There’s snow on the ground and it’s cold as hell so we’re still celebrating Christmas in the ‘Pit. And we’ve chosen a corker of a movie tonight. It’s THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE BARN, a horror-comedy film from Norway that is a Netflix exclusive at the moment.
The movie opens with a man in Norway getting angry about his barn and attempting to pull it down. Something rips the wires out of his tractor so he decides to burn it instead. However, that same something is in the barn with him and first tries to catch him with a baby cart trap before knocking him out the window with a flaming tire where he expires in the snow.
One year later, Bill Nordheim (Martin Starr),his new wife Carol (Amrita Acharia), son Lucas and daughter Nora are heading to that very same farm a few days before Christmas as that man was Bill’s uncle and he inherited it. He and his wife have dreams of opening a rental in the barn to give people a chance to get away and have some rustic, Norwegian living. Of course, their kids aren’t happy about that, as they had to leave their whole life and friends behind in a country they don’t speak the language in.
The house seems fine, if not a bit rustic. It isn’t long before Lucas find that they aren’t alone at the farm, and that something is living in the barn. Something that looks a lot like an elf. After a visit to town where a local man tells Lucas about barn elves, the boy realizes that is what he has befriended. Of course, the friendship will only last as long as you follow a few simple rules–no bright lights, no loud noises and no modern changes. And during Christmas you know you won’t find any of those.
Needless to say, the rules get broken and soon things start to get messy as the barn elf decides he needs to evict the new inhabitants of the farm.
THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE BARN is a comedic horror movie that is light on the scares and heavy on the laughs. There’s also some surprising gore that almost feels out of place at times. It’s like a mash up of GREMLINS, KRAMPUS and SANTA’S SLAY in tone for me, where you go from playful at times to outright mean. Which does help make it feel that nobody is safe as the elf wreaks his havoc to the family and anyone else who comes to the farm. Sometimes the tonal change is a bit jarring, especially with some of the running gags, but it’s not too offputting, honestly.
The cast is solid, with Starr as the oblivious father who doesn’t want to take responsibility for his children and Acharia trying her best not to be the evil step-mom even though she’s doing what she does out of love for the kids. The elf is played by Kiran Shah, who was Blunder in LEGEND, and does well as the elf, going from trepidation of the new family who moved in, to sadness when they break the rules to rage when he finally snaps.
The movie oozes Christmas and is beautiful to look at. There are lights set up everywhere and the town looks as picturesque as you could want. The soundtrack is made up of all Christmas songs, which I particularly love, and a good assortment of modern and classic tunes, including my favorite one at the very end.
All in all, it’s a festive frightmare that deserves to be in your rotation of holiday movies. Check it out.
