You’re in Norway now. Nothing bad ever happens.” That’s an American dad reassuring his two kids, not long after they move to the Norwegian countryside to a farm he’s inherited. The plan is to convert the barn out back into a snug Airbnb rental. Trouble is, there’s a foul tempered nisse – or elf – living in the barn (a little fella, the size of a seven-year-old, with a pointy hat and scraggy long beard). So, yes, essentially this is a movie about killer garden gnomes. It’s a silly horror that’s not as good, or as bad, as you’d hoped: neither funny enough nor ever properly scary. That said, there are some cheerfully gory bits and a smattering of decent culture clash gags.
Actually, for the first few minutes I thought it was a kids’ film, which gives you an inkling as to the general approach – right up until a teenager dropped the f-word. It starts out like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, when an American family, Bill (Martin Starr), his wife Carol (Amrita Acharia) and two kids from his first marriage, move to Norway. Moody teenage daughter Nora (Zoe Winther-Hansen) is all sulks and snarls: “This is hell! Frozen over!”
The film turns into Gremlins when Bill’s son Lucas (Townes Bunner) makes friends with the elf in the barn, who is good as gold for as long as the family sticks by the rules: no bright lights; no loud noises. But he goes fully unhinged when they throw a housewarming party for their new Norwegian neighbours. These scenes have some of the film’s best comedy, with a good poke at national stereotypes and prejudices. There’s a funny running joke about no one in Norway carrying a gun. Still, Home Alone did family dysfunction funnier with more cynicism; inexplicably, here it’s more wholesome with a slushy let’s-have-a-hug ending.
• There’s Something in the Barn is released on 1 December in UK cinemas and on digital platforms.
