29. ADULT SWIM’S YULE LOG 2: BRANCHIN’ OUT (2024)

Released on December 5, 2024, and streaming on HBO MAX and Amazon Prime from Adult Swim!
Directed/Written by Casper Kelly.
Check out the trailer here!!

Zoe (Andrea Laing) survived a night of true insanity and horror when a flying, flaming yule log murdered all of her friends. Zoe believes she destroyed the killer log but still carries around a fire axe for protection. Though she rushes back to work soon after her trauma, hoping to distract herself with work, she is fired after a meeting goes wrong and an account lost. Zoe decides to get away from it all with her friend Jakester (Chase Steven Anderson) to a Mexico beach, hoping it is far enough away from yule logs and anything Christmas-y. But on their way, Jakester crashes his car, and wouldn’t you know it, they end up in a small town called Mistletoe. Like it or not, Zoe finds herself trapped in the most horrifying of situations…a Hallmark Christmas movie and the yule log is not far behind her.

If you were fortunate enough to experience the first ADULT SWIM YULE LOG, also known as THE FIREPLACE, you know the uncapped craziness that occurs in a Casper Kelly film. At first, the film was just a burning log in a fireplace, but after a few minutes, the film unfolds into a nightmare cabin in the woods story with inbred hillbillies, fireplace devils, time warps, alien invasions, and of course, a killer yule log. The first film was so unpredictable and unhinged that I was amazed at what I was seeing and befuddled at the sheer creativity gone into what has become a holiday traditional watch for those without a fireplace. Well, this time Kelly takes on another holiday tradition—the Hallmark Holiday movie, and again things take that crazy train very quicky.

YULE LOG 2 does a fantastic job of splitting the time between telling your typical survivor’s tale continuing from the previous film and checking off every Hallmark movie cliché one can think of. While there are moments of sheer goofiness, YULE LOG 2 still tells a sweet story centering on Zoe getting over her trauma from the first film, conquering her fears, and moving on with her life. YULE LOG 2 simultaneously lampoons the Hallmark tropes and honors them in a way that most filmmakers would fail. Yes, all of the tropes are there; big city folks being stuck in a small town, the lead bumping into the perfect hunk by happenstance, the lost family recipe found, and of course, it all comes to a head at the annual holiday festival. Just this time, the whole thing is permeated with a flaming log on a killing spree.

It’s been tried before to set a horror film against the backdrop of a horror film (see DEAR SATAN from a few years ago), but never has it been done so well. Kelly cleverly switches tones back and forth between genres but represents it by widening the picture and darkening the color palate of the film whenever Zoe talks about her harrowing experiences. This scene is perfectly illustrated when Zoe goes on a date and half the room is colored in bright, warm hues, while the other is dark and foreboding. It’s this kind of minute details that occur ever-so frequently in YULE LOG 2.

And gory? You betcha. The carnage the log leaves in its path is truly gruesome. The log goes through several permutations as the film goes on, culminating into a monstrous log monster by the end. It’s ridiculous, having a walking and talking log as a monster, but by the time the creature takes its final form, I was so enrapt with the creativity that I just rolled with it.

And you should too. Like it or not, there’s something about the holidays that makes one steer towards the lighter stuff. Even my gruesome ass prefers to watch horror with a holiday bend to it to some of the other stuff released right now. THE YULE LOG 2 is something special in that it combines two genres that one would think would have nothing in common and somehow makes it all work. The acting is sharp. The comedy worked for me all the way through (I’m still giggling about a certain lost fudge recipe). The gore is aplenty. And the film ended with warmth and wholesomeness but also a foreboding sense of what is to come. You can’t beat it. So just check out this crazy little movie that’s bound to warm the chambers of your dark hearts.

Worth Noting: THE LAST VIDEO STORE (2023)

Released on December 9, 2024, and streaming on Tubi from Arrow Films and Black Fawn Distribution!
Directed by Cody Kennedy, Tim Rutherford.
Written by Joshua Roach, Tim Rutherford.
Check out the trailer here!!

After receiving a bunch of video tapes that need to be returned to the last open video store in Canada, Nyla (Yaayaa Adams) finds herself in the middle of a bizarre adventure with the owner of the store Kevin (Kevin Martin) when one of the tapes turns out to be the dreaded Videonomicon! When they play the tape, Nyla and Kevin find themselves in a heated battle of survival against a trio of characters ripped straight from vintage videos in the tight confines of the small video store.

I try to avoid reviews of films before watching, but it is inevitable that many of them will read “THE LAST VIDEO STORE” is a love letter to the VHS era” or something cliched like that. Being the rebel that I am, I will not use that descriptor, even though it’s pretty accurate. Instead, I will call THE LAST VIDEO STORE a warm, sloppy, low hug for the long-lost time when VHS ruled the earth. If you remember those bygone days when it was kind to rewind or if you missed that time and just want to be cool and nostalgic, you’re going to find something in this movie that will warm your heart.

And it’s no surprise since some of people behind the best retro-horror flicks of the last decade or so have something to do with this movie. Steve Kostanski, Matthew Kennedy, and Adam Brooks; the guys behind the grindhouse spoof FATHER’S DAY, the giallo funhouse that was THE EDITOR, the ode to 80’s sci-fi action MANDBORG, the cosmic mind-fucker THE VOID and the sublimely fun take on Amblin PSYCHO GOREMAN end up being in front of or behind the camera here. While this group of Uber-talented individuals didn’t direct or write THE LAST VIDEO STORE, their unique style of humor, gore, and love of genre cinema shines through.

Filmmakers Cody Kennedy, Tim Rutherford, and Joshua Roach feel like a wonderful extension to the team of Kostanski, Kennedy, and Brooks. They know how to make a small budget feel big by keeping 99% of the action inside the small video store. While it might be goofy having people hiding in the aisles of video tapes in what looks to be a very small store from giant mantis aliens, a Jason Voorhees knockoff, and the unnatural offspring of Chuck Norris and Jean Claude Van Damme, this crew makes it all work with some clever camera trickery, a script and story that never stops moving, and a cast of two very charismatic actors who don’t want to be there.

While both Kevin Martin and Yaayaa Adams are relatable as Kevin the store clerk and Nyla the sole patron of the store, the real standout is Josh Lenner who plays Viper, the aforementioned Van Damme/Norris clone. I loved the arc this character takes once he comes to the realization that he is a character from a video tape and must confront not only that slap in the face but also the criticism of his films plastered on the boxes and in magazines throughout the store. It really is a fun meta-take reminiscent of films like THE LAST ACTION HERO and JCVD.

While small in scope, THE LAST VIDEO STORE still manages to tell a big and bawdy tale spanning a decade or so of genre cinema. The scenes of gore, action, suspense, and carnage are potent while aping the style of those low budget genre films of the past. Blood spatters everywhere and the Jason Voorhees knock-off (played by Leland Tilden) is the best Jason we’ve seen on film in years as he slashes his way around the store (though Ry Barrett did a fantastic job of aping Jason in IN A VIOLENT NATURE too). It all goes wonderfully cosmic during the climax, utilizing some sweet-ass stop-motion animation along with all kinds of trippy visuals.

The VHS video tape and the stores that rented them were a prominent staple in the genre of horror. Those days when the video box was the key to renting a movie and experiencing the film meant a bit of time rewinding to really experience the awesomeness going on may be a thing of the past, but THE LAST VIDEO STORE does a fantastic job of representing those good old days. It tells a story that is just as relevant and entertaining today using everything we loved from those movies from way back then. THE LAST VIDEO STORE comes highly recommended from me to those who remember renting videos and those who think back fondly of those simpler times.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2024-2025
#31 – GET AWAY (DARK MATCH)
#30 – PABRIK GULA (#MISSINGCOUPLE)
#29 – YULE LOG 2: BRANCHIN’ OUT (THE LAST VIDEO STORE)
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