Advent — Advent(Digital)

Christmas horror is virtually a genre in itself. And by Santa, there have been some greats. Silent Night, Deadly Night Parts 1 and 2,  Christmas Evil,  Gremlins (?) and of course the best of the bunch proto-slasher, Black Christmas. It always feels like a bit of a win-win for horror fans around this time of year - coming off the back of Halloween going straight into the festive season and director Airell Anthony Hayles’ recent holiday horror, Advent fits the bill rather nicely.

Taking its lead from the sinister, but very real-life extreme dare phenomenon, The Blue Whale Challenge, we find Advent’s protagonist, social influencer Hayley (ably brought to screen by Rasina Pavlova), recently devastated by the loss of her mother and hellbent on dispelling prevalent urban myths. Wrestling with grief and purpose, she decides to enter herself into the darkest of daredevil challenges exploring the truth behind the legend of Christmas monster, the Krampus.      

Framed as a documentary, folklore professor Richard Hill (played convincingly by Nicholas Vince) narrates the story of Hayley and what happened to her when she acquired a mysterious, and incredibly rare, advent calendar; one that has its roots in the German Krampus tradition. The film takes us through her daily broadcasts where, with the somewhat reluctant help of pal Charlie (Cian Lorcan), she presents herself to her myriad of followers, performing the tasks that lay behind each door - all with the intention of putting paid to the Krampus myth of course. Interspersed with folkloric legend courtesy of Prof. Hill, we lay witness to Hayley’s advent journey as the challenges become increasingly twisted and disturbing, until her grip on reality begins to slip. Able support comes not only from Vince and Lorcan but from her contemptible, abusive father (played by Cory Peterson from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) and Mark Arnold as the purveyor of the mysterious advent calendar to create this nightmarish descent into the festive hell.

Hayles, who is no stranger to the Christmas horror having already produced Werewolf Santa and Satan’s Grotto, does a decent job of bringing the story along at a good pace building tension and implanting shocks as we hurtle towards the near-inevitable conclusion and Christmas Day denouement. Production values may not be the highest, but that tends to work in the film’s favour – a lo-fi, pseudo-hand-held aesthetic goes some way to making the entire premise more convincing especially as we follow Hayley’s plunge into the darkness. As a folklore enthusiast, the historical lesson throughout was a nice touch, which rather than interrupting the flow of the film actually added to the sense of overwhelming dread.

I love a good Christmas horror and it’s fair to say I was gripped throughout. Decent performances, a super interesting premise and good pacing made for an enjoyable budget film experience. All wrapped up in less than eighty minutes - there’s no flab here, just good storytelling.  It may not be up there with Black Christmas (mind you what is?) but this is a film that certainly has legs and deserves to be seen beyond its debut at the wonderful Frightfest.