Advent

It’s tough to make it as a filmmaker when you’re starting from the very bottom and you’re not one of those rare natural talents who can amaze everybody the first time out. When he first broke into directing in 2020 with They’re Outside, Airell Anthony Hayles looked like he was just another of those guys who was doing it for love and would flounder around until the money ran out, achieving nothing memorable in the process. He persevered, however, and with each subsequent work he made small improvements, showing both the dedication to keep putting in the work and the humility to learn from his mistakes. Whilst Advent still has its flaws, it’s the first of his works that really pulls its own weight, and anyone who has followed his progress will be delighted to see what he has achieved.

It played, like some of his previous work, at Frightfest, the gateway to the UK’s horror community and a great place for anyone interested in picking up the craft to spend time. So, two years ago, did Patrick Ridrement’s The Advent Calendar, and the two share a similar idea – a sinister advent calendar which leads their heroines into temptation – but they are otherwise very different beasts. This one is presented primarily in the form of found footage, introduced by a cheerfully hammy Nicholas Vince. This clash of styles goes to the core of the film. The central character, Hayley (Rasina Alexander), is a vlogger with a youthful, modern outlook and no real comprehension of the weight of ancient evil that she’s messing with.

That evil comes into her life in the form of the aforementioned advent calendar, which is simply but effectively designed, a black, triangular wooden construction with white numbers. A little research might have come in handy – Vince’s character will later declare ominously that there is no door 25 “because there would be no-one alive to open it,” when in fact there is usually no door 25, as that’s not advent anymore, it’s Christmas Day. That aside, it works well enough, with Hayles working around the potential tedium of presenting 24 separate vignettes by having some of the sets of instructions behind the doors be repeats, and presenting them as intertitles with Hayley’s illustrations. This enables him to maintain a decent pace and keep things interesting.

There are rules, of course. The doors must be opened at midnight, the instructions carried out in full. Hayley, who has lost her mum, lives with her alcoholic dad, has no formal employment and has only one friend, Charlie (Cian Lorcan), doesn’t find this hard to do. The instructions themselves are well worked out: trivial at first, with gradual escalation (the film thus does a good job of alerting young viewers to the dynamics of grooming), but also subtly damaging. The first time Hayley is told to stay awake all night, something she has no experience of, it’s an adventure – but by repeating this, at intervals, the calendar gradually pushes her into a state of fatigue, making her all the more psychologically vulnerable.

In light of this, it might have been interesting if the film made use of a bit more ambiguity. Vince’s segments firmly apply a supernatural interpretation from the outset, which lessens the impact of what is otherwise a strong ending. We are told that people who use the calendar get sicker over time as their souls are drained away. The make-up work supporting this idea is pretty good – subtle enough that it takes time to notice the change. Educated viewers will need to be patient with the grotesquely mangled lore behind the calendar, though there may be an element of humour intended in this. Hayley believes that by following the calendar’s instructions she can earn the opportunity to have a wish come true. Of course, the price of this rises over time, and sunk cost fallacy combines with various threats to keep her from retreating.

It can be difficult to keep viewers rooting for a naïve character, and Alexander does a decent job of this. She’s not perfect, and there’s some ropey acting elsewhere, but overall the film is successful both dramatically and tonally. It ultimately manages to achieve that rare creepiness that marks out the most memorable ghost stories. Keep watching as the credits role to enjoy a last bit of visual trickery which underlines this effect.