Review: There’s Something in the Barn (2023)

Heading to UK cinemas and digital download from Friday 1st December, is the English-language, Norwegian comedy-horror movie, There’s Something in the Barn. The film – directed by Magnus Martens – stars Martin Starr, Amrita Acharia, Townes Bunner, and Zoe Winther-Hansen, and follows the story of an American family who become plagued by evil elves when they inherit a farm in Norway.

In the movie, Bill and his family become the owners of a remote farm in Norway, after Bill’s uncle passes away. After travelling to the property over the Christmas period, the family take a look around the site, before deciding how best to renovate it.

Bill and his wife, Carol have big plans for the farm, including redeveloping the barn into a hotel; but young son, Lucas is not so sure. He believes something is lurking in the barn, and after a conversation with one of the locals, he is convinced it could be an elf.

After further investigation, Lucas discovers an elf does indeed live in the barn, but if the elf is treated with respect and friendship, he is both helpful and friendly. However, there are three key rules that need to be followed in order to keep him happy, and if these rules are ignored, he becomes far from amiable.

And as it turns out, the elf isn’t alone. Where there is one angry elf, there are plenty more hiding in the shadows, and this soon puts Lucas and Co. in danger.

Taking inspiration from various holiday movies, including Gremlins, Home Alone, and Krampus, There’s Something in the Barn is a fantasy horror-romp which places tongue firmly in cheek and attempts to add a dash of fun during the holiday season. The movie is built around slapstick and silliness, with occasional moments of sentimentality thrown in for good measure, and is loaded with various Christmas iconography and festive tunes.

The film tells the story of a family’s encounter with a collection of crazed elves at Christmas, and as with the aforementioned holiday classics (Gremlins, Home Alone, etc), the end result is a battle for survival. The last 30 minutes of the film essentially become a home invasion movie, with the family doing whatever they can to fight off the elves, and this is when the film is at its best.

Do the family deserve to survive? Well, I should say ‘yes’, because this is a Christmas movie after all, and the elves are clearly murderous creatures.

However, when it comes to the good guys in this film, it’s a little unclear who to pull for. With the exception of young Lucas who does his best to follow the rules, every other member of the family kind of brings on their own downfall, so essentially deserve what they get.

But putting aside who is responsible for angering the elves, one very important question needs to be answered: Is There’s Something in the Barn a good movie? Well, for the most part, yes.

There’s Something in the Barn looks good, it ticks many of the right boxes for a horror film of this nature, and it has the right tone. The film is also quite playful and there are some decent gags throughout.

Essentially, there is quite a lot to enjoy in There’s Something in the Barn, and purely from an aesthetic point of view alone, it should please fans of the Christmas horror subgenre. However, it does have a couple of key issues which stop it from becoming a great movie, and this does reduce the overall impact of the film.

The first issue is that it takes a little too long to get to the mayhem with the elves. The elf onslaught doesn’t happen until almost an hour into the film, and by taking so long to get to the good stuff this does test the patience somewhat.

The build-up is fine, because director Magnus Martens injects plenty of holiday spirit into the movie, but when the biggest selling point of the film is the evil elves, you kind of just want to get down to business. Waiting until quite late into the film to really crank things up, does throw the pace off considerably.

The other issue is that when the chaos does finally happens, it’s not as madcap as hoped. There’s very little killing, blood, or gore in the film, and this is a big shame.

There is something very creepy about the elves in terms of how they look and act, and this is teased throughout the movie, yet when they are able to fully let rip, they don’t feel as if they ever reach their full potential. What the elves bring to the screen is OK, but it’s nothing amazing.

Think back to Gremlins, when the green critters were finally let loose, and it was a completely joyous moment. The same can’t be said for the elves in There’s Something in the Barn, and this means the central antagonists fail to live up to their set up.

When this film needs that little bit more, it struggles. It does well at creating the elves, it just doesn’t push them as far as they should go.

The two missteps in this movie are frustrating, and they do scupper the film, but if you can overlook them, there is still plenty of fun to be had in There’s Something in the Barn. It is clear this movie has been made with all the best intentions and it gets far more right than it gets wrong.

There’s Something in the Barn is not the instant Christmas hit that it could be, and this is a disappointment, but it’s also not bad either. There’s enough going on in the film to please horror fans and this should be fine for those looking to indulge in a bit of creepiness this December.

__

Thank you for taking the time to read this review on It’s A Stampede!. For more reviews, check out the recommended reads below.