The Advent Calendar

Directed by Patrick Ridremont, The Advent Calendar follows Eugénie Derouand’s Eva as she receives an antique advent calendar that’s slowly revealed to possess supernatural powers. It’s a seemingly foolproof premise that’s employed to disastrously underwhelming (and uninvolving) effect by Ridremont, as the filmmaker, working from his own screenplay, delivers a sluggish, momentum-free endeavor that pushes its slow-burn aesthetic well past the breaking point – with the ensuing arms-length atmosphere compounded by a narrative that generally takes itself way too seriously (which, in turn, renders its few decent interludes absolutely moot). And although Ridremont admittedly elicits solid work from his talented star, The Advent Calendar contains few elements designed to compensate for a storyline that grows less and less interesting (and more and more hackneyed) as time deliberately passes – with the movie’s investigation-forcused third act faring especially poorly and ensuring that the whole thing fizzles out to a palpable degree. The final result is a fairly interminable effort that might’ve worked as a brisk entry within a horror-movie anthology, as Ridremont is, for the most part, hopelessly unable to justify the picture’s drawn-out (and nigh endless) 104 minute running time.

* out of ****