So a week ago we watched the prequel, The Elf, and were mildly impressed. There were real attempts to be creative, and the doll in a spooky doll movie actually, get this, moved around on camera and stuff. (Take that, nearly every Anabelle knock off). The main weaknesses were the acting and the plot, the latter of which was just awful.
So imagine our utter disappointment when we pulled this up hoping for some improvements and discovered what an absolute waste of time it was. Random nonsense happens to an array of equally dull characters who's actors and actresses can barely muster the effort emote. Audio issue abound as some folks mics can seem to be actively trying to avoid being in the movie by cutting out at a whim or simple being inaudible over the soundtrack.
The cover makes you think that wacky elf doll be back with his homeys to mess some folks up but don't be fooled. Most of the "horror" comes from snapchat filters being applied poorly to some faces along with a random masked killer, some crazy lady, and an ugly burnt doll unrelated to the original. How are they connected? Will the characters of these separate threads collide? Who cares when the threadbare plot can't be arsed to try and make sense. This time people get possessed. Why? No one knows? What is with the naughty list game, we didn't need this to have an elf kill people in the first movie? Your guess is as good as mine.
Nearly the entire runtime of the movie was spent wishing it would end or my power would go out.
