Summary
A Very Flattened Christmas may not be an ideal slasher, but it has a B-movie charm that viewers are sure to enjoy.
A Very Flattened Christmas is a horror-comedy based on creator and co-writer Key Toothman’s TV series, Flattened. In just over 90 minutes the quirky characters are taken into the world of slasher Christmas horror… (or at least the attempt is made). Safe to say, you will either love or hate this film.
The story follows Max (Key Tawn Toothman), who is working through the loss of his friend. His other friends aren’t making it easy for him to grieve and get over this loss, and his life gets more complicated when the finger of blame is pointed at him.
A Very Flattened Christmas opens with a man struggling to get away from a masked killer, who is brutally murdered in the snow in a dramatic wide shot — you’d think you were settling in for a classic horror story. But, in the next sequence, the funeral is filled with quirky, odd characters, giving a more comical vibe.
The overall feeling I get from this film is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously — so you shouldn’t either. The acting is, at times, hilariously cheesy; I felt I was watching an improv troop. Think very over-the-top, zany performances, worthy of a classic British panto. This is not a masterclass in acting, but you can tell the cast had a laugh filming and are committed to the cause.
A Very Flattened Christmas Still
Oddly, after a short section, I can see this working better as a double-episode animation series—the awkward characters and sequences could have more impact if they had been cartoons. The downfall of not taking yourself too seriously is that the audience can be easily distracted and disengaged.
True horror fans might not enjoy the comedy and lack of plot development, but comedy fans are sure to find a few laughs through random things like zombie Bambi, bad accents, cheap sets, and awkward, bloody deaths.
A Very Flattened Christmas almost takes a whodunnit approach when everyone questions who the killer is and a detective is brought in to investigate. The pace is consistent, with one weird thing after another which should keep you entertained for the hour-and-a-half runtime, and the ending isn’t as predictable as you’d expect, taking a fun and weird turn, tying everything up with a forced wedding and heartfelt bro-to-bro moment.
Throughout A Very Flattened Christmas, some parts fill the expectations of a slasher movie, guts and gore included, but it needed more dramatic deaths to make it truly stand out and be memorable! While there are funny moments, the comedy can feel forced and doesn’t always pay off, becoming too awkward and cringe.
While the killer’s costume —a Santa suit with an animal head—is creepy, it needed to be more exaggerated and extravagant to match the film’s ridiculousness. They could have gone a lot bigger and bolder.
