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At Christmas time, there's something naughty and mischievous about watching a Christmas themed horror/monster movie. As a boy I adored the Gremlins movies. Recently, I quite enjoyed the Adam Scott starring "Krampus" movie and the Norwegian entry "Rare Exports: A Christmas Story". This new entry "There's something in the barn" is as close to Gremlins as you will get for the time being.
The movie centers around the Norwegian myth of Barn elves, little elves that will look after you as long as you;re good to them and follow their rules (yes, there are rules too!) These include no bright lights and no loud music. So, into our story come the Nordheim family. They're American of Norwegian descent, and so, when one of the family dies they are left their house in Gudbrandsdalen. Arriving at Christmastime, it doesn't take long for the loud Americans to fall foul of the rules of the barn elves, which then leads to all out war!
Martin Starr (Roger Harrington in the MCU movies) takes on the role of Bill Nordheim, the dad of the family and enthusiastic for the family's move there. Amrita Acharia (from ITV's Good Karma Hospital) plays the mother, Carol with Zoe Winther-Hansen and Townes Bunner as the kids Nora and Lucas respectively. Lucas finds out about the barn elf quite early on and does his best to abide by the rules, but his family don't believe him at all. Henriette Steenstrup, a Norwegian actress probably best known abroad for the Netflix series Ragnarok, is an absolute scene stealer in her role as the local police officer.
In true Gremlins style, the horror is probably a little too adult for the little ones and there is a good amount of gore in this movie Fortunately, there is also a great amount of comedy, not just from the war against the elves, but from the culture clash of the brash Americans and the reserved Norwegians.
We have been missing this kind of quirky Christmas horror for a while. Setting the movie in Norway is a masterstroke, not least because of the folklore, but because the scenery and the snow covered locations are just wonderful , and it's nice to see a movie set somewhere different. The movie is directed by Magnus Martens, who genre fans may know from Fear the Walking Dead and it's written by Aleksander Kirkwood Brown, who has written previous Norwegian movies about their folklore, so the pedigree for this movie is good!
The cast do their best with the material, but this ain't Shakespeare. We are in it for the Elves and they don't disappoint. So strap yours"elves" in and get ready for a very enjoyable riot!
Year: 2022
Rating 8/10
Availability: from online digital retailers
