Hayley (Rasin Pavlova) is a vlogger who, the year following her mother’s horrific death, buys into an online trend that involves a supposedly cursed calendar purchased from the dark web. Each day, the owner is prompted to follow specific instructions. They range from the mundane, such as walking around a Christmas tree a few times, to staying up for 24 hours. However, the directions get more serious. It’s believed that on the final day, Krampus will appear and make the owner commit suicide. Hayley believes she can burst the myths of the calendar, but her friend and camera operator, Charlie (Cian Lorcan), is more concerned.
Narrated on-screen by the silky-voiced Nicholas Vince (I Am Monsters!), who plays a professor who used to teach Hayley. Vince gives the tale a sense of gravitas as he recites the goings-on before a Yule-friendly roaring fire. We see Hayley’s activities thanks to the continuous live streaming, both by her friend and her self-shot moments (including a cruel moment involving Charlie’s hamster), and the footage gradually gives us a sense of how her mind is deteriorating. We’re left to make up our minds as to whether this was from the calendar or the girl’s personal circumstances. The professor’s monologue grows further into despair as he recounts the story. There’s also a parallel to watching a gruesome horror movie in that she becomes desensitised to the mounting challenges set for her.
Written and directed by Airell Anthony Hayles (They’re Outside), Advent is a low-budget and low-key gem. Getting under the skin of the viewer thanks to Vince’s convincing delivery and the histrionics of the online presentation of the tasks, it’s a seasonal shocker that doesn’t deserve to go under the radar.
ADVENT is released on digital platforms on November 25th.
