It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023) review – A sweet and hammy festive slasher

Welcome to Knockout Horror. We have another entry into our Festive Frights feature today as we are checking out Shudder Original It’s a Wonderful Knife from 2023. For more Christmas horror movies, take a look at our Awful Advent category. You are sure to find something to enjoy.

It’s a horror reimagining of a festive favourite

It’s a Wonderful Knife comes by way of director Tyler MacIntyre, who also directed the enjoyable Gawkers segment from V/H/S/99. MacIntyre also has writing credits on Five Nights at Freddy’s. This movie boasts about being from the producers of Black Christmas. Assuming they mean the horrific Black Christmas from 2019, that is less of a boast and more of a reason to skip this movie entirely.

It follows the story of Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop). After she stops the killing spree of the town’s resident psychopath, Winnie finds that her life takes a turn for the worse. Nothing seems to be going right, and she is pushed to the point where she wishes she was never born. A wish that suddenly becomes true, revealing to her just what life would be like had she never existed.

The plot of It’s a Wonderful Knife is, obviously, rather familiar, and the clue is in the title. This movie is a horror parody of the holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life. A movie which sees the down-on-his-luck George Bailey (James Stewart) wishing he was never born. Only to be shown how the lives of the people he loved would have turned out had he not been.

It’s widely considered to be one of the best movies of all time and has been mercilessly imitated in all forms of media. I can’t think of too many horror versions of the story, though. I guess It’s a Wonderful Knife is fairly unique in that respect.

But does this slasher rehash work?

The answer to whether the movie works is “kind of”; it kind of works. I mean, after all, the story writes itself. Person wishes they were never born. Is shown life without them having existed. Person is confused, life is markedly worse for everyone, person regrets never being born. The end. All you have to do is throw in a few laughs, some brutal kills, a bit of drama, and you have a ready-made horror parody.

And that is exactly what It’s a Wonderful Knife does. It sticks to the formula and rolls out an enjoyable enough, albeit rather predictable, horror version of the Christmas classic. It’s hard to imagine It’s a Wonderful Knife appealing to everyone, though. It really doesn’t take many risks.

“As a slasher, it’s a fairly vanilla affair reminiscent of the late 90s. As a drama, it is a little overly saccharine and a bit too gooey and wholesome.”

As a horror, it’s a fairly vanilla “masked serial killer torments a town” affair that is very reminiscent of late 90s slashers. As a comedy, it has a few chuckle-worthy moments but nothing too hilarious. And, as a touching drama regarding existential crisis, it is a little overly saccharine and a little bit too gooey and wholesome. This is a movie that will divide people.

There are a few missteps

It’s a Wonderful Knife slips up a bit almost immediately. The killer is unmasked within the first 15 minutes of the movie. Obviously, this is somewhat essential to the plot, but it means our protagonist’s journey into the world where she never existed is somewhat dull.

There are few surprises outside of how the lives of her friends and relatives have turned out. We know who the killer is, and a late-movie attempt to subvert that expectation really doesn’t land at all or make much sense. It robs the movie of tension, as the only remaining question is why the killer is doing what he is doing, and that is answered very early on.

This means we are forced into more of a story of personal discovery rather than actual horror. This is a “character finding themselves while attempting to solve a rather boring mystery” rather than a “character attempting to escape and outwit a vicious murderer”.

It feels unsure of its identity, and this will impact viewers on both sides. Some will be upset it doesn’t focus on horror, while others may find the horror gets in the way a bit. It wouldn’t be so much of a problem if the kills were a bit more inventive. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case; they are really predictable and unremarkable.

It’s still quite a lot of fun

As it stands, I still, actually, enjoyed It’s a Wonderful Knife. I thought it was a pretty light-hearted horror that didn’t demand a whole lot of energy to enjoy. The Christmas theme makes the overly saccharine story easier to digest. You expect the movie to be a little overly sweet.

“Justin Long is a bunch of fun as the town’s crooked mayor, chewing the scenery in the best possible way and hamming it up a storm.”

Some of the laughs do land pretty well. The romance subplot is handled in a way that is quite refreshing, too. It’s very nice to see a diverse cast. Many of the characters are quite likable, particularly Bernie and Jane’s aunt Gale.

There is a great cast that is allowed to bring a lot of their own personality to the film. Justin Long is a bunch of fun as the town’s crooked mayor, chewing the scenery in the best possible way and hamming it up a storm. Jess McLeod does a fantastic job portraying the sympathetic, and ultra-likable, character Bernie. Katharine Isabelle is one of my favourite horror actors, and she really elevates a fairly understated role. I know she isn’t overly fond of her “Scream Queen” tag, but I’ll watch anything she is in.

Visually, the movie feels pretty festive thanks to a wintery landscape and plenty of decorations. It’s a Wonderful Knife feels decently high-budget, which shouldn’t be all that much of a surprise given the production team. This is an incredibly dark movie, though. Check out the screenshots; this really could have benefitted from some much better lighting, particularly in indoor scenes.

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