So when you hear, “This is a movie about a haunted advent calendar,” well you’d probably think that it’s pretty silly.

But Patrick Ridremont’s Le calendrier is way better than I expected.

Eva (Eugénie Derouand) once danced, but since her wheelchair accident, she’s fallen into a pit of despair. After the gift of a wooden antique calendar, she begins to get a surprise each day that changes her life. Some of them lead to death for those around her, but now that she can walk again, will all of the sacrifices be worth it?

There’s a great atmosphere in this movie, even if it doesn’t know how to end things. It also has a heroine who realizes that to get what she wants, she has to become someone that she is not. There are rules with this advent calendar and most of them can kill you.

It’s a pleasant surprise that this Shudder holiday exclusive is so good. I’m used to modern films not looking like anyone cares about color, lighting and composition. This not only looks great, it plays great and minor issues with the close, it just plain works. The art direction of the advent calendar is quite good as well.

After this, I’ll never have one that looks like that in my home.