Adult Swim Yule Log

If you celebrate Christmas during the holiday season, there’s a chance that you’ve had a “Yule Log” video running in the background while opening presents. Sometimes a major or paid network will provide one of their own, such as the defunct Hub Network once broadcasting a short “Yule Log” of their own with appearances from then-current animated Hasbro characters. This year, [adult swim] threw their hat into the ring with a 90-minute special simply titled Adult Swim Yule Log. Considering the block’s history of broadcasting subversive content, it’s natural to expect some sort of twist on the holiday tradition. If that’s the case for you, rest assured that your suspicions are correct.

Note: This review contains spoilers for Unedited Footage of a Bear and Too Many Cooks

About a couple minutes in, Adult Swim Yule Log reveals its true nature as a horror film that we later learn is titled The Fireplace. The plot starts out simple: a couple arrive at a cabin in the woods to stay the night, but the sheriff warns them that a serial killer is on the loose. Soon after, another group arrives, having booked the same cabin at the same time through Airbnb, and the night grows increasingly surreal.

This sort of approach to content on [adult swim] is nothing new. For example, the bait-and-switch opening is similar to one used in an Infomercials episode, Unedited Footage of a Bear, which briefly featured the eponymous footage before revealing itself as a surreal satirical commentary on prescription drug addiction. The bulk of The Fireplace, however, takes after director Caspar Kelly’s own Informercials contribution Too Many Cooks, which consists of parodies of numerous TV show openings while a slasher villain goes around killing off the characters.

But where Too Many Cooks had a tight and well-written plotline, The Fireplace doesn’t feel quite as cohesive. The numerous subplots showcase a lot of creativity and originality, with plenty of interesting and unique ideas. By the time they all come together, however, it doesn’t feel too satisfying, partly because certain information goes mostly unexplained and at least one twist near the end has barely any foreshadowing, if at all. There’s also the very end, which attempts to explain multiple subplots all at once, but leads into a conclusion that feels hollow.

Outside of the uneven story, The Fireplace is at least visually interesting, with a lot of clever editing and dynamic camera shots that do their best with the obviously low budget and some dodgy special effects. That said, I found myself wondering how the final product would have turned out if it maintained the same camera shot throughout the entire runtime or at least stayed with the camera’s POV, as the first third of the film would have you believe. Of course, that could have lent it a more generic “found footage” atmosphere and would have made certain subplots more difficult to implement, but that thought still stuck with me afterwards.

The Fireplace may not be the “Yule Log” you’d want running on Christmas morning, but it’s at least one of the more original Christmas-themed horror films out there. If you’re not really a fan of [adult swim]’s more surreal content, however, The Fireplace will do little to change your mind.