He Knows

Director - Steven Morris

Starring - Kayla Kelly (Straight Edge Kegger, The Devil's Left Hand), Zach Meiser (American Horror Story, A Haunting), and Lynn Lowry (Shivers, The Crazies)

Release Date - 2022

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "He knows when you've been good or bad, so be good for your own sake!"

Format - Streaming (Tubi)

Rating (out of 5):

      I hate how slow I am to review movies but with a day job and three kids I rarely find time to work in movies to watch and review like I used to. I can still knock out one movie a day but that doesn't do much to cut down on the stack of movies sitting beside my television and the dozen or so links waiting patiently in my email. Which is why I'm just now getting around to watching and reviewing a Christmas slasher sent to me from before October. At the end of September, I made a post looking for indie horror flicks to watch and review and was slammed with responses. I loved the amount of people that were kind enough to send over their films to review but I was a bit overwhelmed. One of those films was He Knows which was recently added to Tubi to stream for free. I wasn't able to watch it then, but I was able to finally check it out after watching Dave Kerr's Go Away. I want to thank director Steven Morris for letting me know his film was on Tubi to check out. 

      The film follows a mother and her daughter as Christmas approaches. She tells her daughter the story about an evil elf names Sammy that abducts those that are naughty and takes them back to work in his shop. The story she tells her is inspired by an incident during her childhood when her father was murdered, and her half-brother was abducted by a man in an elf mask. Now she is a mother with a daughter of her own when the murders start again. 

      I knew He Knows as a holiday slasher going into it, but I didn't want to wait the rest of the year to watch it during the Christmas season. With that being said, while it does take place during Christmas, it doesn't really feel like a Christmas horror film. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of it but it falls short as a Christmas slasher. The acting in this one is solid but there was plenty of room to grow. We have a supporting role from the legendary Lynn Lowry and a small role from Jessa Flux but the remainder of the cast was fairly new to me. I liked the cast and will look further into their work but there were a few scenes where the acting was inconsistent. It's clear that a good bit of the cast has little to no experience in front of the camera, but their inexperience doesn't make the film horrible. I love watching actors grow from film to film. The story for this one gets a little messy near the end but I enjoyed the ride for the most part. I loved the family dynamic of the protagonist, the drug dealer and his stoner entourage, and the entire set up of the film. However, like I stated earlier, the film did not feel like a Christmas film. My favorite slashers happen to be set around Christmas, so I am always open to any horror film set around this time of year. He Knows just didn't look the part. The story could have been set at any other time during the year or holiday with some clever writing and it would have worked. If you take away the Christmas aspect of the film, you are given a slasher that does work until the the last leg of the film. The slow buildup of the story with the cycle of everyone dying one by one is a lot of fun. The ending is more complicated than it needed to be, but I understand the urge to set your film out from other no budget slashers. Finally, the film has some clever deaths that film the characters. The effects work for the scene with one kill really standing out. I would have liked to see more gore but you can't do what you don't have the budget for. Overall, He Knows is a fun indie slasher that has some room for improvement. While I don't see myself adding this one to my December viewing list, I can see myself revisiting this one from time to time. Fans of slashers and indie horror can appreciate this one. Check it out.