely a movie about an advent calendar is gonna give a little bit of holiday cheer.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Perhaps I think on on its own, when you look at the text description of the plot, you're thinking, oh, this this could go anyway. This could go like Adam Scott and Krampus. You know, this could be a little bit more lighthearted, it could be really grungy, it could be like Night Swim. I'll talk more about that later. But it just as soon as it goes on to video and we start seeing it happen, you know, it's human centipede all over again.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Oh my god, not the human centipede. I mean, I think just given the name, you gotta be expecting this one to take the fucking advent calendar, whatever, and really turn it on its head, giving you some kind of sick and twisted version of what an advent calendar is supposed to be, because how else would an advent calendar fill in or fit in to a horror movie? Yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Yeah, you know, I'm realizing I think the last time we did a French horror movie, I could be wrong, so I needed fact check for sure. But I'm fairly sure it was high tension and I didn't like that movie very much. That's the one for me that I have my own very specific and very personal reasons for not liking it. But going into this and knowing that A being said recommended it, we need some more foreign horror or foreign to us horror. I walked into this expecting, I think, you know, I've mentioned having some of that holiday feeling, etc. I think for me, one of my biggest flaws is now coming to associate holiday horror with absolute camp and nonsense. I have Black Christmas as a very serious and still funny in its own ways, Christmas horror movie. Everything else, I expect a level of levity and lightness and joy and funny, silly, goofy guy, even with Terrifier 3. I come to expect all that, and I found that while I was watching this movie, not only did I not have any of that seasonal levity, there's like maybe one or two moments where I laughed. I just felt bummed out the whole time. It was like slow to get there, and then once it finally gets to a point where it's interesting, it really chooses a specific moment and a specific thing I dislike in movies to shift it into like, okay, now the the the clock is really gonna start, we're gonna start picking up the pace a bit. So it's like slow, then this catalyst happens. We get into the second act, there's a lot of rising action, but even with that, I'm like, man, this is just like it's a bummer of a time.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

What you're talking about, that tonal shift, the pace shift, or whatever, the directional shift that this movie takes, that specific moment, which we'll unpack, I'm sure, later a little bit. Like it was just jarring and slightly unexpected, I feel like.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

It feels cheap, is what it is. Yeah, it feels like okay, we probably don't have your attention right now, so let's do this, and I'm gonna get your intention, and then we're gonna move forward. And and and it's a shame because I think the moment was well performed and well acted. I just don't know that that had to be the moment, you know?

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah, I feel you, I feel you. It was interesting, and I think even just going back to what we said moments ago about this movie not feeling like a holiday horror movie for the majority of what we get, it is kind of a downer of a movie. But yeah, outside of this taking place in December, it doesn't necessarily feel like holiday horror outside of the advent calendar of it all, but also that advent calendar kind of added a lot to this film. I think it was like the whole centerpiece of this film. And I think when you start to see this advent calendar for the first time, you can't help but feel like, oh no, what the what the fuck is this gonna be? Like what kind of nonsense are we gonna get from this advent calendar? The way you felt this mix of anxiety and just wanting to know, needing to know what's in the next door. I think at least that aspect of it, that feeling it gave you, was done pretty well with what is gonna be behind that next door, what is going to happen. But I think it also does this trauma processing group project type thing pretty well as well in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

I'm I'm happy to hear that they do something well in this movie because I got a nitpick for a minute. I think, again, I watched the trailer, I was expecting a certain antagonist, and it didn't look fun for me. It looked gross, it looked grungy. And thankfully, most of the bad stuff has nothing to do with one central antagonist directly, at least. So that was actually a benefit for me, but that's because everything becomes so convoluted so quickly with the story. They actually give us a couple different mechanisms for why things are going bad. They have explanations I could they could just lean on. It would all make sense, but it would still be interesting. And we don't stick to one thing or the other. There's an entire facet to the main character of this movie that they mention in kind of a big way and then just forget about for the rest of the movie. It's just super strange how we kind of keep bouncing back and forth. And so, for such a simple premise, it was disappointing to see them fumble for for a while. And it was a slow fumble at that.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Yeah, there is a whole aspect to how this calendar works and perhaps who or what is behind it that I found to be super inconsistent throughout the movie. However, I just want to say the biggest surprise that I had was that this movie is what you would imagine if you said, Hey, how can we take seasonal depression and make it a horror movie? It just felt like that. And I continue to go back on to what a just a bad vibe this movie was. And that's not to say that it doesn't have anything interesting to say. I think it does. This movie, once it gets to its end, it delivers a message of sorts. It becomes more of a question of does the end justify the means? Did we get here the best way that we possibly could have? Who's to say? We'll find out as we get into our ratings and in our spoiler zone. But for me, it was wow, we're really walking a line of what it means to take this premise of an advent calendar to also then combine it with so many other vessels that we've seen of perhaps wishes, of perhaps what are your deepest, darkest desires, and at what cost do you get those things? It becomes this thing where we've seen this before in other movies, uh, but I was surprised that it managed to a have a compelling enough main character behind that, so it still feels distinct.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yeah. The main character definitely I agree is compelling. And I think part of the problem is, you know, I feel like the mythology was deeper than you would expect from a movie like this. And so that is kind of a surprising aspect. The rules, this entity, it all ends up being more intricate than you would expect from a holiday horror flick. But it the problem is it's that same lore that can also feel underdeveloped in a pretty big way. It's interesting for sure, but I felt like I wanted just a bit more without overdoing it, of course. I just felt like it never fully commits to giving us more story behind this advent calendar. It teases us, but it never really gives it to us in the way that maybe you might want while you're watching this. But I do think that this movie does a good job at building anxiety and tension. I think that it does pretty well, especially with the use of this advent calendar, but not much of it is really that scary. I don't think it's really scaring you too much, even down to the entity that we get. I think that we I don't know, I think it could have been scarier, but it just wasn't that scary. Tension and anxiety for sure runs wild through this movie, but scary, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

You know, I think Chris has mentioned before, like the difference between like horror and terror, and where we have this anticipation with terror, this fear of the thing. And then once we actually get to the thing, then we experience the horror of it all. And this movie does have both. You know, you there's a lot of anticipation. I think you mentioned this, Sean, that that we have a lot of building of of these things. And there's some horrible things shown on screen that they're really good at letting you know, hey, this is probably what's gonna happen next. And so you're kind of sitting there asking the filmmakers, please no. Like, how about we don't do that? And then they're like, gotcha, we still did it. And so I think it's effective in that way and almost like it's wince generating. But when it comes to proper, like feel it in your soul after watching the movie type of horror, I don't think I'm gonna be checking my closets or looking at, you know, wiggling light posts after, you know, if you're watching like Final Destination or something, you're gonna feel it. Even though it's silly, you're not going up the escalator the next day. And if you watch a movie where somebody's stalking you in the darkness, you're gonna be looking behind your when you're walking in the darkness. But something like this, I'm eating the chocolate. Okay, I'm not I'm not affected.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

I almost bought an advent calendar right after this movie, to be honest with you. I literally almost bought a chocolate fucking advent calendar.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Damn, kind of feels like we should just make our own advent calendar. But there is exactly one thing and one thing only that I was concerned about this entire movie. While that provided some level of tension, it was also not enough for me to still feel like this was a scary movie. This isn't even something that I think I want to sit in on as a horror movie. It is more of I think the psychological thriller and it it is firmly planted in the horror genre. It's just not my flavor of horror. And I think that's where if I'm someone who already doesn't really get scared of horror movies, this not being my cup of tea really just takes it even further away from fear. But you know what else this movie reminds me of? Actually, Sean, I think you're on one of these episodes. But Mac, I think you should remember both of them. What this movie reminds me of most is if Braid and Stop Motion had a baby in France on Christmas. It's this movie.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

But now add in the tone of the lodge, or at least the feeling you have while watching the lodge, the emotions you might experience, perhaps, all of that wrapped in that, like you said, seasonal depression. It does kind of feel familiar in parts. I like though, like we've mentioned, that the use of the advent calendar. I like the ticking of the clock. And while we've seen these kind of you know, ticking clock movies before, this I thought was actually a really good way of getting through a season where we already have a timer built in. Something different or interesting should happen with each day, connected to a different piece of chocolate or candy. So I felt that was a good use of something seasonal. And that was a little bit different from what I had seen before. But yeah, it's got tones similar to other films, it's got components similar to other films. I'll I'll give it credit for not feeling the same because, hey, at least they weren't focusing on Santa Claus.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

For sure. I think the cursed object trope as a whole definitely isn't new, but tying that to an advent calendar is for sure, I think, a unique angle that I haven't really seen before. And using that calendar as a way to explore disability, autonomy, grief, and desire, I think gives the film a level of depth that most holiday horror doesn't really have. And so you gotta give it some kind of credit for being able to kind of tap into something there.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, I don't disagree with you, but I think where I want to give it more credit is for its ending. This ending, by and large, redeems most of the movie for me. And it's not even that it's like a rock solid, great ending comparatively for every horror movie, but where it comes to, and just the feeling I got, the more we got through it, it left me with two distinct uh sentiments. It is the only way out is through, the only way to get through something is truly to get through it and to survive it. It also leaves you with a thought of this movie's gonna make you confront the choices that you make, and you have to reconcile the actions and the consequences of your decisions and what it is you really want. I still have my qualms with some aspects of the ending, but by the time we get there, I think, all right, I get the ride we've been on this entire time.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Yeah, I don't disagree with you. I think if there's one thing that you can't argue with, it's the fact that this film really committed itself all the way down to the very end. And I think this movie really refuses to give you a Christmas miracle and leaves you with something that really respects the rules that it set up throughout the film. And I loved the underlying message that we get at the end of this movie and just how deep it really is. I think it's tragic and beautiful at the same time. So I don't disagree. Like the ending is a pretty good way to end this movie. There's just a lot to think about, I think, towards the end.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Oh, I have such negative feelings about the ending of this movie. And I think part of that, Murphy, was the the director, perhaps, where they kind of screened different ways to end it, and this is the one that they went with. And I've said it before, but like I want endings to be very concrete, to just wrap stuff up perfectly. I prefer happy endings or endings where people have learned something or where there's like a moral of the story and it's good because I'm boring and old, and that's just how I like things. And this one I think leaves you thinking about things uh a little bit too much in your mind. It also, for me, flips the script on who's actually a villain, and I don't enjoy that. And I'll tell you more about that in a minute, more specifically, but it just didn't, it didn't feel good for me to wrap things up the way that we did here, and it kind of felt like a slap in the face for a lot of other faces. So I can't I can't wait to get into more, but that's it just it hurt.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

All right. Well, I can't wait to see how that shakes out into some ratings. But before we get there, Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_02 19:10

The gore, I feel like in this movie is sudden rather than constant. I think it spaces out its violent moments, if you will. So when gore does happen, it hits harder because it isn't all the time. I think a lot of the gore also relies on the emotional or moral weight of the deaths rather than the buckets of blood. So this one I think is earning a solid medium to medium low, but it still made its impact.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

And what about that animal report?

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Fool girl, it's rough. It's not, it's not pretty. It's it's real bad.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Real, real bad. Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings then. The advent calendar from 2021. Was it a hack or a slash? I'm gonna pull a band-aid off here. This movie is not my cup of tea. And I've actually been on the 50.1 and the 49.9 of it all. And where I struggle with this is yes, sure, this isn't my flavor of horror and not something that I super love. I had a bummer of a time watching this movie, and I mentioned earlier, this movie for me is if like seasonal depression was a thing in a movie. This this has it written all over it. And I don't know when the holidays are already a semi-difficult time for me, and I'm already affected by these things. I don't know that I want to watch a movie that lingers in that. Maybe that's why I want the funny, silly, goofy, campy stuff. If you're down for that, and if you're down for a psychological thriller that twists things around and wants you to be on a journey where you're having to figure things out along the way and leave you with some kind of ethical or moral question at the end of it all, I think this might be for you. I have struggled with my thinking of this because originally I wanted to rate it one way and then nominate it as a category at our end of your episode to invert that rating. And then I thought, well, we're already here. It's the end of the year. And where I have landed is in favor of the fact that this ending is a different place that we end up than the rest of the movie. Once we have a certain point in a certain catalyst, this movie ramps up quite quickly and then puts our main character at a point where she has to reconcile and confront a lot of things at once. And it's that feeling that I think defines this movie for what it is, and it honestly just barely squeaks by at a fifty point one percent slash.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Whoa. Wild, wild.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

It was giving Retract the hack for a while, to be clear.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

I'm honestly surprised. This movie really takes what could have been a gimmicky holiday horror movie, and I think it unwraps something surprisingly rich beneath the wrapping paper. It definitely may not be everyone's cup of tea. It's definitely a downer of a movie. You really have to be in the mood to watch something like this, or in some kind of mood to watch something like this. And while it borrows familiar elements from other cursed object horror stories, the film manages to carve out its own identity through its emotionally grounded character work. I think its dark fairy tale atmosphere. And the thing that really gets me is Ava's journey is both tragic and compelling. And I think the movie uses its clever rule-based mythology to really build tension instead of relying solely on cheap thrills and shock value. And some characters do feel thin and pieces of the lore do feel underdeveloped. But in the end, the advent calendar proves that not all Christmas horror needs to be merry or bright, but it can still be worth unwrapping. So if you're in for a darker holiday horror with less gimmicks, I wouldn't necessarily mark this one off your calendar this season because for me, this one opens enough doors of tension and creativity to get by with a slash.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Gosh, I had such a different experience with this movie than both of you, I I believe. And I don't I don't know why I took so negatively to it, but this reminded me a lot of watching Night Swim. And I think it's the treatment of disabled people and their motivations and their psyches and all this sort of stuff. I think you know there's there's this protagonist that we get in this film who is struggling with their disability, for sure. And I think it would be more interesting if they were able to show a movie kind of about this person and and their experience rather than kind of using it all as a prop. And that's what it felt like to me was a prop. So much so that I think they get the entire psyche of the character wrong compared to any real life person who would probably be in that situation. And I think by the end of the film, you realize that this person is now a villain because of that, villainous in their thinking and in their logic, at least. Now, of course, we've mentioned it's gloomy, it's depressing, but for a dark, holiday-themed film, that actually would have been okay on its own. But I think we combine that with this story that leaves you just feeling horrible about yourself, you know, especially if you relate to this character in any sort of way. Um, and then you also mix that in with this antagonist that's like kind of there and kind of not, but also completely unnecessary because that amazing mythological cursed object all on its own does enough work. It should be the only antagonist that we need in this film. So we could have kept things simple, we got a bit convoluted, and we, you know, in reality, most disabled people are pretty self-sacrificial and kind of live in a world that requires their constant resilience, especially when it comes to some pretty crappy crap going on in their lives. But I I think here we just get so lost in the sauce that all in all it shook out to be a hack for me.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Well, there you have it, folks. So far, the Advent Calendar from 2021 has earned one hack and two slashes. Now, there is so much discussed about this movie when we get back from our break in just a moment. But what's more important is for you to know where you can find it. You can find this movie streaming online. Check the link in our show notes to see where you can watch it right now, give it a browse, and then join us in the second half so we can see the differences between Mac, John, and I. See you in the big.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

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SPEAKER_00 27:27

Welcome back, folks. You're now entering the spoiler zone for the advent calendar from 2021, which has earned one hack and two slashes. Now we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, let's go through those kills.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

You know, it's not that this movie has a really low number of deaths, but when you have 10 deaths and 24 days on the calendar, I was almost hoping for 24 kills. I don't know if that's too much to ask.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

Yeah. You're not asking for too much. What you're asking for is for the math to math. Yeah and the math to not math.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

But I just I'm so excited to talk about my favorite kill. Sean. I'm sure you have plenty of commentary here. But I j we have to talk about this guy being a predator and then getting taken out by a dog chewing on a toy.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Eating a replica.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Incredible. Like a little Hot Wheels matchbox 20 kind of thing, you know?

SPEAKER_02 28:26

It felt so weird. Like, one, obviously, it's justified. It's justified. Like, we all needed the Cokehead dude to go. Like, he just had to go. He's problematic. But Marvin the dog in this like weird Cujo experience, eating a toy Hot Wheels at frame like spit out by the advent calendar and just being crushed to death was sun one of the oddest experiences. And for it to be like the first kill, I was just like, is this the tone that we're setting? And we go from like dark and serious to slightly campy.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Yeah, you know, what a great moment and thing to consider. I also just want to point out that as we look at your breakdown of the death, Sean, Ava, the calendar entity and Marvin the dog all have the same body count.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

That's that's insane. Why is the dog up there? You know?

SPEAKER_00 29:21

RIP to the dog. He deserved better. That was the most frustrating part of this movie, and again, we'll talk about that in a bit. But I can't believe that the dog first kills this guy, then eats someone before he eventually falls at the hands of Ava.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

It's okay, but even to just touch on Marvin the dog, right? Just even just touching on Marvin the dog getting literally stabbed to death by his own owner. And Mac, you kind of alluded to this, I think, a little bit in your rating. It's like, why the fuck was she so down for this calendar? Like I get the I want to walk, like I want my legs back. I get that angle, but it wasn't even like it wasn't even like a lot of thought. It just felt like balls to the wall. I'm down for this calendar. Let's just do this thing. I'm gonna tell you, I can't speak for being disabled and not being able to walk, but I'm just thinking, like, when I get to the moment where the calendar asks me to stab my dog to death, I don't know if I can do it, folks. I don't know if I have it in me.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Yeah, I certainly don't. However, what I thought was interesting, this is what I was talking about with the end of the movie. She gets to this point where you have to follow all the rules or something's gonna happen, right? This really is like the wow, I have to embrace the suck and just get through it. Because then you have the wonder of okay, once all of this is done, can it be undone? You know? So I thought at least that was interesting. I had less of a hard time buying into it the further she got along and the more we learned about the calendar and why you have to follow all the rules. For sure. That made it a little bit of an easier pill to swallow. But even then, I'm like, nah, take me out. You I I wouldn't be able to.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

You could put the dog at the end on day 24, and I I I might just give up.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Yeah, yeah. To be fair, I lack the sense of self-preservation to harm my dog. I would not be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Yeah, we can talk about that more once we're done discussing you know, kills and stuff, because the entire idea that somebody would do this uh to their dog or or to their beloved father, it's like total BS. You know, they'd be like, nah, dude, let me I'll just go get some more chrome. We'll shine this puppy up. Not I'm not buying it. Absolutely not. You know, people who deal with any sort of disability in life are usually the first ones to sacrifice, you know, some shit for their for their family, especially for their for their pets. And so like that was that was just unrealistic. I'm like, all right, she's gotta be hallucinating and hallucinating at this point, hopefully. But no, we just forgot that that was an entire thing that she took medicine for. When it came to, however, the stepmother, uh, that part I think they really they really kind of showed us like this is probably what's gonna happen. You know, we're gonna get to a point where she's gonna take her out, whether or not the calendar even requires it, she's gonna do it. So just prepare yourself for it. So I was okay with that to follow up with her own dad. I'm not buying that part, but the evil stepmother just taking her dad for them for the money. Okay, I'll I'll allow it. I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

It was an interesting one. Keeping in mind, though, the dad did basically tell her, when it's that time, go ahead and do it. So I get it. I still think like that's a tough one to to swallow. That's a tough one for anyone to say, like, yes, I can follow through on this because it's tough. That's your own your own dad. But given the situation, maybe she had this entire film length of whatever she was going through, 24 days of leading up to this, or whatever, how many days it was at that time. He gave her the green light. And she at the end said, Okay, and she, you know, she did it. Wild.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

I think the other thing that we have to consider here is the fact that Marvin could not consent or give the green light. Marvin was just down to be around and be a good dog, be a good boy. I can't wait to include Marvin in the ranking next year that I'll do of best dogs in horror movies, because Marvin deserved better.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Yeah, I mean, I was really interested in the idea that both the calendar and her dog were gonna take out these incredibly toxic dudes surrounding her in life. I was like, okay, let's, you know, is he gonna take out the boss next? Let's make it happen. I'm I'm okay with with his participation when he gets to chew up cars and that happens in real life. Like, yeah, yeah, I'm I'm I'm here for that. But for him to get got by her own hand out of nowhere, where did that come from? Come on, you're he's he's helping you.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Yeah, he really was. Can we give a shout out to not only how beautiful Marvin was, because wow, what a handsome, handsome boy, but also just to the set design in this movie. I feel like for as many moments as I was really taken out and just thinking, oh, okay, this movie's a little bit slow at the beginning. What I appreciated was one, even the quality of the advent calendar and making it look like this truly cursed object. Like this was for sure in the layer of like the Oculus mirror. You're gonna find this thing in an antique store and probably inherit every kind of cursed. It looks awful, it looks great, but it also looks very peak haunted vibes. But in addition to that, I'm thinking about even when we're at the poll, even when we're at her job, every seemingly mundane space feels like it has so much character in the context of just in her world and what she's surrounded by and what she's dealing with. Could have used more Christmas, a little bit more Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

I agree. The advent calendar looked great. It's one of the most memorable physical elements of this movie, the handcrafted German design, it's giving this calendar this sort of ancient magical look that feels, I think, both kind of mesmerizing and threatening at the same time. The symbols on it make me feel like it may have come from like the Viking era or something, is kind of what it really felt like, but who the fuck knows? Outside of that, I I think the atmosphere, the visual atmosphere of this movie, they did a pretty good job with it. It creates this dark, wintry fairy tale vibe that feels very European for sure. The film feels very European. The lighting, the color palette, and the shadow work give everything this cozy, this cozy but menacing tone, I would say. So I did like the visual atmosphere this movie adds.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

We had some really effective atmospheric work throughout the entire thing, and I think that's part of why it feels so depressing, is because we're constantly like kept in the dark. Just a lot of this movie is is shot at night, and so it's it's incredibly dark. However, I think we are able to get some good, you know, day shots here and there. Those moments, there's like no fear, no horror for me, almost any of it. It's all got to happen at night. And the advent calendar itself popping up saying it's midnight, you know, hearing it in the background, that was that was fantastic. I think we were able to do some you know decent lighting here, and nothing looked super duper dark. I wish I had like a little bit of a lamp, maybe in the in the corner in some of these shots here, just so I could see a bit a bit more out of it, but that that was okay. It wasn't overall like my aesthetic, though. I think it was still a bit dark, still a bit gritty. I think the antagonist that we got was weird. What was up with that face with the mask? I don't know that we needed that. It could have been maybe just blank or something. I don't know. That was strange.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

You know what he looked like to me? In I believe it was Terrifier Three. We see an entity that has like an iron mask. That's what that entity reminded me of. Couldn't place it or when or where or why. But it was a little glimpse of could you imagine a universe or world in which this movie and terrifier three are happening at the same time?

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Jesus. That'd be wild.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Happy birthday, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

I could see that that's a good way to kind of like mesh mesh some worlds together. It would it would work out.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

I mean that's called fanfiction.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Write it up. Ship whoever you want to ship. Maybe the both of them. Maybe maybe art makes a new friend. But I can complain about the shadow work, I can complain about the lighting, but I'm not going to complain about the color. I think the color of this movie was brilliant. The look of that advent calendar is glorious because it feels so medieval. It feels so old, but it doesn't feel like fake old. It doesn't feel like somebody just painted it to look old so they could sell it at like a, you know, uh a garage sale or something. It it feels dusty and it feels well made, it feels heavy. I think when we move through the rest of the movie, we've got a lot of warm coloring, especially when it comes to like people's faces. That's one of the benefits of shooting everything at night and having it all lit by these lamps kind of around the room. So there is a good bit of warmth to it. There's a good bit of softness to it when we need there. Those grungy dark moments kind of throw those to the side. But yeah, I love it when a movie doesn't feel too sharp. Feels feels a little bit like feels a little bit warm and fuzzy. I feel like I had a little glue vine, and now we're going into the depth of the night.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Speaking of warm and fuzzy, I want to give a little shout out to uh my favorite scene in the movie, which shouldn't be my favorite scene in the movie, uh any movie ever, period. But also be specifically this movie, specifically this depressing ass movie, and that is we obviously have this moment where she sees William, develops a little bit of a crush, continues to notice him, and then they have their meat cute. And their meat cute comes after he has been manipulated by the advent calendar entity into saying some inappropriate shit about being a nurse and being able to wash her. However, the date that they then have, this moment of them getting to connect together, him even saying, Hey, I'll I'll take you home, and she says, Oh no, you don't even know where I live. And he's like, No, but it's on my way. Like just that confidence, that quiet confidence of listen, wherever you live, it's gonna be on my way because I'm putting in the effort here. It makes me wish that better had happened for him. I think it was a bummer to see him drown. I think of all the people that she was surrounded by, William was one of the good ones. So I I loved that moment of being able to get together, have their little flirtatious moment, and it really just reinforced the rom-com pipeline, you know. We had a moment where this could have been a Hallmark Christmas movie.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

The advent calendar on Hallmark with the same actors that have been in the last 30 movies.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Oh, yep, there it is. There it is. Candace Cameron Bureau.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

It's just incredible. I'm actually okay, that's I get it, I get it. I'm surprised though, because my favorite scene in the movie, which I thought you might have started with, was the scene we get at the end, because when Ava opens that final door on the advent calendar on the roof, the tone shifts into this tragic fairy tale mode. The performance is super, super strong, and the imagery is stunning as it starts to kind of snow. And we're left with this choice to either eat the final piece of candy to reset the month and her disability, right? To be able to walk, or throw it away to keep her legs but leave the deaths caused by the calendar permanent. And so it's tragic, but what I love about it is it's consistent and the movie follows the rules it sets from the very beginning all the way to the very bitter end. And I feel like that's something that I can get behind. When a movie like, I wish it gave us a little bit more of like where this advent calendar came from and it teased it a little bit, and I wish I got a little bit more there without it overdoing it, but overall, at least the rules that it set in its universe, I feel like it really just followed through and through, which I can really respect.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

And that's what I was getting at earlier when I meant this movie has stakes, and there are difficult sacrifices. There are even moments when her father is acknowledging how difficult the sacrifices are. And that's what I meant with the only way out is through. The further you go into this calendar, the more you have to realize, oh, I have to get to the end so I can undo all of this. Because if you stop in the middle, either something's gonna happen to you or B, everything's gonna stay exactly as it is. Now, one thing that kept it from being my favorite scene, period, was the fact that she went and hooked up with this guy, then he's just out of nowhere saying, Oh, yeah, yeah. No, but you could just you could just have all this. He really just throws her off. And my struggle with that is, sir, where the fuck have you been? Like you don't you don't know where she you haven't lived her life, you haven't even gone through a fraction of what she has, sir. Back off. Honestly, if she was at a point where she was about to choose to reset everything to get all those sacrifices back, let her.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

But did she want it? I don't know. That's the thing. Fresh set of eyes, you know. He came in at the end, he's looking at the rules. He's like, wait a second, this is what it could mean. Listen, I I look at rules all the time for games, and I I miss little loopholes like this sometimes. I need that fresh set of eyes. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, but ultimately she made her choice. Swaade or not, she made her choice.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Did she make her choice? Because the filmmakers didn't make a choice when it came to that. They tested them in theaters and decided, let's just not show anything. They thought about it though. That you know what they did. I remember reading that the director thought about what what would happen if we get to that final scene at the very end and we come in and they and they see her like in in her chair or something like that, right? And it's like, you should have done that, you should have given us an answer, okay? Just tell us.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Yeah, I'm okay because in my headcanon, Marvin's barking in the background. That's all I want. I just want Marvin back. Fuck everything else.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

All we need. Okay, give us Marvin. Make make make it that none of it ever happened. I would be okay with that. But there is a there is a moment in this film that was incredibly interesting to me and it was trippy, and that's how did she teleport through the water into other water and then had to like wake up and then like get moved without her chair because she left the pool and ended up. It was fun. I don't know why why I liked that trippiness, but she legit transported through the water from the pool into the river where her homeboy got killed. He got got by Mr. Midnight here. Then she also heard him and ended up there, and that doesn't make a lot of sense, but I liked it. And so I I really thought that they were going to use. This is a way of showing us like more of this is in her head than we are like letting you realize.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

But I think that's also what makes her an interesting character. I think this movie lives and dies by her and her performance.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

For sure. Obviously, Ava is the standout character of the film. She's by far the most well-developed character as well. Ava as a character is layered, sympathetic, grounded, I feel like in real emotional struggles, which allows you to feel something for her. Her disability, I think her trauma, the loneliness. It gives her arc some genuine weight in this movie. And yeah, so I think for sure, all the other characters are kind of this mixed bag because most, if not all, of the supporting characters in this movie only really exist to serve the plot rather than feel actually human. So even down to even down to Ava's father and friends, it's not that they're badly written or anything, but they are functional rather than fleshed out in a way. I feel like some of the characters even feel like just setup pieces for the calendar's consequences instead of fully realized people. So you don't really, you don't really care as much. It loses some of the weight there. So really, who else is there to really talk about other than Ava?

SPEAKER_00 45:22

Okay. Well, first, yes, you're right. They're all accessories. Two, we can talk more about Marvin. Because I want to just dial in here for just a second. And and maybe this is just because of how much time I've spent with Allie over the past like over a year and what she shares in terms of the horror stories of foreign bodies. Folks, this dog eats a car, eats a toy car, and then this man dies in it in real life, right? I was so deeply concerned for Marvin that he was gonna get a foreign body stuck somewhere in his body. And I'm thinking, damn, Ava just lost her job. She blacked out for four days.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Can't afford this vet bill.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Sure, yes, she has her trading, but is it enough for the price of quality vet care? What's gonna happen to Marvin? I wish I still had to worry about that. I'd rather have to see Marvin go to the vet versus what fate he ends up suffering. But again, justice for Marvin. Marvin was the real MVP in this movie and he deserved to make it to the end.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

Will Marvin pass you through?

SPEAKER_01 46:28

That's right. The worst that should have happened is he should have like had a struggle and take a poop. And then there goes the toy car. And that was it. That's like the worst fate that he should have suffered. But I think we can talk more about Sophie because she is a real interesting character. I think Ava's got some characters in her life that kind of act like the devil in a way, where they're tempting her. And Sophie is in no way the devil here, but it is kind of interesting to see the dynamic between them because Ava 100% blames her, at least, you know, subconsciously, for what's happened. And maybe that's maybe that's correct. Okay, maybe that maybe she should. But you know, how long has it been? Have they worked through any of this? Have they gone through therapy about it? I want to know more about, you know, how did Sophie just come out like scot-free out of that accident? But they really don't drum up that point until later. And I think that would have been more interesting to roll with guilt, that blame, that back and forth. Instead of just kind of like mentioning it, showing it in one little scene, and then oh, well, we're just gonna kill her anyway, so we'll move on. Like, we could have gone deeper.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

We could have gone deeper, and you know, as you were talking through that whole little bit there, Mac. The first thing that jumped into my mind was oh, Sophie gets blamed, sure, it's like this whole thing between them. I'm like, yeah, she gave her a fucking advent calendar, it was terrible. Of obviously, yes, we mean the car accident that you know removed her ability to walk. Get it, yes, that is the actual thing you're referring to. But also, fuck her for giving her the advent calendar. Who asked for an advent calendar? I'm telling you right now, if somebody gives me an advent calendar for my birthday, let me tell you how offensive that is. It already fucking sucks having a birthday that is on or so close to a holiday, much less Christmas of all things. Overshadowed, overlooked, people are doubling up gifts. Okay, this is a different thing for me. We already don't really do the gift thing, it's okay. And thankfully, like my family took really good care of me when I was younger. That's not the thing. But for people that I know whose birthday is on or right before around Christmas, they don't get shit or they get a Christmas present. So you mean to tell me that Ava had her birthday and for her birthday, her friend who also was the reason they got into a car accident and she lost her ability to walk. Let's just go with that. Also had the nerve to give her a fucking advent calendar for her birthday? Ma'am.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

What a shitty friend.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

I know that Ava liked it, but also in my heart, she was pretending to like it.

SPEAKER_01 49:14

Yeah. Oh gosh. Okay. I advent to me is a lot of fun because the very idea that you're having multiple days of preparation for a holiday is fun. Chocolates every day, candies. I actually have an advent calendar right now that I was given by my family, but it's also not my birthday, so that's a little bit different. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 49:32

But also like an advent calendar could just be self-control in your pantry.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

Well, that's that's a sure. Okay, good point. But I also like back in the day where Christmas was a season, so because Christmas still is, it's a 12-day season. And in certain parts of Europe, you would give each other gifts throughout that 12 days. I'm just down for more gift giving, I think is what it is. And you know, I I think the the best part of this for me was honestly seeing chocolates that weren't American milk chocolate. Seeing candies that were like that, I don't even know, is it a marshmallow? It's but it's like more rigid. There's maybe some white chocolate going on. There's hard candies, there's some nougat, like the variety here, because I ate some milk chocolate recently and I realized it's gross. Yeah, it's real gross. I like a good milk chocolate. It's gotta be good though, you know.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Yeah, no, this is Mac's refined grandpa palette.

SPEAKER_01 50:25

No, because when I was younger, okay, I liked milk chocolate like anyone else. I don't really like chocolate that much, but like if I'm gonna get some, I want it to be, you know, good, good chocolate.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

Mac, can I interest you in a Werther's original?

SPEAKER_01 50:40

First of all, first of all, Werther's originals are delicious.

SPEAKER_00 50:43

So ew ew. Just Rolo too, or I love Rolo as well.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Yeah, yeah. Unsurprising, Mac. Unsurprising.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Hey, my one of my favorite candies is is salted black licorice.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

I can get down with black licorice sometimes, but I don't know if I've had salted black licorice.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

That's absolutely terrible. No, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

Wild, wild. Well, listen, I think the worst part of this movie is the slightly underdeveloped lore. I think the movie builds a fascinating mythology around this advent calendar, but doesn't really follow through on the advent calendar. You get hints of its origin, the prior victims, a supernatural logic, but the film pulls back right when it should go just a tad further. And look, I'm a big advocate for less is more in horror, and I'm not asking for an exposition dump or anything. I just wanted a little bit more about this calendar. That's all.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

No, I'm good. You know, I think I'll do less with the calendar. That's fine. I feel like I eventually got what I needed to learn about the calendar. For me, the the worst part is sexual assault and being used as the okay, well, things are starting to get interesting now. Hate that. Nah, we could have stopped short of that, we could have gone a different direction. Just no thank you. It's something that is very personally triggering for me. And it's just not something that I welcome in horror movies, and not something that I want to linger in or bask in or just just no. No thanks. I'll pass. The other side of this though is Marvin dying. I wrote so many times in my in my notes, this dog needs to be left alone. Two lines later, fuck this movie. It was semi-fine until the dog died. Clearly, the end managed to bring it back around, but in my heart, it only earned that redemption because I thought she wants to go back and save her dog. That's what it is. This movie is certainly a Christmassy-ish movie, but I never intend to watch it again. Too much of a bummer. I feel like I'm talking myself more into the hack territory at this point of it. There is something that's interesting about it, and I have respect for what it did. I can respect it objectively, but you're not catching this in my Christmas lineup.

SPEAKER_01 53:00

No thanks. Once was probably too much for how depressing this film can be. You know, I think if I if I want to feel bad about myself, there's probably more interesting ways of doing it. I'll give it as credit. You know, I did the thing, I watched it this time, but more? No.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

Yeah, if I want to feel bad, I'll watch Welcome to Dairy.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

True. Listen, as as much as I ended up enjoying this one by the end of it, it's definitely, I can agree, it's not a holiday horror that you'll be looking to watch every year. I honestly don't know when I would watch it again, but I am at least glad that I did. So there is that.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

Well, we'll see if it makes it back to anyone's list next year for our holiday season. But for now, there you have it, folks. The Advent Calendar from 2021 has earned one hack and two slashes. Now we've certainly had a robust discussion here, but the conversation doesn't end here by any means.

SPEAKER_02 53:55

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SPEAKER_00 54:13

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember follow all the rules.