I’ve had a pretty ok run of relatively decent films for the last few days so I wanted to break up the serious tone by revisiting my favorite subgenre of spooky movies, the horror comedy. What better way to do that than by taking a festive, Christmasy trip to Norway with Martin Starr and his family in this instant classic “There’s Something in the Barn”. Ok, I may be overstating this movie’s prowess just a skosh. I will say that I found it to be entertaining, but I think a lot of that comes from the ridiculousness of the overall premise of the film in general. I can also very easily admit that this was a good little break in more dire, serious tones I’ve been living in recently. A Scandinavian getaway certainly sounded quite nice In the opening sequences of the film I was greeted with a winter wonderland, Christmas music and moose! What’s not to love about this movie. I’ll tell you what, nothing. You’ll love everything about this movie.
Ok so the premise is goofy from the get go. The thumbnail on Netflix clearly has some kind of gnome-esque little person peeking out of a barn. What I would like to do immediately is differentiate between bad horror movies that deal with silly things because they’re just bad and nothing will make them better, and ACTUAL horror comedies. Many times when you’ve got a low budget horror movie and you know it’s going to be bad, you lean into the comedy to make up for the fact that your premise and most of the acting is not going to pay off. I would be willing to say that honestly, even if you had a shoestring budget and had to employ friends and cut every corner you could to put your movie together, but you believed in what you had, the story was well written and the people who brought it to life did so with some degree of capability, you can still put forth a good movie. Your effects might be a little cheesy. Your editing might leave something to be desired here and there. But if you actually put real effort and real heart into even the lowest of budgets, you can still churn out a quality film. I believe that. Far too often you just get a low budget horror flick that is slapped together and the dice are rolled that if enough people watch it, you’ll make your money back and then some. Every now and then you strike gold. Blair Witch Project. Paranormal Activity. Saw. These are some of the best films in the halls of horror that were put together with next to no money. They were inexperienced crews and actors and filmmakers. But they had a quality product and they executed well. Now I know those are traditional horror movies and not comedies. That’s where I have to separate the good from the bad. Many times the lower budget movies just lean heavily on the front end into not taking themselves serious because they know they’re going to be bad so they don’t set the bar very high. Gingerdead Man comes to mind. It’s a ridiculous movie featuring the comedically awesome Gary Busey about a killer who ends up frying in the electric chair and his ashes are baked into a gingerbread man (and some voodoo) and brought to life. He continues his killing spree as a cookie man. It has it’s moments so it’s a borderline classic. But the reality is that most of the laughs are cheap knock offs of a Child’s Play kind of film. So a lot of the market for horror comedy is flooded with garbage that nobody took the time to really produce. Velocipastor has sections of the movie that are ON PHYSICAL MEDIA where it tells you something wasn’t rendered. They oversell the crappy production value as a cheap laugh that some people will tune in for in the end. That’s not horror comedy to me. That’s imitation meant to waste your time.
This movie has an actual story to tell and real production quality. It’s not stacked with well known actors. Martin Starr is the only actor in the film with any real notoriety and you’d have to Google his name to even know who I’m talking about. So it’s not start studded at all. Some of the comedy does lie in the very premise of it all. The “thing” in the barn is a barn elf. The family of four who make their way to Norway after Starr’s character inherits a farm from the relative who get set on fire in the opening sequence of the film. They move there in hopes of turning it into an Air BnB hot spot where his wife/stepmom can also run her life coaching profession. Older teenage daughter filled to the brim with angst and attitude is upset she had to leave all her friends. Younger tween brother is fairly wide eyed about the whole affair until he learns about the concept of barn elves at a local museum and stumbles upon the one residing in their barn.
Obviously for the first portion of the movie he’s he’s the only one aware of the barn elf. Even when he talks about it with other folks they indulge his youthfulness to appease him unbelievingly or flat out tell him there’s no such thing. As the audience, we are in on the happenings and are clearly aware of the elf taking residence in the barn. The lad does his best to smooth over the relationship by bringing the barn elf cookies and milk and trying to put their best foot forward. But all of the short, gremlin-like list of ways to keep your barn elf happy seem to be repeatedly and easily violated by the rest of his family and eventually the townspeople. After a raucous party in the barn meant to improve the family’s relationship with the locals, they have sufficiently pissed off their barn elf to the point where he starts retaliating. Eventually he gets so upset he calls in reinforcements and all of a sudden there’s a full on barn elf siege. It’s pretty intense.
What I like about this movie is that it takes itself serious in just the right ways at just the right times and it jokes equally as well. The balance is struck early on and they do well to maintain it throughout the film. It’s necessary to make sure the horror elements are truly harrowing and the comedy comes through in a very dark way. There are several characters in the film that meet considerably grisly demises. The violence is not spared in most cases. Especially once we get to a barn elf free for all, things get hectic and the family has to really band together to try and survive. If the stakes aren’t high then there really is no payoff. So the filmmakers did a great job of isolating the horror parts of the film and attending to them with the proper level of respect that you aren’t simply taken out of the film by the laughs. Because those humor elements are there to compliment the chaos, not remove it. It’s because the whole ordeal is rather ridiculous that the carnage is enhanced. Gun toting elves with angry little looks on their face as they spout some made up language throughout the final act is a stroke of genius. The ineptitude of dad gives him a hill to climb to emerge victorious in the end. The emotional divide between older sister and stepmom makes great opportunity for bridges to be built. The relationship that the son has established with the barn elf gives us a point we can circle back to at a time of importance later in the film. It’s these realistic and relatable set ups pitted against the outrageous nature of fantastic little Norwegian folk launching a full scale ultra violent campaign against the family that make the whole thing work.
Now as much as I did really enjoy this film, it’s not perfect. It falls a decent way from some of the more gold standard titles like Shaun of the Dead and even my recent treasure I discovered in Psycho Goreman. But it’s not far. Not that I need a lot of story on where the elves come from but we just sort of have to trust that it’s Norwegian legend and that’s good enough. Which in some ways it is. But it’s one thing that I could have used a little more stock in the man who ran the museum about the barn elves. I’d have loved to see his character have a little more faith, even if it was untested initially, in the actual existence of barn elves. If this were a Joe Dante flick, he’d be my Murray Futterman. Instead you have the lone believer in the son. Which works still, Many times in the traditional horror films you’ll have one person that has access to the truth and part of the struggle is to get anyone to believe him, ala Andy Barclay in Child’s Play. So it doesn’t make it a huge detractor from the film overall.
Honestly, for what the film is and what it advertises itself to be, this film is a fun little horror movie. There are legit scares. There’s a few times, especially in the beginning where you get a long, glowing-eyed stare from the barn elf that was pretty creepy. It wasn’t sold for laughs and really boosted the nefarious undertones that the elves could take on. Everything really mixes well though. There’s awkward humor. There’s relatable family dynamics. And then there’s bloodthirsty elves firing handguns. I’m not really sure what more you’d actually want in a horror comedy. So I think I could see this one with a B-. I was tempted to go with just a straight B but I think I don’t have a sense of urgency on a desire to own the movie. I could see picking it up. But I’m not looking to put it in my amazon cart immediately. It goes beyond just enjoying it and even looking forward to a rewatch at some point. I think this is one of those horror movies I could really use as a potential bridge for my kids to introduce them into the genre more and more, much like Psycho Goreman. A film like this that makes the scares still real but pads them here and there with some laughs is a great way to ease into the spooky movies. It also provides a nice shallow end for folks who like to get into the spirit of Halloween but don’t have the nerve or the stomach for a lot more of the standard horror fare. Any way you slice it in my book, this flick is a pretty solid win. So give it a look on Netflix this season. The best part is, you could easily check this one out even after Halloween since it’s got a Christmas backdrop anyways. So that will wrap things up here for this installment. Until next time, I’ll catch you on the flip side.
