🎶Oh Killing tree, oh Killing treeeeee — How lovely areeee your death scenes?🎶
Wellllll… I watched The Killing Tree (aka Demonic Christmas Tree) and it definitely was a movie. A year after his execution, Christmas Killer Clayton Slayter is resurrected and comes back as a Christmas tree to kill the girl who put him in prison: Faith. I first came to know this movie by seeing someone post about it on a Halloween and Horror Facebook page I follow, and from that moment I knew this was what I was going to watch for my Xmas Special. It’s funny because I immediately knew this would be akin to something like the other holiday B movies I’ve seen, Jack Frost to name one. The Killing Tree did not disappoint in that regard, as it was just as sleazy and nonsensical as what I would have expected it to be. Spoilers ahead!
I will say that the beginning did surprise me quite a bit. I started the movie (found it on Amazon Prime Video, by the way) and my husband asked if it was actually a B movie because the cinematography was rather good. I’m talking lighting and wind effects, Dutch angles, and just really smooth filming. I was quite taken aback actually because I wasn’t prepared to be this invested!
My surprise didn’t last long though, l because when Clayton is resurrected as a Christmas tree, I lost it. Hysterical. Dumbfounded. The whole shebang. Not only was Clayton in full-on Christmas regalia (lights and tinsel), but he was bitch-slapping his widow to death and using his vine arms to toss his victims around like a crazed orca before stabbing them to death. There was not an “omg” left unsaid that night.
Just as the title suggests, The Killing Tree (Clayton) travels back to the home of the last murders he committed to kill the girl that caused his guilty verdict and death sentence. Meanwhile, Faith’s friends, trying to cheer her up, are hosting a Christmas party for her. This, folks, is where the nonsense starts. I could not — for the life of me — understand why Faith and her friends were staying in the house her parents were murdered in on the anniversary of their death. That, plus having a party. Plus, inviting what seemed like people who were not actually close to Faith or liked her at all! I’m not sure if it was the acting or writing, but the party guests seemed like a bunch of strangers, House on Haunted Hill-style.
But that wasn’t the worst part. While there is some killing in the movie, there is about three times as much dead space and filler. There is so much boring talking; characters giving narration about the past felt like it was dragging on forever. I am convinced that taking all of that out would have resulted in a short 25-minute movie, if that. While we were waiting for these so-called kills, we had to sit through the most painful exposition arcs ever.
When the kills finally did come, they were as expected for B movie schlock. CG could have been better, but I’m not mad at it. There were unfortunately a few times where we could see the person operating the tree (head, feet, and hands), but that actually worked in its favor because we got a good laugh out of it.
The ending surprised me the most. When Faith is finally captured and about to die, her dead parents show up as a saintly white Christmas tree and battle it out with Clayton to free their daughter. Yes that’s right, we get a Christmas tree battle. Then it’s revealed that it was all in Faith’s head — Clayton coming back as a tree to kill her, all of the deaths, everything. I can’t say it wasn’t original because for this type of movie, it most certainly was!
So where do I go from here? The Killing Tree is an Xmas movie about a serial killer come back for revenge (as a Christmas tree). If I had to watch this again, I probably would opt for another Christmas horror movie instead. That said, I didn’t mind paying to buy this VOD at all. I had a good time, regardless of how long we had to hear characters talking about nothing for. It could have been better, yes, but I guarantee my husband and I will be referencing this through the new year.
Want more Xmas horror? Check out our other articles here, here, and here. Leave a comment on your favorite Xmas horror below!
