Christmas can be an intense experience for everyone, and who hasn’t wished to spend the festive period in snowy, rural Norway to escape the hectic rush of the big city? Well Magnus Marten, (SAS Red Notice, Jackpot), seeks to answer this with the Christmas comedy-horror There’s Something In the Barn.
The film follows Martin Star (Spider-Man Homecoming, Honeyboy), as passive American father Bill, who inherits a large house, and haunted barn on a Norwegian farm following the tragic passing of his uncle. Bill moves into the estate with his wife, played by Game of Thrones’ Amrita Acharia, and his son and daughter from a previous marriage, with the hopes of growing closer as a family. While befriending their standoffish Norwegian neighbours appears to be their greatest challenge, the family soon finds that its not only the barn that they have inherited, but also its guardian angel – or more aptly, its guardian elf.
It’s hard to root for protagonist Bill as he constantly ignores both his son and the local museum curator’s pleas and advice to keep on good terms with the barn elf. It’s one thing to not believe that your son is friends with an elf that lives in your barn, but to disrespect local customs has you hoping that the elf will get his revenge upon Bill and the family, and maybe the incessant disregard for the traditions of their new home is to be expected of the stereotypical American family.
Horror aside, the comedy is clearly the focal aspect here with Bill taking centre stage, his eccentric vibe clashing perfectly with the local’s unique Norwegian sense of humour.
Whilst it doesn’t quite hit the spooktacular heights of a Black Christmas, it does deliver a handful of frightening scares this holiday season, along with a few grizzly sequences (including impalement via icicle), that providing some satisfying moments to hide behind the sofa cushions or to be transfixed upon – whichever way you are inclined. The only issues here are that these moments are few and far between, and the ‘monstrous’ barn elves are lacking both a threatening and scary punch due to their comedic antics and anticlimactic reveal early on.
Horror aside, the comedy is clearly the focal aspect here with Bill taking centre stage, his eccentric vibe clashing perfectly with the local’s unique Norwegian sense of humour. This is not to sell a disservice to the rest of the cast as the whole town ensemble performs fantastically, and while their dry humour can be lost upon Bill, it certainly isn’t on the audience. The film is packed with plenty of jokes, both verbal and visual, that rarely fail to land and are truly the highlight that writers Aleksander Kirkwood Brown, Josh Epstein and Kyle Rideout deserve credit for. Yet even though there are both comedic and horror elements that work well, the two factors seem to play against one another, with the horror suffering the most.
While it isn’t likely to become a festive classic that warrants a rewatch every year, it does provide a unique festive adventure with a healthy share of laughs which, unfortunately, leaves you wanting more from the horror side of this comedy horror cornucopia.
There’s Something in the Barn plays UK Cinemas & is available on Digital Download from 1st December
