Fantastic Fest Warns 'There’s Something in the Barn!'

Several horror subgenres are at work in “There’s Something in the Barn.”  Dumb Americans in a foreign country getting in over their heads, kids befriending creatures that reveal themselves to be malevolent, Christmas horror, horror comedy fu, home invasion fu…sorry to become Joe Bob there for a second, but it goes to show this film is drenched in the drive-in spirit.  And blood.  A good amount of blood.

The film follows an American family that inherits a Norwegian cabin just in time for Christmas.  Lucas (Townes Bunner), the youngest child, learns from the locals about the legendary barn elves, who hate 3 things: bright lights, loud noises, and any changes you make to their home.  When Lucas encounters an elf in the property’s titular barn, he learns the truth behind those rules, and how deadly the consequences will be for his family, who are about to turn the property into an AirBnB.

Martin Starr wondering how fast he can get the place into escrow.

Despite obviously being based on the Griswolds, the family themselves shows some surprising depth when they’re not acting like cartoons.  Stepmother Carol (Amrita Acharia) tries to be supportive of her hapless hubby Bill (Martin Starr, branching out), while trying to avoid the “Evil Stepmom” caricature that her angsty stepdaughter Nora (Zoe Winther-Hansen) sees her as.  If there’s one thing Carol and Nora have in common, it’s their resentment for being uprooted to a foreign country because Bill’s uncle (who died trying to torch the barn, hint hint) left him a cabin.  Lucas doesn’t seem to mind, as barn elf etiquette is his top priority, at least until the porridge hits the fan.

I said NO KNOTTY PINE!

Directed by Magnus Martens from a script by Aleksander Kirkwood Brown, “There’s Something in the Barn” shoots for a tone best-described as “Amblin on meth.”  The Jerry Goldsmith-esque score swells as we’re treated to family reconciliation moments and mayhem that evokes “Gremlins,” “Krampus,” and the recent “Violent Night” and “Unwelcome.”  It never reaches the levels of those films, but come December, it just might make your Christmas horror lineup.

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