It’s a Wonderful Knife: What’s the Christmas slasher movie about?

Gabriela Silva
Slasher comedy-horror movie killer in It's a Wonderful Knife

There’s nothing like sitting by the fire, a cup of hot cocoa, Christmas music playing, and a mass serial killer on the loose. Writer Michael Kennedy’s It’s a Wonderful Knife is sure to change the way people look at the holiday season with the white snow-stained red.

Instead of hearing “Ho Ho Ho” this holiday season, It’s a Wonderful Knife will be filled with screams of terror. The slasher comedy horror movie sounds familiar. It’s a fun ploy on the 1946 Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Kennedy is known for his unique take on classic storylines. He was behind the murderous take on Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis’s movie Freaky Friday with Freaky. The original movie was inspired by Mary Rodgers’s 1972 novel of the same name.

This time Kennedy gives a bloody twist to the time-travel and Christmas concept from It’s a Wonderful Life. Here’s everything you need to know about the jolly and gory movie.

It’s a Wonderful Knife has a small town facing a serial killer – again

Yellowjackets actor Jane Widdop stars as Winnie, a young woman who once saved her town from a killer, but a wish changes everything and has them on the killer’s path again.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Kennedy explained the movie as “It’s about a young woman named Winnie Carruthers who lives in this town that’s obsessed with Christmas. There’s this tragedy that strikes the town, and she rises to the occasion, but her best friend is killed. We jump forward a year, and she’s wracked with guilt, and she’s unable to move on, and in her spiral, she ends up making this wish that maybe things would be better if she didn’t exist. She wakes up into a nightmare version of this town, and there’s many more people dead, and it’s up to her to solve this mystery before it’s too late.”

It’s a Wonderful Knife focuses on Winnie after she saved her town from a serial killer the year prior. Still dealing with the aftermath, she makes a wish that she was never born. It’s granted but comes with one major issue. She’s transported back in time where she never existed. It also means she never stopped the killer. Winnie now has to do it all over again to ensure the holiday season doesn’t end in pure bloodshed.

Seeing as the movie takes place in a small town, there needs to be a mayor. Justin Long stars in It’s a Wonderful Knife as Henry Waters. The official trailer revealed a mystery as Angel Falls’s white-capped angel killer was the mayor himself.

Kennedy has been a fan of the actor for some time and is currently starring in the remake series Goosebumps. “I was looking for a big Christmas villain. We talked about a lot of references of showman-politicians, and that sort of baby boomer-smarminess, and he was channeling some of that,” explained Kennedy.

Actor and comedian Joel McHale will play Winnie’s father David Carruthers. Scream fans may find one character interesting as Katharine Isabelle plays the role of Gale Prescott. Is it an homage to franchise characters Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox)?

It’s a Wonderful Knife is set to premiere on November 10 and is rated R. For more horror coverage, hit the links below: 

How many Saw movies are there? | LGBTQ+ horrors | How to watch Evil Dead Rise | Terrifier 3 | Insidious: The Red Door | The Boogeyman ending | Tin and Tina explained | The Thing 2 | The Conjuring 4 | Is The Pope’s Exorcist true story? | How to watch M3GAN | Paranormal Activity in order

About The Author

Gabriela is a Senior TV and Movies Writer for Dexerto covering Netflix, Disney+, K-Dramas and everything in between. She has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Fordham, and was previously a TV Writer for Showbiz Cheatsheet and List Witer for Screenrant. You can contact Gabriela at gabriela.silva@dexerto.com