Anthony T's #TBT: "Treevenge"

In this edition of Anthony T’s #TBT, it’s the holiday season and I decided to review my 2008 review of holiday short horror film “Treevenge”. The film is directed by Jason Eisner, who directed the 2011 film “Hobo with a Shotgun” based on faux trailer of the same film which I briefly talk about in the introduction of this review. A film that you definitely should seek out. Without further ado, here’s is my review of the holiday horror film “Treevenge”.

Also if you’re interested in checking out this film, you can the film at the director’s official Vimeo page at: http://vimeo.com/5048966 

Repost from 12/16/2008 with minor changes.

If you thought “Splatter Disco” was the only Christmas themed horror film that I could come with this year, I was sadly mistaken. There is another film that has the holiday theme and fits into the Christmas season very well. The film that I’m talking about is Treevenge. This film could also be called “Attack of the Killer Christmas Trees”, as that’s what I thought at the end of this short. The film has won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at this year’s Fantasia Film Festival, New York City Horror Film Fest and Toronto After Dark Film Festival and will be playing at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in January.

“Treevenge” is the latest creation from Jason Eisener, who came out last year around the time that “Grindhouse” came out with the notorious grindhouse faux trailer “Hobo With a Shotgun”. The faux trailer won the SXSW Grindhouse Trailer Cut contest last year, in conjunction with Quentin Taratino and Robert Rodriquez’s “Grindhouse”. The film is about, the experiences and lives of the Christmas trees. After being chopped down to be sold and shipped from their homes, the trees aren’t happy being used for display purposes. This Christmas will be definitely be different, as the trees will fight back and try to end civilization and the Chirstmas holiday as we know it.

‘Treevenge” is a holiday filled gorefest that’s so demented that you’ll be shocked. The direction of this film has the same grindhouse type feel that made “Hobo with a Shotgun"faux trailer very entertaining and earned cult like status on myspace. I liked, the way director Jason Eisener goes for that vibe again with this project. It help makes this film very odd from most films that I usually see, especially when you have trees talking with subtitles. I’m not kidding. The pace of the action was good, as Eisener (who’s also the editor) does a good job editing the action as it doesn’t take away the film’s story and makes the action effective. He also makes the violence very gory, as there were a couple of very graphic images that were gruesome to watch, as he replicates the violence that was seen in his previous project.

Eisener and Rob Cotterill’s screenplay was good and original. The writers did a great job making sure the action was very shocking. They did that, by making the deaths horrifying as it added to the film’s shock level. Their development of the characters was also very solid. Both of them did a good job developing the time between when the trees get cut in the beginning of the film to Christmas day, where this is not a Christmas to remember. They also did a good job getting the tree’s perspective oddly enough. They did that, by making their dialogue subtitled which made them more than just your typical boring B-movie monster. In that same time, the writers did a good job developing the soon to be victims. It helped made me shocked at the violence when the trees attack.

“Treevenge” will definitely make you think twice, before deciding to put up a tree, this Christmas.

Review Rating: Four Stars