The Big Picture

“It’s a Wonderful Knife” had an impressive opening weekend at the box office, making over $600,000 despite its small budget and limited theater release. The film benefited from being part of the popular horror genre, which has seen numerous successful releases in 2023. “It’s a Wonderful Knife” is a unique blend of modern horror and classic slasher thrills, offering a refreshing and entertaining take on the murder mystery sub-genre with a fun holiday twist.

While it was another disappointing weekend for a major Hollywood blockbuster, the horror genre continued its dominance in 2023 with the holiday slasher It’s a Wonderful Knife. The film directed by Tyler Maclntyre and written by Michael Kennedy (Freaky) was RLJE’s biggest theatrical release in the company’s history, which showed at the box office. On its opening weekend, the little sleigh riding freight made $605,110.

This is extremely impressive given that this was a very small-budgeted horror film and was only shown in 923 theaters in North America. For a better comparison, the weekend’s hottest release, The Marvels, debuted at 4,030 Theaters. That’s over three times the number of theaters Wonderful Knife played in. The film was also helped out a little bit by being in the arguably hottest genre at the moment. 2023 has been filled with a ton of great horror that also happens to be some of the year’s biggest financial success stories — M3GAN, Scream VI, Evil Dead Rise, The Boogeyman, Insidious: The Red Door, and Talk to Me. The list just keeps growing and, even though Wonderful Knife isn’t a big-name slasher, the trailers presented an extremely fun-looking murder mystery take on a holiday classic.

What’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Knife’ About?

The film serves as a clever twist on Frank Capra’s masterpiece It’s a Wonderful Life. Following a young girl named Winnie (Jane Widdop) a year after she stopped a masked killer only known as “The Angel” from terrorizing her town, the town’s folk couldn’t be any less grateful. This causes Winnie to wish to never be born, which transports her to an alternate universe where she gets more than she bargained for. Because she was never born, that means The Angel’s rampage was never stopped, and thus begins another blood-soaked Christmas tale.

While there have been countless holiday horror films that have decked the halls with fear in the last half century, like Black Christmas and Anna and the Apocalypse, Wonderful Knife is such a unique blend of modern horror sensibilities with classic slasher thrills. It’s what you get when Scream and Freaky throw a holiday party for your horror-loving heart. That makes sense given that Kennedy wrote the latter. Just like that modern horror comedy slasher gem, Wonderful Knife’s a refreshing and energetically entertaining take on the murder mystery killer sub-genre with a fun holiday twist. If you’re a fan of Wonderful Life and Horror, this is a mash-up that genre fans never knew they needed. Kennedy’s quickly becoming one of Horror’s most talented writers. Because of that factor alone, despite what Rotten Tomatoes’ 56% Critics Score would tell you, this is a slash-tastic theatrical experience more than worth checking out.

‘It’s a Wonderful Knife’s Now in Theaters
You can get your tickets for It’s a Wonderful Knife on Fandango’s website. The holiday slasher will also make its streaming debut on Shudder sometime in the near future. The trailer can be seen below. You can also read Collider’s own review here.

It’s a Wonderful Knife
Winnie’s life is less than wonderful one year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve. When she wishes she was never born, she finds herself magically transported to a nightmarish parallel universe. With the murderous maniac now back, she must team up with a misfit to identify the culprit and get back to her own reality. Release Date November 10, 2023 Director Tyler MacIntyre Cast Joel McHale, Justin Long, Katharine Isabelle Runtime 90 minutes Main Genre Horror
Get Tickets at Fandango