The Killing Tree

The Killing Tree (2022) is a UK movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a serial killer's widow who casts a spell for him to return but the spell goes wrong and he returns as a Christmas tree. As a Christmas tree he also has special powers that allows him to do things beyond his wildest dreams. The serial killing tree sets out for revenge on those who caused him to get caught and executed.

This movie is directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey) and stars Sarah Alexandra Marks (Kill Kane), Marcus Massey (Bunny: The Killer Thing), Judy Tcherniak (Monster Portal) and Kelly Rian Sanson (Curse of Jack Frost).

This movie wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The storyline itself reminded me a little of Shocker. The acting and dialogue is just okay but the horror elements are entertaining. There's a pool scene I really enjoyed and the kills by the tree get better and better as the movie progresses. The CGI didn't bother me at all and reminded me a little of Deep Rising. The final showdown scenes at the end are a lot of fun. I would definitely watch a sequel.

Overall, this is a fun watch for fans of bad horror movies. I would score this a 5.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Attempting to seek revenge on a wrong-doer, a woman casts a spell to resurrect her dead husband but inadvertently casts the wrong version sending his spirit into a Christmas Tree who sets out on a bloody path of bloodshed to strike back at the girl who originally killed him during a Christmas party.

This was a bit better than expected for what it is. The main aspect to be had here is the means through which this brings the titular tree across as a viable villain. Ignoring the ludicrous nature of the idea overall, the setup employed here to showcase that comes off incredibly well with the opening black magic ritual that inadvertently puts his spirit into a Christmas Tree which brings it to life and going out on the rampage. The motivation and reasoning for doing so are based on her relationship with him when he was alive with both being serial killers who went around killing people on the eve of the holiday that included the girls' parents in one of the rampages makes this such a fun and involving backstory to tie everything together and serve as the proper grounding for everything to take place. This then allows the film to indulge in a fine series of cheesy attacks with the tree utilizing its supernatural powers. Shown to have the ability to extend the light cords as tentacles, grow elongated arms to stab or rip victims to pieces, and use ornaments as projectiles, this manages to produce a fine creatively original monster that has a lot to like. Knowing the backstory of its creation makes the scenes of a walking ambulatory Christmas Tree running around wreaking havoc and ripping people to pieces offer a rather fun brand of cheesy action scenes throughout the mansion grounds that become fun for how silly it all is. That this brings up the thrilling finale with the creature rampaging through the house that lets the holiday decorations add a festive atmosphere for the final showdown is all that keeps this one enjoyable. This one does have some big issues present. One of the biggest factors in this one is the rather jarring and scattered tempo here that comes about due to its shorter length trying to rush things that don't need to. The extended setup showing the party at the house and all the various sidestories going on with the friend group is a bit overlong with the repeated nature of several subplots but then rushing through a massacre scene where it rips multiple people apart in a minute-long sequence that should've gone much longer. This leaves the film somewhat odd with how it plays out and sets up the final confrontation coming out of nowhere that has no time to explain what's going on, and when combined with the cheesy effects on display due to the cheesy CGI are the few issues that bring this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

I love bad B-Movie style horror, as long as it is entertaining, and this was! The film is about a women resurrecting her dead husband into killer Christmas tree, so this is exactly as dumb as you expect it to be, and glorious!

People die in all kinds of fun, dumb, and brutal ways. And this being done by the Christmas tree is the selling point of the film. The acting is sadly a bit of a mixed bag, some people really selling it, and others being a bit flat.

But honestly I had so much fun with how gloriously bad this film was, and the film knew it was a dumb concept, but just went with it and had fun with it. So definitely for those who want dumb bad horror.

A distraught woman- pining over the death of her recently executed partner in crime and love- desperately tries to reincarnate him, by undertaking a ritual designed to release his soul from his ashes.

However, things don't go exactly as planned.

As he ends up possessing the Christmas tree.

Which gives him a chance to hunt down and kill the one that got away...as The Killing Tree.

Despite the fact the whole demonic anthropomorphic tree slasher trope has been done before- most notably in the awesome Christmas horror short, Treevenge (but also in Twas The Night Of The Tree Beast)- this was much more entertaining than it should of been.

Especially considering most of the gore and action are facilitated with CGI effects.

Part of it's charm comes from the fact that it doesn't take itself too seriously, though.

Most explicit when the Christmas star is used as a shuriken, with no effort made to hide the string that it's on.

Having been released by the same company that brought us the Krampus series...I went in to this with relatively low expectations.

And it, at least, managed to surpass those.

Though, with that being said...there's not much depth to the story...and the character development is rather poor.

But if you don't go in expecting much from it...it's certainly worth a watch for a few laughs, and bit of mindless entertainment.

Just realize that Treevenge is still the better of the killer Christmas tree horrors (and packs more entertainment in 9 minutes, than this does in 70).

But it is what it is.

3 out of 10.

Listen, you're gonna read the description and groan. You're probably gonna see low "critic" reviews and you're going to write this one off. DO NOT DO THAT. Listen to fans of low budget horror, like myself. This, at the very least, will find itself in your "so bad it's good" column if you let it. The CGI is laughable, and most of the kills are part of that CGI, but that's actually part of the charm here! Watching these cheesy CGI kills made me chuckle, and it's a big part of what kept me entertained until the end.

If you are a fan of movies like Jack Frost, Jack Frost 2, Thankskilling, CarousHELL, and so on, this is right up your alley.