The Killing Tree (2022)

Aka Demonic Christmas Tree

Morrigan wants revenge for the execution of her serial killer husband Clayton. So she does a ritual to bring his spirit back from the dead.  But somethings goes wrong and his spirit ends up in a Christmas tree.

Meanwhile Faith is having a Christmas party at the mansion where Clayton murdered her parents. It’s only been a year so how did Clayton get convicted and executed already? And where is this movie supposed to take place?  It can’t be the US because legal proceedings drag on for years, and even once convicted you can spend decades on death row. Also it can’t be the UK - even though everyone has English accents - because they abolished the death penalty years ago.

Faith’s friends aren’t the best. Louisa uses dating apps as a way to earn money from meeting up men, and urges Faith to do it as well. She equates earning money to Faith’s clock ticking, two things which have no connection. She also pours Faith a glass of wine as big as her head and relentlessly pressures her to drink it, stating she must consume it all and going so far as to push the bottom of the glass up while Faith is drinking.

Then there’s Cindy, who makes Louisa look great by comparison.  Is Cindy even her friend? How did she get invited to this party?  She can’t stand Faith. She says Faith’s milking her parents murders for sympathy and she should just get over it.  She also states Faith is mousey and has negative energy, while maintaining the most negative energy of anyone other than the killer.

Meanwhile Clayton the tree is stumbling around the countryside looking for Faith’s house so he can kill her for getting him convicted.  Although he’s after faith, he’s a serial killer so anyone he meets is going to die. Good thing Faith is having a party.

The tree is a practical effect and it’s amusing seeing it shuffle around, or see feet sticking out occasionally. At other times CGI comes into play when the tree has long arms used for catching people or ripping them apart.  There is a fight the end between the evil tree and a good tree which is all CGI.

This movie is listed as a horror comedy, but there are no laughs.  While the idea of mistakenly putting a spirit in a tree is humorous, but there’s no humor in the execution. There are multiple scenes where they could have gone for a laugh, but the tree is ranting and growling without any trace of humor.  I’m guessing some of this was supposed to be funny since one genre is comedy, but the actors either don’t realize it or don’t know how to play it.

Ridiculous dialogue

Well your click is ticking. If you ever want to earn any real money, let me know.

Friends they fade away but love is eternal.

I know people ask you to be kind to people after this stuff happens, but I just can’t.

She just goes on and on and on about it… She’s jut milking it for attention.

The practical tree costume with the CGI arms

I’m still not sure why she dressed as a Christmas Cracker

The tree holding a knife. This could have been
funny if they played it correctly.

It’s like they’re in high school where they pressure her to drink