The Advent Calendar / Le calendrier (France/Belgium, 2021)

It's doubtful that The Advent Calendar will ever become a Yuletide favorite along the lines of Christmas Evil (1980), Silent Night Bloody Night 2 (1987 / trailer), Anna and the Apocalypse (2017 / trailer), Jack Frost (1997) or even Krampus (2015), but much like P2 (2007), Black Christmas (1974 / trailer), and Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972), this flawed but effective Euro-horror delivers its horrors effectively — and even manages to pose a few unspoken questions about how far one might go (or not go) to get that which they most desire in life. In the case of the film's central figure of identification, the attractive paraplegic Eva (Eugénie Derouand of Bula [2020 / trailer]), a former ballet dancer, that would be the use of her legs. 

Trailer to

The Advent Calendar:

Eva's life is hardly one of joy, Christmas season or otherwise. In a wheelchair since a car accident, estranged from her über-bitch mother-in-law Agnes (Isabelle Tanakil), unable to connect with her beloved but Alzheimer-suffering father (Jean-Francois Garreaud [1 Apr 1946 – 9 Jul 2020] in his last film role) who no longer knows who she is, stuck in a dead-end job with a sleazy boss (Jérome Paquatte of Pandemonium [2023 / trailer]) who wants her gone, and without a relationship, the gloom and bitterness that she exudes is fully understandable. She is simply one of those people who, as though their basic situation wasn't bad enough, and by no real fault of their own, is simply stepped on by (almost) everyone. On her birthday, Eva's best (and apparently only) friend Sophie (Honorine Magnier of Camping 3 [2016 / trailer]) drops by, bearing as a gift a beautiful antique wooden Advent calendar that she picked up at a Christmas market in Munich... 

The origin of the calendar, like that of the demonic refugee from Silent Hill (2006 / trailer) that appears later as the calendar's henchman of death (the uncredited Fabien Jegoudez of The Thing Behind the Door / La Chose derrière la porte [2023 / trailer]), remains a mystery throughout the movie, but both have little to do with Christmas cheer. Something that perhaps should have been obvious from the warning the calendar carries: once you eat the first candy, you must eat all of them until the end or you will die. Eva and Sophie laugh off the admonition as a German peculiarity, but soon Eva comes to realize the power of the box. 

Enticed by the promise it holds — that of giving one one's greatest desire — she realizes too late just how much it will also take from her. Faced with death should she stop, with each candy she eats someone close departs in the most violent of ways. But gifts are received as well, and slowly but surely she herself gets seduced, if not corrupted, by the power the calendar and its candies. But then, as an eternal object of victimization by those around her, it is easy to see how the calendar's power and promise could be so enticing to Eva. 

Truth be told, were the object of evil not an Advent calendar, one might be hard pressed to place this movie as a Christmas horror, for little in the world of the movie indicates the Yuletide season: Christmas trees or decorations are occasionally present but barely noticeable. For that, The Advent Calendar does deliver the goods as an attention-grabbing and captivating horror movie liberally dosed with moments of discombobulating terror. While not overly gory, the dark and bleak movie has its moments of blood and violence, both onscreen and off. And while more than one person is of the type that might be classified as an asshole who deserves what happens to them, many do not. 

The horror of the movie is found both in the demonic agitations of the calendar as in the slow but apparent moral ruination of Eva herself, whose desire to walk, and fear of death should she stop, takes her further and further into the deep end. Just how deep she eventually sinks is arguably most apparent in the malicious joy she takes in actively causing the horrific and painful death of Myriam (Laura Presgurvi of In Darkness [2018 / trailer]), the tactless tart that has replaced her at her hated job. 

Dripping with atmosphere and filled with people that are instantly peggable as "nice" or "asshole", much of the visual pleasure of the definitely enthralling Advent Calendar is found in the color and lighting, not to mention the occasionally truly imaginative (if not almost baroque) transitions that tie together different scenes with creativity and visual flare. Full of well-composed shot and on-the-spot acting, the movie always looks great and is trimmed of excess narrative fat and padding. The calendar is a marvel to look at, and one can easily understand why one would be tempted to open it despite the warnings: it is simply too beautiful to possibly be housing the evil that it does. 

The ending itself is perhaps a bit rushed, the big twist in Eva's situation being revealed by a tertiary character of unassuming presence. For that, the final scene, which reiterates the rebus-strip character of the calendar's existence and nature, also leaves Eva's unknown final action (and fate) open to interpretation. Is one's greatest desire worth living with what it might cost or not? 

The second feature film of the French director Patrick Ridremont, who also wrote the screenplay, The Advent Calendar is well worth watching, not just as a Yuletide horror but as a horror movie in general.