Advent is a 2024 horror film that blends modern internet culture, folklore, and the creeping dread of the holiday season into a supernatural thriller. Directed and written by Airell Anthony Hayles, the film centers on a cursed advent calendar that transforms Christmas countdowns into a deadly game against a malevolent force, sometimes referred to as Krampus or the Devil himself.
This movie premiered at FrightFest Halloween 2024 and later saw a wider digital release around the 2024 holiday season.
Setup & Premise
Right from the start, the film introduces us to Hayley, a paranormal Youtuber obsessed with urban legends and supernatural curiosities. Trying to escape the mundane and family trauma, she’s always on the lookout for something that will draw views, and this quest leads her to a little known object, a mysterious, sinister Advent calendar.
The calendar isn’t merely decorative. Rumored to hold supernatural forces and obscure challenges in which you basically open yourself to evil, it’s steeped in unsettling folklore. Whether it’s an heirloom, a relic, or a prank, Hayley treats it as content fodder, the perfect live-stream project for her growing YouTube audience, which she mentions is currently at 100 subscribers.
Hayley keeps telling Charlie that she’s not scared, but ends up hesitating a bit with the first task, though she does complete it after giving it a few more seconds of thought. Paranormal things start happening immediately after, like electronics going on and off in her living room downstairs.
Escalation: Countdown to Terror
Once Hayley begins opening doors on the Advent calendar, the horror escalates incrementally. At first, the audience (and her viewers) might wonder if it’s just atmospheric effects or visual trickery. Flickering lights, knocking sounds, and music suddenly playing are all classic signs of spirits, but are also easily faked for views. But as the days and challenges continue, it grows darker, psychologically and supernaturally, it becomes clear that something older, stranger, and far more dangerous is at work.
When Hayley’s dad seemingly disappears into their shed, it’s apparent this isn’t just a fun game, this is a life or death situation.
Up until day 9, the tasks seemed mostly harmless, but when Hayley carves the K into her arm, it felt like a turning point. The following morning, Hayley’s dad doesn’t seem like himself- he’s up early, dressed nicely, sober, and looking for a job, which is very unusual from what we’ve seen up to this point. It’s evident that this is related to Hayley’s wish that she made when she walked around her tree, but sadly these changes will only last for a day.
The film plays like a supernatural version of the Blue Whale Challenge or other viral dare phenomena. Instead of likes and shares, each challenge from the calendar deepens Hayley’s descent. She becomes increasingly isolated, both in her relationships and in her grasp of reality, as the countdown continues.
We get a nod to the Blair Witch Project when Hayley’s dad is found facing the wall in her room right next to the Krampus calendar, though luckily he is just standing up asleep.
This point is another escalation, where Hayley’s body is clearly fighting the demonic, though she doesn’t seem to fully understand that yet. Her mystery illness continues to get worse, with her projectile vomiting while out completing one of the challenges, then one of her teeth falls out. This plus her lack of sleep is weakening her body’s ability to fight off the devil.
Her connection to the calendar becomes increasingly personal and obsessive. This mirrors classic horror arcs where a protagonist’s fixation, often spurred by curiosity or skepticism, becomes their undoing.
When she films herself killing Charlie’s hamster, we recognize that she’s way past the point of return, though she doesn’t yet.
Then Mark contacts her, the person who sold her the Krampus calendar, and shmurders himself on a video call with her after describing how miserable he is.
For some reason she’s undeterred by this, and performs the next task, which is literally inviting Krampus IN. The video flashes for a second to a man who then disappears, but only Charlie saw him. Then she tells Charlie to leave and not come back. She finds the book she left at her mom’s gravesite back in the attic where she initially found it. While she acknowledges that this isn’t her mom doing these things, she strongly feels her mom’s spirit is still out there.
Her appearance and health continue to deteriorate, and she starts pulling out clumps of hair and fainting.
Breaking the Cycle
The face a fear challenge- DAMN! She clearly needed to confront her dad.
When Hayley calls to Charlie because she wants to show him something in her room, I knew it was all down here from there and boy was I right.
In a disturbingly calm moment, she completes the final challenge.
She falls to the floor, exhausted and defeated, and drifts to sleep. A woman appears hours later at her feet and extends a hand to her, apparently leading her to the window she initially knocked on to start the challenge. We never see her face but presume it appeared to look like her mother, though we later see the fury legs and cackle of the devil.
Somehow Hayley survives, and after recovering she spent some time in prison before being moved to a psychiatric hospital.
As with any good folklore movie, we learn that one of the few remaining Krampus calendars ended up in the hands of another young person, who was seen circling his tree, and the legend lives on.
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