31 Films for Halloween, #8, The Advent Calendar (2021)
"The Advent Calendar" (2021) is holiday horror, the subgenre that pivots the end of year holiday season from a time of comfort and joy to one of discomfort and despair. The film is French, and its original title is simply "Le Calendrier". Advent calendars are apparently a bigger deal in European cultures than in mine, and I actually had to look up how they work to get the film. I don't REALLY understand their purpose, but it's like a countdown to Christmas, using a chocolate-treat-a-day. Not all traditions can be as sensible as ours. The protagonist is a former dancer, now paraplegic, who acquires a big-ass sinister mechanical advent calendar that Grants Wishes and Has Rules and Exacts A Price (because sinister devices that grant wishes ALWAYS have RULES and exact a PRICE). Let's get one for the kids! You wouldn't think that's a schtick a movie could maintain FOR THIRTYISH DAYS. But, oh, it does. Plus it has at least three guys who are serious...