He Knows

After a series of strange murders, a woman becomes convinced a folktale from her past involving a murderous elf punishing the naughty has some true and tries to warn her hesitant friends, but when their holiday trip is crashed by the figure she tries to save them before it's too late.

This was a rather fun indie-themed holiday genre effort. One of the better features here is the main setup of the killer who's given quite an effective starting point here involving the legend of the elf. Tying in a legend involving the elf being the conception of the elves at the North Pole as a son for Santa and has turned evil in the interim hunting down naughty children, the connection between the real-life killer in the town and the family relationship at the heart of the film is all good enough for this kind of genre effort. As well, with the later reveals about what's going on between the particular killer and how their personal connection ties together is a decent enough idea as well to make for a generally decent storyline. That also provides a great baseline for the film's best parts here which revolve around the solid and fun indie-style attacks and stalking scenes. These are featured rather well in here with the film using the idea of the killer's antics carrying out while others are completely clueless or unaware of the true nature regarding the sleigh-bell jingling, masked madman's murderous motivations. That lets the massacre at the friends' house who keeps taking out the various arrivals, the attack on her friends, or the big confrontation at the cabin which has some great gore and stalking scenes come about for quite a lot to like here. There are some flaws here that keep this one down. One of the main issues with the film comes from the wildly chaotic and jangled structure that makes for a tough time staying invested in everything. There's very little here connecting how the various groups know each other and it's mostly left for interpretation until later which makes for a tough time at first understanding how the connections fit together regarding who everyone is or how the cult works. This feature comes out of nowhere and seems designed to specifically open up a potential sequel with little build-up or presence until the end, and with some instances where the low-budget origins shine through and end up bringing this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and drug use.

He Knows is a horror film about Sammy the Elf punishing those on his naughty list. Young Christina witnesses her father and brother being murder by Sammy the Elf.

Years later Sammy the Elf returns and he is killing off old friends of hers. The movie itself isn't bad, but it could use a bit of trimming. 100 minutes is a bit long for this sort of thing. 75 - 85 minutes is closer to an ideal run time for a picture like this.

There are some pretty good kills. Character wise, I'm not sure that there too many likeable characters in the film.

The film is shot well, and the special effects are pretty good. I did notice one continuity issue with Jessa Flux's character. Her hair has some pink in it. Then at one point there is no pink. Just a minor issue, but noticeable.

Most of the cast is unfamiliar to me except for Lynn Lowry (Sugar Cookies, Shivers), Jason Crowe (Space Babes from Outer Space, Don't F in the Woods) and Jessa Flux (Murdercise, Debbie Does Demons).

I guess your enjoyment depends on how much you like these type of movies, or if you're a fan of any of the cast.

There is a post credits scene in this.

He Knows (2022) is a holiday horror flick that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a young lady, Christina, who saw her entire family killed by a Christmas elf. Now an adult Christina returns home with her daughter for Christmas only to be plagued by murders all around her that remind her of the tragedy she experienced as a child.

This movie is directed by Steven Morris (Paragenex) in his directorial debut and stars Julie Anne Prescott (The Amityville Harvest), Lynn Lowry (Shivers), Shawn C. Phillips (Dead Ant), Jessa Flux (Debbie Does Demons) and Kayla Kelly (A Christmas Hero).

This is a very uneven movie. The opening narration and animation was pretty solid and the soundtrack was good too. The kills were the most frustrating part, the first couple were okay and the last one was the best of the movie. The killing of the villain was fun. There was a bong kill that cracked me up. The acting was fairly average, not good but not bad. The writing was also uneven with some dialogue feeling more authentic than others. The cinematography could have been better.

Overall, this is a fairly average addition to the horror genre that's worth watching once if you're looking for a holiday horror picture. I would score this a 4.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Set design was so lazy! Just go rent a cabin and call it a day. This has to be one of the laziest set designs i've ever seen in any movie. There was no feeling of rhe Christmas season at all, other than a couple royalty free tracks. To mention there was no score to speak of either. Sometimes it sounds like the audio is coming straight from the camera mic cause it sounds very tiny and hollow and its very distracting.

The characters were also lacking in any redeeming qualities to set them a part. You have the token black guy blah, blah nothing stands out in the acting department.

The mask was pretty cool and the overall look of the film wasn't too bad.

Sadly this one missed the mark, and I'm glad it was free to watch.

The acting is subpar and the bad lighting and cinematographry takes you out of the experience. Wish the lightning was a little more cinematic because with some the lighting it looked a bad YouTube skit

It feels super cheesy so if that's what they were going for they hit the nail on the head.

Audio was really good so that's a plus. If they audio wasn't great I wouldn't of made it all the way through. The music to voice lines could use some better balancing out.

The newer actors could of used some better directing to help them feel comfortable in their role. Some of them seemed like they were just reading line rather than being the character and feeling what the character is feeling.

Hopefully the next film will learn from the cons of this one and succeed on the next.