Christmas Chills: ‘The Advent Calendar’ Review
For those of us who have trouble letting go of the Halloween season, it can be difficult to find a film that is festive but still scratches that spooky itch. Horror fans generally go in two directions in their search for Christmas-themed horror: a movie that only incidentally takes place during Christmas, like Gremlins, I Trapped the Devil, or The Lodge; or the film that makes the season its focus like Black Christmas, Krampus, or the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise. The Advent Calendar (Le calendrier), written and directed by Patrick Ridremont, seeks to bridge the gap between the two, formulating a terrifying concept that hinges on a classic holiday tradition without cheesing up the tinsel.
The film stars Eugénie Derouand as Eva, a former dancer, bound to a wheelchair after a car accident, who is surprised on her birthday by her best friend, Sophie (Honorine Magnier), who came all the way from Germany. Sophie’s gift to Eva is (being a December baby) a beautiful antique advent calendar that comes with a strange set of rules along with a satisfyingly German etching carved into the rear: “Schmeisst du es weg, töte ich dich!” or “Throw it away, and I’ll kill you!” Fair enough. Eva soon realizes, however, that the rules probably aren’t meant to be trifled with—with each box she opens, and with each candy she swallows, something happens in the real world too. Usually some sort of wish is fulfilled, but often with an unintended consequence. The general premise isn’t a particularly unique one—we’ve seen the classic “Monkey’s Paw” narrative unfold many times—but the device largely works in The Advent Calendar’s favor to deliver a holiday thriller that sets itself apart, both from other films featuring cursed objects and the current stable of Christmas horror.
Eugénie Derouand in The Advent Calendar.
Derouand is easily the best performance of the film, evincing a palpable sense of resentment of the loss of her legs, a feeling which drives her ever deeper into the calendar’s game. Eva’s accident was only three years prior, so her situation is still rather new to her. She meets other people’s sympathy or discomfort with gritted teeth and wry smiles. Still, it’s not as though she spends the whole film self-victimizing. The primary reason the calendar is able to feel so alluring to Eva is because she is desperately trying to improve her situation. For Eva, the calendar is a chance to punch back at a series of events that, in quick succession, have given her every reason to wallow in a little self-pity. Her father, for instance, suffers from Alzheimer’s and is under the guardianship of her uncaring stepmother, preventing Eva from staying in touch. Her slimeball boss, meanwhile, views her (and the accommodations she requires) as too much of an inconvenience and is looking for any reason he can use to get rid of her. But to top it all off, an unexpected blind double date goes awry when Sophie ditches her, leaving the boorish Boris (Cyril Garnier) to take Eva home, where he assaults her.
Each of these incidents is resolved by the calendar, but as the days wear on, the wish fulfillments spiral further out of Eva’s control, and the calendar starts demanding things in return. The calendar helps to set the film’s pace, keeping the plot from getting in the way of the action, and the stakes are sufficiently raised until the climax. Still, some of the boxes feel a tad predictable, which may only be a symptom of having seen “be-careful-what-you-wish-for” tropes in the past, though since the film’s tension comes not from uncovering the next box’s secrets, but from the calendar itself and “Ich”—the demon or spirit that powers it—their predictability is more or less a sideshow to a different and fun addition to your horror lineup this holiday season.
The Advent Calendar streams exclusively on Shudder, beginning Dec. 2, 2021.
Article written by Ande Thomas
Ande loves the intersection of sci-fi and horror, where our understanding of the natural world clashes with our fear of the new and unknown. He writes about monsters and foreign horror and can also be found over on Letterboxd.
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