THE ADVENT CALENDAR (2021, Belgium) Movie review, plot, trailer

I don’t know if there are still those Advent-Christmas chocolates in which there is a bar of chocolate or praline in a certain box. I remember that something like that was quite popular when I was a kid and that, of course, I never really had the patience to snatch just one chocolate bar on a particular day, scheduled from the beginning of Advent to Christmas. Patience is not a virtue of the main protagonist of this high concept Belgian horror, former dancer Eva (Eugenie Derouand), who was paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident a few years earlier. Of course, it is not easy for her and she hopes that one day she will walk again, although the forecasts are not optimistic, and “Advent Calendar” is one of those films that confirms that sometimes you need to be careful with your wishes.

One day, Eva will be brought to Germany by her friend Sophie (Honorine Magnier), who lives in Germany, with an antique ornamental wooden Advent calendar she found at a flea market there. There is a bar of chocolate in each chamber, but this calendar also contains some special rules. As soon as he opens the first door, Eva will be greeted by the message throw me and I will kill you, and once he starts to open the compartments, he must not stop. As soon as he starts opening the compartments and taming the chocolates, some strange things will really start happening to Eva. Perhaps too suggestively, screenwriter and director Patrick Ridremont immediately shows us that there is some evil force, some evil trait in this antique chocolate calendar, and Eva will start and understand that very soon.

But it was as if she wouldn’t be able to stop believing that if it came to an end, she could start walking again. And when she realizes that there is a connection between various horrific events that involve the deaths of people close to her, she will not stop and she decided to come to the end convinced that everything will pay off. Although the story has some holes, illogicalities and banal solutions, “Advent Calendar” was even a fun and dynamic SF – horror – thriller that has its pluses.

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