Adult Swim Yule Log

''Adult Swim Yule Log'' (also titled ''The Fireplace'') is a surreal black comedy horror film that originally aired as a special on Adult Swim on December 11, 2022. It was created, written, and directed by Casper Kelly, and produced by Williams Street. Created in secret by Kelly, the film initially presents itself as a holiday footage video of a fireplace located inside a vacation cabin, before eventually giving way to a surprise meta-horror plot occurring within the cabin, and involving the fireplace itself. Adult Swim's first horror film, it was met with generally favorable reviews.

A sequel '' Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin' Out'' aired on December 6, 2024.

Plot

The film begins as a static shot of a cabin fireplace with burning yule logs, accompanied by holiday music. The cabin has a dark history across the ages, including with its original occupant: an American slave owner named Isaac, who ashamedly admits to his slave, Rosa, that he did not sell Rosa's son William to a kind slave owner as he promised her, but to the cruel and sadistic Mr. Armfield to fetch a better price. Devastated, Rosa screams that William was their son and stabs him repeatedly with a knife. She hides the knife in the fireplace, but is later lynched at a local hanging tree.

In the present, the owner of the cabin arrives to clean it before the weekend renters arrive. A masked killer "Pleatherface" and his mother break in and murder her. Hearing renters Alex and Zoe arrive, they hide inside the cabin. By the fireplace, Alex proposes to Zoe, but they are interrupted by the arrival of the local sheriff and his deputy, who inform them of a killer on the loose. The sheriff recognizes that the log burning in the fireplace was taken from the nearby hanging tree, a taboo. He extinguishes the log, advises them not to light it again, and departs.

Zoe and Alex argue about her apprehensions about marriage and her mental health struggles. They are interrupted by the arrival of four renters—Ben, Beth, Holly, and Henry—who accidentally also booked the cabin and plan to investigate lynchings and alien abductions linked to the cabin for their paranormal podcast. Zoe finds the cabin owner's phone ringing under the couch and, unnerved, she and Alex go pack to leave, while Ben showers, and the others go use the hot tub.

Unnoticed, the fireplace reignites on its own. The cursed burning yule log floats to the bathroom where Ben is showering and bludgeons him to death. Henry sees a small man talking to him from within the fireplace. The "Little Man in the Fire" beckons Henry to crawl into the fireplace and into a strange burning room. He enters the man's magic elevator, which can travel through time and space to any fireplace in existence. He shows Henry the fireplace of his childhood home where his mother is sleeping, pregnant with him. The man tricks Henry into gruesomely killing her, thereby erasing himself from existence.

Back in the cabin, the renters (now with their friend Hunter, instead of Henry) discover Ben's corpse. Beth calls the police and is killed by the sentient log. It cries out in Rosa's voice, as well as other anguished voices of past residents, and kills Hunter. The others hide, but are ambushed by Pleatherface and his mother, who are unaware of the log. Pleatherface ties up and sexually assaults Holly and Zoe. His mother assaults Alex in another room. An alien in a UFO arrives, killing Pleatherface's mother by sucking out her internal organs. It does the same to Alex, leaving him near death, and threatens Zoe before being decapitated by Pleatherface. The hidden knife drops out of the fireplace, and Zoe uses it to free herself and kill Pleatherface.

Before they can flee, Zoe is also entreated by the little man in the fireplace, who offers her the chance to free herself of her anxiety-ridden life by altering history so she would never be born. She resists him, stating that she wants to live, while he admonishes her for living in a privileged era. Alex helps her break free of his influence, while Holly flees into the forest. Alex and Zoe flee in the car. Their escape brings them by the hanging tree, where cultists have gathered. Zoe recognizes the sheriff and deputy among the cultists, and runs them over, driving on until sunrise. When they finally stop, Zoe lovingly accepts Alex's proposal, but they are surprised by the appearance of the log outside their window.

The film freezes, playing on a monitor at an Atlanta advertising agency. Isaac is a graphic designer working on a proposal for the new Armfield Cotton Mill Lofts, and his boss and partner Rosa lovingly suggests they leave work early to take their son William to a baseball game. As they talk, the office begins to burn and they shift into their previous identities. Isaac begs Rosa for forgiveness for what he did to their son. Rosa attacks him. As she does, the log, now ridden by the little man, smashes through Zoe and Alex's car window, seemingly killing both of them.

Cast

* Andrea Laing as Zoe
* Justin Miles as Alex
* Jessica Fontaine as Rosa
* Michael Reagan as Isaac
* Charles Green as the Little Man in the Fire
* Sean Hankinson as Ben
* Hannah Alline as Beth
* Danielia Maximillian-Almeda as Holly
* Skye Passmore as Henry
* Brendan Patrick Connor as Pleatherface/Arvid
* Tordy Clark as Pleatherface's mother

Development and production

Kelly conceived of the idea in 2021 while watching a yule log video and wondering what would occur if someone's legs appeared out of focus walking across the screen accompanied by dialogue in the background, and whether that would generate curiosity in the viewer. According to Kelly, he was able to pitch the initial concept to Adult Swim directly, given their working history together and was familiar with the system to get it greenlit. Adult Swim also had a slush fund, which allowed Adult Swim executives to approve the project without requiring higher corporate approval. The film was Adult Swim's first feature length project (though Williams Street had previously produced two theatrical films: ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters'' and ''Mister America''), and simultaneously, its first horror film. It was also Kelly's first feature-length endeavor. Kelly shot the film in secret over the course of 15 days in order to ensure its delivery by the holiday season. Filming took place in Atlanta and with local Atlanta actors and film crews. Keeping the project budget relatively low also helped the project avoid scrutiny from higher ups, according to Kelly. Following the merger of Warner Bros. Animation and Adult Swim's parent company, Cartoon Network, Kelly had to deal with post-production delays and the involvement of six additional editors, following the departure of executive Walter Newman, who originally greenlit the project. The entire process was compressed, taking 6 months, with each editor being given a month to work on their section.

Initially, the film was to open with two hours of the fireplace yule log sequence, but a higher profile time slot caused Kelly to cut the segment down to just two minutes before the subsequent home invasion and murder sequence. Post-production special effects work on the flying log were done by Brazilian company NoxusFX, which specializes in digital fire effects. Filming the opening sequence, a single, unbroken 20 minute scene, was challenging. Leads Laing and Miles were only aware of the set up for the scene days before filming and rehearsed repeatedly to get it right. The film's short production time also meant that Kelly was unable to experiment with the scene's set up, and would not be able to rely on cuts or close ups later in post-production.

Kelly described the decision to add thematic concepts exploring American chattel slavery as a risk he wanted to take. After uncovering familial history of slave ownership, he felt he had a personal perspective to explore on the issue, including the dilemma of moral relativism. Speaking on his interest in exploring questions in the sub-plot, Kelly noted his family's generational history in the South, stating, " e million-dollar question is always: ''Well, here I am, Mister Progressive Guy in this purple state, but what if I was alive 200 years ago? What would my beliefs be?'' I like to think I would be a good person, but would I be? It's a scary thought. But it's an interesting, important conversation, and I took a real chance."

Release

The film was produced in secret and released with little (and incredibly vague) advertisement on December 11, 2022, following the season six finale of popular Adult Swim show ''Rick and Morty''.

Home media

On November 1, 2024, Dekanalog and Vinegar Syndrome released the film onto Blu-ray with a limited edition lenticular slip-cover.

Reception

''Adult Swim Yule Log'' has an approval rating of 80% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 5 reviews, and an average rating of 6.5/10. On another aggregator, Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on reviews from 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Writing for ''Bloody Disgusting'', Daniel Kurland praised the film, awarding it 4 out of 5 on their review scale, stating, "This stealth feature film functions as a cornucopia of horror genre tropes that plays out like an ultra-stylized Dadaist ''Cabin in the Woods'' filtered through Adult Swim sensibilities." He added, "''The Fireplace'' is a fantastic experimental piece of cinema that, against all odds and better judgment, succeeds as a full-length horror film that's akin to ''Texas Chainsaw Massacre''."

Writing for ''Cinema Blend'', Jason Wiese described the film as "innovative", saying that it could potentially be received as "one of best Christmas horror movies". Eric Kohn of '' IndieWire'' stated that the film took "ambitious swings", praising the slavery sub-plot and gore in particular. Daniel Trainor of '' The Messenger'' included the film in his list of top "Yule Log" videos.

Noel Murray writing for ''The Los Angeles Times'' stated, "Kelly tries a bit too much, favoring shock and absurdity over consistency and coherence. But the attempt alone is exciting; and it offers a refreshing alternative for those who prefer their holiday entertainment to be spooky, not sentimental." Similar moderately positive reviews came from IGN and ''Entertainment Weekly''. Matt Donato of IGN wrote, "Casper Kelly psychotically spoofs the strangest of strange horror titles that turn anything into a murderous entity while unraveling deadly severe social commentaries. It's abstract art, theater camp, found footage foolishness, hunt-and-stalk depravity — Adult Swim Yule Log is a whole lot of things but, even with a full 90 minutes, few angles feel fully fleshed out." ''Entertainment Weeklys Darren Franich gave the film a B+, stating, "In these days of TV uncertainty...there's something oddly comforting about the mindbreaking pranks perpetrated by Adult Swim...''Fireplace'' works just as hard to upend your expectations, even if it doesn't hit Kelly's highest heights."

Sequel

A sequel, '' Adult Swim Yule Log 2: Branchin' Out'' was produced in 2024 and released on December 6, 2024. Andrea Laing returns, starring as Zoe, who survived the attack and must navigate the traumatic horror movie experiences she suffered while trying to move on with her life, and finding herself inadvertently trapped within a traditional Christmas romantic comedy.

The film aired on Adult Swim on December 6, 2024, and was also available for streaming on Max on December 7, 2024. Besides Laing, the film features an all new cast, though several actors from the first film reprise their roles in brief cameos.

References

External links

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{{Adult Swim pilots and specials

2022 black comedy films
2022 horror films
2022 films
2022 television specials
2020s American television specials
2020s Christmas horror films
Adult Swim pilots and specials
American black comedy films
American Christmas horror films
American Christmas television specials
American drama films
American splatter films
English-language black comedy films
English-language horror films