Adult Swim Yule Log (2022)

I'm not sure how this one snuck by me two years ago. I don't recall having heard of it once before buzz around the sequel put it on my radar. Then again, maybe I just glossed over it at the time, assuming that whatever it was, it wasn't worth my time. By design, this movie - and make no mistake, it is a feature-length horror/comedy movie - was designed to fly under the radar and build on word-of-mouth.

Ideally, that and a recommendation are enough to pique your interest. If so... just go watch it.

Need a little more encouragement? The closest things I can compare this to are John Dies at the End and Twin Peaks. Especially Twin Peaks. This thing has Twin Peaks energy spilling out of its fireplace. If either or both of those are things that appeal to you, there's a good chance you're going to be pleasantly surprised by this gonzo production.

"Gonzo" is the right word, too. This was greenlit by Adult Swim and financed through a slush fund to keep higher-ranking executives out of the loop. The existence of this movie was a secret to Warner Bros., just as it was a secret to viewers who left the television on after Rick and Morty. Trailers beforehand portrayed it as a typical Yule Log, though I imagine viewers of that programming block assumed something was up.

As explained in the IndieWire article linked to above, the original plan was for this to open with two hours of Yule Log footage before veering off course, but that shrunk to just a couple minutes in the final version. That's enough to get the idea across, and ensures the finished project does, in fact, feel like an actual movie, rather than some sort of bizarre experimental film. Not that the experimental film version wouldn't have been cool (as a story and source of online discourse, it might even have been cooler). But someone at some point clearly figured out they had something special on their hands and gave it a time slot where it could gain some traction. Considering there's a bunch of high-profile articles singing the praises of both this and its sequel, I'd guess it worked out.

Before I even attempt to describe what this movie is, I want to jump into its holiday connections. Somewhat surprisingly, this isn't set at Christmas. The frame story instead concerns the filming of a Yule Log, which wouldn't typically be created anywhere near the holidays themselves.

The fact the movie places so much significance on the Yule Log itself cements this as a Christmas movie in my mind, but it's worth reflecting on the nuances of what this does and does not mean in the context of this genre. Horror in general and ghost stories in particular (which Adult Swim Yule Log is, among other things) were once considered typical holiday entertainment, particularly in England. This was true whenever those stories were set, though obviously that idea has faded. At this point, horror is far more often associated with the fall. Meanwhile, an entire subgenre of Christmas horror movies defined by time of year and/or reliance on holiday elements (e.g.: killer Santas, killer snowmen, killer elves, and so on) has materialized.

This does technically fit into the modern version, by virtue of the Yule Log being a significant factor (in fact, it's a killer Yule Log, so it really fits in). Though at the same time the connections to the holiday tradition are artificial in the film's narrative. The supernatural aspect of the log is unrelated to it being filmed as part of a Yule Log video, which is really more an excuse for this to start with found footage. In a real sense, the element explicitly tied to the holidays is indicative of when this was designed to be viewed, rather than a reflection of the internal narrative. That kind of makes this more an extension of the British ghost story tradition than the modern American Christmas horror trend.

That's got nothing to do with the movie's quality, but I do think it's neat.

In addition to all of that, this has at least one other Christmas-adjacent aspect: time travel. We've discussed the extensive connections between the holidays and temporal displacement in depth, but if you don't want to wade through that, think Christmas Carol. The movie's main set also has what appears to be a boar's head trophy hanging on the wall, which might be a reference to the song and associated traditions.

Now then, let's talk about the movie itself.

The plot here is intentionally jarring, as the film contains a series of twists designed to subvert expectations and leave the viewer with a sense of vertigo. Again, this starts as a normal Yule Log video until a woman shows up to clean in front of the fire, seemingly oblivious to the fact she's being filmed. Next, an old hillbilly woman and her deformed adult son ("Mother" and "Pleatherface") show up and force their way in. Pleatherface kills the cleaner, and the two of them begin planning to hide the body, but before they can finish another car pulls into the driveway. Pleatherface and Mother take the body into what's either a closet or possibly the basement while we meet the movie's main characters, Alex and Zoe. Alex is the one recording the Yule Log for a YouTube channel he runs, and he's brought Zoe here to propose (though that runs into some snags).

Soon after the sheriff shows up looking for the killers (another body's been found in the mountains, he says). He also reveals the log they're burning is from a tree once used to hang slaves, and further it's supposedly haunted. He puts the fire out, advises them to bury it in the morning, and leaves.

Next to arrive are a group of podcasters who - due to a computer error - booked the same cabin through a different app. The two groups argue as they try to figure out who's supposed to be there. In the process, they locate the cleaner's phone, which alarms Zoe. Eventually, they all briefly split up and head to different rooms.

We're just shy of the halfway point, and up until now the camera has only moved when moved by a character. The frame has mostly been locked into place, aside from some adjustments (most notably when Alex zoomed out when he first arrived, presumably so he could capture the proposal). There are also some time shifts as the frame wipes to different eras, though we're always shown the same room and hearth. Decades and centuries change, but the camera remains still.

This changes as we're seemingly pulled into the fire and log and shown something dark at its core. Next, the POV moves through the house, floating, until it locates one of the podcasters taking a shower and smashes into his head, gruesomely killing him. Finally, we're shown the killer: it's the burning log, magically flying of its own accord.

From here on out, the movie is shot normally. I was initially a little disappointed by the shift, but it soon became clear the switch to conventional shooting doesn't mean a conventional film, as things get progressively weirder. It takes the characters some time to discover the podcaster's body. First, one of the other podcasters is lured into the fireplace by a tiny, magical man. He's not burned but rather taken to what seems to be another dimension, or perhaps some sort of nexus point. The strange man takes him to a sort of lateral elevator where time shifts, ultimately bringing him to his own home before he was born. He tempts him with a promise to change his fate, only to wind up tricking him into killing his pregnant mother and himself. He fades from existence, and back in the cabin we see a new man in his place.

The replacement doesn't survive long, nor does one of the other podcasters. They all find the body, and the log finds them. The survivors run and hide. They try to call for help and discover the sheriff from earlier wasn't who he claimed to be. They almost make it out of the cabin but are instead captured by Pleatherface and Mother.

Things look grim until the alien shows up. Okay, I should note this isn't entirely out of left field, but the appearance of a UFO and alien who drains the blood and organs from Mother is intended to be a bit surprising. Pleatherface kills the alien, and Zoe kills Pleatherface with a knife that stumbles through time - the same knife a slave used to kill her master in the past, in fact.

The last podcaster flees into the woods (I think she gets away), while Zoe and Alex go for the car. First, they need the keys, which means returning to the house and confronting the log. In addition, Zoe in lured into the fireplace, but she resists the strange man's pressure to interfere in the past long enough for Alex to stab him with a poker. They start driving away and run over the fake sheriff (actually a satanic cultist) when he tries to stop them at the tree.

The next morning they stop at a red light, and Zoe tells Alex she'll marry him. Only the log shows up and is about to kill then when suddenly we seemingly jump realities to find ourselves in a real estate office. The man and woman present seem to be reincarnations (or possibly alternate universe variants) of the slave and slave owner from earlier, and things get... weird.

Eventually we cut back to Zoe and Alex in the car as the log smashes through their window and appears to kill them. The image onscreen reverts back to the original Yule Log as the end credits roll.

So, weird. Obviously. But as strange and surreal as the narrative becomes, the movie manages to present everything in a way giving the whole thing a surprising amount of thematic and tonal clarity. It helps that it leans into the comic absurdity of the whole thing: this is an extremely funny movie. But in addition, there are some heavy themes being explored around America's history of slavery and racism. Similar to Twin Peaks, the silly stuff serves in part to strip away reality and leave us facing manifestations of horror in their archetypal forms. It's all very funny until it's surprisingly serious.

Also like Twin Peaks, there are quite a few ways you can interpret what you just watched. Was the log possessed by the vengeful spirit of the slave executed for killing her master after he sold their son to a cruel owner? Is the tiny man in the fireplace the slave master? Is he the devil? Is he just a tiny guy in the fireplace? It's not really designed to answer these questions but rather turn the audience's confusion into unease. You 're left with a vague sense of what happened, and whatever it was, it's disturbing.

But also funny. And surprisingly satisfying, all things considered. I enjoyed this one a great deal. If you want to nitpick, the scenes prior to the shift to conventional filmmaking do feel a bit bumpy, more like you're seeing a play than a movie where editing and additional takes can clean up errors. But of course they do - that's the price of long takes, even more so when a movie's being shot on a tight schedule. Under the circumstances, the actors and director turned in miraculous work. Hell, it's still really good if you ignore the fact they shot it as fast as they did on a budget too small for studio executives to notice.

This thing would be worth seeing for its novelty alone, just as it would be worth seeing for the quality alone. It's a strange experiment in filmmaking produced in secret for cable television. My only regret is I'm discovering this now instead of in real time two years ago.

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