There’s Something In The Barn will be available in UK Cinemas & Digital Download from 1st December.
Synopsis
An American family fulfils their dream of moving back when they inherit a remote house in the mountains of Norway.
Review
Normally around this time of year you begin to get that warmth inside that only being sat on the sofa watching Christmas films can bring, but I will admit I’m a bit partial to a film that moves away from the normal feel good vibe (apart from Home Alone – everyone has to watch that at Christmas) and There’s Something in The Barn definitely gives you that “different” feeling that this isn’t going to be your normal Christmas film.
A typically standard family finally fulfil there dream of escaping the rat race of city life and leaving it all behind to start a new in the beautiful countryside of Norway, with the two children (Nora and Luca less than impressed compared to the adult part of the family (Bill and Carol) with having to grow up around bad WiFi and no cable TV.
This change of direction is all thanks to a relative of Bill’s who kindly leaves the country estate to Bill and his family and at first glance they have fallen on their feet becoming the new owners of a nice estate in it’s own surroundings with breathtaking postcard views and plenty of wildlife as neighbours. But all is not as it seems as when the family take a walk into the local town it begins to become clear that their dream of opening a luxury getaway doesn’t go down as well as they thought it would and the locals begin to tell tales of the county estate that all is not what you first may have thought.
Luca is intrigued to find out more of his new surroundings and takes a look inside the barn next to the house, after a few visits to the barn he has an encounter with a small being, the Barn Elf, these beings are the legendary keepers of the barn and they must be kept happy by following certain rules failure to do this will result in bloody consequences.
Without going to much into the story and spoiling it for you the film takes a dark turn after the Barn Elves make their presence known, to quote the tag line from the film “Gremlins meets National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” is exactly right the film takes the feel good National Lampoon and puts it in a blender with slight scare of the Gremlins and tops it with enough blood and gore to keep the horror fans engaged.
I found the film surprisingly good, went into it expecting something a bit on the cheesy side but found I became quite engaged pretty quickly, I enjoyed the bulk of the film which was mainly a feel good Christmas film and found myself forgetting that it was meant to be a horror only for the film to happily remind me – for example the scene later on with the police woman and the snowmobile, I’ll call that an eye opener. I found that Magnus Martens directed the film well as it was naturally aloud to progress and nothing felt forced, the comedy quips felt natural and the horror parts actually felt like they were part of the film and not just put there for the sake of it.
Martin Starr and Amrita Acharia worked well together on screen as the husband and wife Bill and Carol trying their very best to keep this dream from rapidly turning into a nightmare, Martin shines with his dry sense of humour flowing throughout the film, I previously have enjoyed Martin as Bertram Gilfoyle in the HBO series Silicone Valley and he plays a similar character here and that natural dry sense of humour is obviously a strength to his talents as he definitely makes the film for me.
Verdict
A surprisingly good solid film, has a feel good vibe to it but probably best not use it as a family watch over Christmas, the acting is strong and the story flows well. This probably won’t be a Christmas classic for years to come but definitely one to be checked out and remember if someone says “There’s Something in The Barn” it might be worth believing them.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
