A different way of telling a story

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

A bunch of terrified and infuriated sentient pine trees decide to strike back against the cruel and evil humans who have chopped them down to use as Christmas trees for the yuletide season. Director Jason Eisener, who also co-wrote the clever script with Rob Cotterill, maintains a zippy pace throughout, milks loads of sidesplitting sick laughs from the uproariously twisted sense of inspired black humor, and delivers plenty of hysterically excessive over-the-top graphic gore (among the grisly highlights are eyes getting gouged out, a man having one of his legs cut off, and a Christmas star being tossed into a guy's throat). Moreover, this honey warrants extra praise not only for its no-holds-barred attitude towards the loopy subject matter (a cute little cat, several kids, and even a crying baby all get gruesomely killed!), but also for the brilliantly subversive way in which people are made to seem like despicable monsters -- the chortling lumberjacks in particular are shown as total psychos wielding axes and chainsaws -- while the trees come across as pitiable and confused frightened victims (they actually speak in subtitles, too!). Great homages to the Lucio Fulci Italian splatter classics "Zombi 2" and "The Gates of Hell," too. An absolute riot!

Great from the opening shots to the last. A very inventive, well executed Christmas tale that turns into a complete gorefest (Christmas trees take bloody revenge). Within 16 minutes, writer/director Jason Eisener, goes from the process of getting Christmas Trees from the field to the seller to the buyer to the 'Treevenge', establishing some key characters along the way, which makes the revenge that much sweeter. Eisener sets the tone right off the bat: from the peacefulness of the snowy-topped forest to the axe that wields into frame shortly thereafter... quite humorous throughout, and the liveliness of the trees - dialogue, movements,panic, etc... is a lot of fun. Some great shots and lines, with tones of Sam Raimi and Italian Horror spurting out here, there, and everywhere. One of the best short films I've seen in a while, can't wait to see what Eisener does next.

Treevenge is set during the restive season of Christmas as gangs of men armed with axes & chainsaws chop down innocent trees to satisfy the public demand for floral festive decorations. However this year the trees are fighting back, they don't want to be chopped down, taken from their home, covered in tinsel & stared at. This year they want some revenge...This Canadian production was co-written & directed by Jason Eisener & is a 16 ish minute short horror comedy spoof with an amusing plot that just about works. Treevenge is an absurd film played for laughs with an amusing plot that sets the story up by showing the suffering the common tree goes through at Christmas as it is chopped down, stuck the back of a van, sold & finally decorated. The trees here are alive & speak to each other (visualised on screen with subtitles) & while I found it impossible to sympathise with a tree the makers do their best to paint the trees as scared victims, cut down, kidnapped & abused! Then of course the much used narrative where someone has the tables turned on them in a gruesome way is used here as the trees take their revenge against humanity. Treevenge is obviously not a film to be taken seriously, it's short but is memorable & has a decent story that is fairly amusing in itself. Treevenge isn't brilliant, it's not deep or meaningful & there's not much to it but for what it is it's a neat little film. Certainly worth watching if your in the mood for something a little silly but also gory & short.The makers are obviously horror fans themselves as there are numerous homages & references to the genre including a Cannibal Holocaust (1980) style opening, some City of the Living Dead (1980) bleeding eyes & even a Zombi 2 (1979) style eye piercing. The production values are quite high & it looks decent enough, the special make-up & gore effects are good with chopped off legs, poked out eyes, a babies head is crushed (an unnecessary scene not in keeping with the comical tone of the rest of the film), impaled necks, dead cats & lots of blood splatter.I believe that Treevenge is available online at various sites for free, well at least that's how I saw it anyway so if you are on your lunch-break with twenty minutes to spare then check this out. Although make sure the volume on your computer is turned down as there's a fair bit of profanity in it. A fun short worth a quarter of an hour of anyones time, worth watching.

If you haven't seen this short, do yourself a favor and go watch it online. I just went on Joblo.com and I noticed they had posted this short and being that it's from the people that brought us Hobo with a Shotgun, I had to check it out. It's about 16 minutes long and it works in two ways being a parody of slasher movies from the 70s and 80s and actually being a gory comedy/horror film, it totally accomplishes both. I really don't want to give away too much because there are a few moments that will shock the hell out of you and make you laugh at the same time. Basically it's about Christmas trees that take their revenge on humans on Christmas day. The set up works extremely well for the gory payoff in the third act. Being a fan of The Canadian show Trailer Park Boys I was extremely happy to see Sarah Dunsworth and Johnathan Torrens(aka J-roc) in this. This is a really entertaining short, it's very funny and I loved the Fulci-esquire gore. My favorite line "It's Christmas and I wanna f*ck!". I really hope to see more from these filmmakers, excellent work.