It’s a Wonderful Life. Miracle on 34th Street. A Christmas Carol. — All Christmas classics that should be on your radar when December rolls around. But, wait. There is another.
Writer/Director Ken MacLaughlin’s comedy/horror We’re So Dead (2025) is the latest Christmas staple to add to your ongoing list of timeless classic holiday film culture, sure to have a Criterion release by this time next year. Imagine the classic Ryan Reynolds comedy Waiting (2005), but with a lot more murder and Christmas decorations. That’s right — you get the dark comedy of restaurant worker culture only heretofore known to those who work for TGI Fridays or Applebee’s-style restaurants, along with the hilarity of murder scenes of characters you probably didn’t like anyway, topped off with colorful lights, candy canes and elf costumes. In other words… It’s f*****g great.
It’s Christmas Eve. Ashley (Jenna Kanell, our scream queen of Terrifier fame) is working her final shift as a server at O’Kane’s, a family style diner that her mother used to own. They’re training a newbie, closing early to host a Christmas party, and somehow they are running low on food, despite knowing ahead of time that they had a party coming in. There’s a constant flow of comedy throughout, both sarcastic and otherwise — just as you would experience as a server in a real restaurant. Jenna does an excellent job, as do her cohorts Doug the manager (Kevin Saunders) and Gina (Artemis), the server in-training. Some of the characters are so purposefully insufferable that you’ll smile with Christmas glee at seeing them dispatched by our Christmas slasher.
There’s a particularly great one-shot in the opening scene — Jenna Kanell is followed around by a floating camera for several minutes as she masterfully handles almost the entire room of customers by herself. These shots are particularly difficult to pull off, because one thing going wrong means you have to start the entire multi-minute shot over again. Elf hats off to Jenna for this performance. She holds this whole thing together like Santa watching over his elves.
“…Karen becomes so dissatisfied with her service that she takes matters into her own hands… by killing everyone at the restaurant.”
As for complaints, I have but a measly two. First, the old “Karen” meme is used as a major plot point. That wagon passed years ago, and they missed it. I believe the film would’ve been just fine without including this reference. They wouldn’t have even had to change anything other than to simply not stretch the old joke past its expiration date. Even just leaving the character’s name as Karen would’ve been fine. That would’ve made the joke without letting it take over the entire movie and distract from the true comedy of it all.
As for my second whining Karen moment, there’s a difference between movies that are bad by accident and movies that are bad on purpose. This one seems to fall under the latter. Don’t worry, though — When I say “bad”, I mean that in the good way. This still makes it enjoyable, but just not as much as if it was accidentally bad as opposed to purposefully.
Many Christmas horror flicks take themselves very seriously and demand that you do too. Quoth the great Peter Griffin, these movies “insist upon themselves.” But We’re So Dead laughs in the face of those more serious Christmas slashers and doesn’t care if you join them or not.
If you’re into silly Christmas horror movies that are strictly made for fun and laughs, this is for you. Slide up with your egg nog and sugar cookies, and enjoy.
"…Kanell holds this whole thing together like Santa watching over his elves."
