Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin' Out (2024)

Like its predecessor, the second Adult Swim Yule Log movie takes a lot of risks. But while this is ultimately a solid comedy/horror (leaning a lot more towards comedy this time), those risks don't pay off to anywhere near the same degree. It's probably unfair to expect otherwise, though: the first installment in this franchise felt revolutionary and exciting, essentially materializing a horror film from literal smoke. Even those of us not lucky enough to stumble on it organically when it aired advertised as a literal Yule Log video could sense the energy and excitement.

That's just not here this time. While the movie has some very good and fairly original ideas, it ultimately feels much more conventional. This is a campy Christmas horror movie in the vein of Jack Frost (with the caveat I enjoyed this much more). It's got some practical creature and gore effects, an interesting premise exploring genre signifiers as a metaphor for trauma, and another good performance from Andrea Laing (don't be surprised if she gets drafted for some sort of Marvel/DC/Star Wars thing within the next year or two). But the loss of suspense and tension (which seems to have been an intentional choice on behalf of director Casper Kelly) results in a film that feels light on substance, despite exploring some interesting ideas.

The premise in question centers around Zoe surviving the log's assault at the end of the last movie. Her fiancé, however, isn't as lucky, leaving her grieving and terrified. A few months later, a series of mishaps leave Zoe stranded in a small town called Mistletoe, which holds an annual Yule Log festival every Christmas Eve (unlike the first movie, this is set during the holidays). She quickly discovers that the genre she's in shifts from horror to Hallmark Christmas movie.

To be clear, this is more or less exactly how the phenomenon is described when she discusses it with her new love interest, Bert (Michael Shenefelt). For the audience, the movie's aspect ratio shifts, the contrast and color levels change, and the music transforms dramatically. Early on, we see this change flash back and forth as she literally steps forward and backward across some invisible line: she's aware this is happening, and so are we.

The movie delights in exploiting this to comical effect, parodying conventions of both genres and comparing them against each other. But a string of meet cutes and a lost shrimp fudge recipe needed to save a local Christmas ornament store from a massive corporate competitor isn't the only thing going on here. The movie is also using this to explore trauma. The genre shifts, while real, are only experienced by Zoe, so she's constantly reacting to things only she can see (in many cases, they're hallucinations; in others, actual foreshadowing of horrors to come). It creates a fascinating dynamic where she's at once plagued by her own trauma and - perhaps - empowered by it. She's the only one in Mistletoe at all prepared for what's coming.

Well, the only one other than Santa Claus and a brief cameo by Holly from the previous movie. Santa (presumably the real one, though I suppose it could be some other random character empowered by Christmas magic) is the one who causes her car to break down in Mistletoe. Him and Holly then wait for the log to come for Zoe, capture it, and shove it through a wood chipper. This all happens without Zoe ever realizing it, and Santa and Holly take off immediately after.

A splinter of the log survives, however, and manages to get stuck in Bert's mother. It grows inside of her and bursts out at Christmas Eve dinner, transforming her into a nightmarish tree monster that goes on a killing spree. For reasons that are at least somewhat established in advance, the ashes of Zoe's dead fiancé and Bert's late wife defeat the monster.

The exploration of genre as perspective is clever, all the more so because of the contrasting genres selected. The seemingly binary choice of whether to fall into despair or blindly pretend things are fine in spite of reality makes for a compelling and relatable predicament. Zoe's situation is applicable to everything from climate change to political upheaval to the lingering Covid pandemic. Finding the middle ground between living in fear and becoming dangerously complacent is extraordinarily difficult.

Through all this Zoe finds love, of course, as does her over-the-top gay best friend, who - in keeping with the Hallmark Christmas movie tropes this is mimicking - is fairly incidental to the plot. It should be noted that this all comes off feeling as much like an homage as a parody of that genre. As Kelly says in the interview I linked to earlier (here it is again), he came to appreciate and even love Hallmark holiday movies. That sense carries through in the finished product.

That said, fans of Hallmark should be warned this also contains a handful of gross, brutal moments. If you can handle both Hallmark and horror, you'll find a lot here to enjoy, but if the latter's a deal breaker for you, you'll want to steer clear.

For me, the reason this comes up short is in its decision not to push the horror side further. I'm not talking about gore (I'm not a fan) or even scares - it's the overall sense of weight that's missing here. Despite the thematic connection to trauma and fear, the movie doesn't even try to replicate the sense of strange, otherworldly horror that permeated the 2022 film. That one felt like Twin Peaks; this feels like... well... mostly just like a parody of Hallmark movies, intercut with a B-horror flick. The sense of danger and uncertainty is gone, along with the existential dread that permeated the first film.

And while I respect what this achieved, I've seen too many Hallmark parodies to be smitten by one more (though, for what it's worth, this is among the best). Likewise, the intentionally cheesy horror, while executed well, wasn't anything spectacular. It's the combination of the two that makes this interesting, but - to be frank - I mostly only found it interesting from an intellectual perspective. As an experience, this was fine but unremarkable.

Consider this a movie I respect but don't love. There's a lot here to appreciate and even like, but nothing that elevates this above what it is: a well made, entertaining cable television horror movie. There's a good chance that's more than enough for you, particularly if you're more enamored with the subgenres being mashed up that I was. This certainly isn't a movie I'm warning anyone to avoid (unless, as mentioned earlier, they're unusually squeamish). Just don't expect this to deliver anything on par with the original.