A Very Flattened Christmas (2024) Film Review
Considering the insane amount of films that are produced today, it takes a brave artist to make a B-movie. Not because they can’t be good, but because there’s a very specific audience for them, and frankly, not all of them are really good, even in their own underworld.
Then there are films like A Very Flattened Christmas, a spectacle of the schlocky. A film that’s preposterous in its narrative approach but confidently located within its four walls of comedy horror. If you’re into B-movies and B-horror specifically, chances are you’ve never seen anything quite like it. That is unless you’re familiar with the previous artistic entry by Key Tawn Toothman, a YouTube series called Flattened. In that case, you may be familiar with the shenanigans that ensue.
In A Very Flattened Christmas, it all starts when a stoner gets out of his car while bleeding to death. He drops a bag containing pot, and a humanoid dressed as a reindeer chases him with the typical pace of supernatural slasher killers. When the dealer is killed, the funeral follows, and Max comes back to town. He has a past in Furry Friends, a roadkill collection company, and the employees also attend the funeral. An emotionally drained Max is forced to deal with the loss, but at the same time, the usual characters from the series Flattened show up. And they become the victims of a maniac in a reindeer suit who follows a strange agenda.
Director Shane Wallace co-writes the film with Toothman (who plays Max), and they aren’t keen on making a very scary film. Their energy is set on making an entertaining movie for fans of the series and those who enjoy the occasional and not-too-serious kills that are fairly common in B-movies. Nevertheless, they’re well-designed and splattery enough to appeal to gore fans.
Personally, I’m into these kinds of films. I like the blend of the silly and the gory and the outrageous decisions made by the writer in order to complete a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I’m not into stoner comedy at all, and I like that Toothman didn’t make a 100% niche film. This is his introduction to a larger audience, and while some audio issues should be tweaked, I can’t deny the movie has a bigger production value than I had initially thought. The first sequence, especially, is very well-shot.
A Very Flattened Christmas isn’t a wild and innovative ride of comedy horror. It’s a stoner comedy that doesn’t go heavy on the “stoner” but does so on the legacy of its characters. Those who liked Flattened will love this one, as it expands on themes that work much better in a feature regardless of the audience’s knowledge of Toothman’s past endeavor.
But again, if you connect with the goofy approach to a Christmas horror comedy, then you will find yourself clapping and drinking a shot every time an obnoxious character known as Dick Puncher appears on the screen. Oh, and those sequences from “Dick Puncher Saves Christmas,” the animated film referenced in the movie, are actually a delight. If that wasn’t the real Arnold Schwarzenegger voice-acting, then the actor doing it did an excellent job of imitating the Hollywood star.
