Treevenge

Dir: Jason Eisener

2008

****

Jason Eisener's short seasonal horror film, seen through the eyes of a Christmas tree, is a joy from start to finish. It would almost certainly loose something if it had been stretched out into a feature film, it's fifteen minute run time means it's fast paced, punchy and full of only the best the story can give. What is so clever about it, as opposed to killer Santas and murderous Snowmen, is that there really is something quite barbaric about growing a tree for such a long time, only to hack it down to live in your living room for three weeks. The Christmas trees in Jason Eisener's film are given squeaky chipmunk-like voices and have subtitles for great comic effect. That said, the initial 'tree holocaust' is quite horrific, especially when you see the little trees looking for their parents and asking 'Why is this happening?". You then see the trees clamped and stuck in the corner of the room and humiliated with tinsel and baubles and you will think twice about getting a real tree instead of a plastic one next year. When the trees finally decide to fight back with brute force, you can't help but cheers them on. Lumberjacks are wood-chipped, Mum is strangled with the Christmas lights and Dad gets a branch through the eye-socket and sweet revenge is had. It's glorious. That is until the film's one big flaw. It crosses a line and goes too far in a two second scene that should have been cut in my opinion. We see the baby Christmas trees get squashed early in the film and it is very sad but in response to this, a human baby is seen to have its face stamped in by a Christmas tree's roots. It's gory and unpleasant and my enjoyment of the film dropped like a lead balloon. I'm overlooking it somewhat in my star rating, it is a brilliant short comedy horror film, the best I've seen for a very long time and I'm not going to dismiss it for one little mistake. Truly great horrors are the ones that explore the grey area between reality and fantasy, between truism and utter nonsense. It's got everything you could ask for from inventive deaths and excellent gore, genuine comedy and a truly original idea.