Endlessly interesting in the way that only allegorical tales can be, Ridremond and Derouand give us a holiday fright flirting with madness and sacrifice, alluringly asking us the lengths to which we might go to to find happiness.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 15, 2023

Holiday horror isn't easy to come by, and The Advent Calendar may feel slow in places but will never leave you feeling bored.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2023

French filmmakers have been putting out some truly spectacular films in recent years that deserve a wider audience and The Advent Calendar is no exception.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 24, 2022

The ending may frustrate anyone who demands their presents come wrapped in a tidy bow—but it feels fiendishly true to a movie that’s ultimately about trying to negotiate what you want with what you can live with.

| Sep 14, 2022

The perfect Christmas chiller that forgoes the festivities in favour of frights. Some genuinely inventive deaths give The Advent Calendar the potential to be a future classic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 17, 2022

...a seemingly foolproof premise that's employed to disastrously underwhelming (and uninvolving) effect...

| Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 26, 2021

There are decent chills of a seasonal sort in this unpredictable new French-Belgian horror movie.

| Dec 20, 2021

There is nothing Eva does that we wouldn't do ourselves, which allows us to make casual excuses for her actions. It doesn't have to be the right thing, only the thing to do right now.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 17, 2021

The film maintains a hypnotic mood that builds to an effective moral quandary.

| Original Score: B | Dec 13, 2021

The story is too familiar to be truly shocking, but there are plenty of surprises in store, even as the inexpensive, mildly same-y taste of advent calendar chocolate (you know the type) begins to lose its novelty.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 13, 2021

This is middling festive horror fare, neither too naughty to truly shock nor too nice to fully win us over.

| Dec 9, 2021

It won't be a holiday classic, but it is a welcome addition to the holiday horror canon.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 9, 2021

It's entertaining and stylish enough to ignore the mounting inconsistencies.

| Original Score: B | Dec 8, 2021

The Advent Calendar is a sneaky and suspenseful thriller that bobs and weaves through moments of spookiness, gore, and contemplation. What - or whom - would you sacrifice to have your wildest dreams come true, the film asks.

| Dec 4, 2021

The Advent Calendar is a barely average film with some solid scenes and a thought-provoking concept, but there's just not enough thrills or originality to keep this holiday thriller above water.

| Dec 4, 2021

The Advent Calendar's cool mythology and poignant characterization compromise for some of its more familiar The Monkey's Paw beats.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 4, 2021

It's an involving tale worth a look for adventurous genre fans.

| Dec 4, 2021

There's a sense of dread here rarely found in modern horror.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 3, 2021

The film maintains a hypnotic mood that builds to an effective moral quandary.

| Original Score: B | Dec 3, 2021

Derouand is very good, delivering a playfully multifaceted performance I was instantly drawn to.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 3, 2021