David Farnor | On 05, Dec 2021

Director: Patrick Ridremont
Cast: Eugénie Derouand, Honorine Magnier, Clément Olivieri
Certificate: TBC

Revenge is a dish best served cold – or, in the case of The Advent Calendar, in an intricate wooden box with clockwork doors. That’s the dark heart of this enjoyably efficient festive chiller, which sees a young woman counting down the days to Christmas with more than a bleak midwinter on her mind.

Eva (Eugénie Derouand) is a dancer who has been paraplegic ever since a car crash a few years ago. Her friend, Sophie (Honorine Magnier), who was also in that car incident, gives her an advent calendar as a gift, but it soon becomes clear that it isn’t a normal calendar – there are treats inside, but they have unusual effects and lead to unintended consequences. And the rules say that if she eats one sweet, she has to eat them all – or she dies. And if she throws away the calendar before reaching the last day? You guessed it.

The result sits somewhere between Faust and The Ring, and Eugénie Derouand is captivatingly horrified as she finds herself torn between leaning into the advent calendar’s benefits and recoiling from its unpleasant, graphic outcomes. But it’s the chillingly simple structure of Patrick Ridremont’s script that’s the key here, as the tension ratchets up one number at a time. The result is a distinctive seasonal nightmare that keeps you watching to see what each door will bring.

 

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