‘It’s a Wonderful Knife’ Gets Blu-Ray Release and BTS Featurette ‘Better Off’
Chloé Harper Gold
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This past December, Shudder released the sapphic Christmas slasher It’s a Wonderful Knife. After attracting thousands of views and a nomination for a GLAAD award, the film has just been released on Blu-Ray. With that comes Better Off, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the film, the movie’s Hallmark-esque aesthetic, and how it became the queer holiday horror you didn’t know you needed.
Better Off was directed by cinematographer Alice Xandra Thirteen. It features interviews with cast members Jane Widdop, Jess McCleod, Katherine Isabelle, and Keane Faye, screenwriter Michael Kennedy, production designer Tiana P. Gordon, director Tyler MacIntyre, and numerous others.
Thirteen has worked in film for over a decade as an executive producer, director, and cinematographer. The majority of their work is in the documentary space, where they archive stories about film.
“I spend a lot of time finding oral histories of old movies and trying to preserve those in a way that we haven’t seen before,” they explain.
A close friend of MacIntyre, Thirteen originally came on as the EPK cinematographer. But when they got to set, they immediately knew that there was something bigger and more special than what they had anticipated. They had initially planned to work for three days. But Thirteen stayed in Vancouver (where the movie was filmed) for a few weeks to make the documentary. They shot it on Super 16mm film.
“Like the old French movies,” they laugh. “1:66:1!”
Going Rogue
To film Better Off in a way that would capture the movie’s spirit, Thirteen operated like a “rogue unit”. They spent their days running around to shoot each interview on the sets that correlated with the interviewee’s character. This required them to use those sets while they were hot (or, still being used in production).
Once a set has fulfilled its purpose, it’s dismantled so that its parts can be reused. Typically, no one is supposed to be on a set while it’s still hot. But Thirteen is a pro—they know how to shoot well and shoot fast. As a result, they managed to avoid the usual black backdrops that we often see in BTS documentaries.
They shot Widdop’s interview in their character’s bedroom, McCleod’s in their character’s turf—a theater—, and Faye’s in a basement set next to a pool table, where their character thrives.
Better Off Queer
In Better Off, Thirteen was particularly interested in exploring how the film presents queer characters and storylines naturally rather than showcasing them. The film isn’t about being queer. There are no maudlin “coming out” scenes, exploitative hate crimes, or stereotypical portrayals of any identity. It’s a Wonderful Knife is first and foremost a horror-comedy. While this shouldn’t be noteworthy, many films, across genres, still fall into these patterns and clichés.
“Yeah, it’s gay. Yeah, it’s queer. And it’s fun! I’m so sick and tired of it needing to be a statement piece. Like, let us have some fun!” Faye says in their interview.
It’s a Wonderful Knife isn’t just queer on-camera—it was behind the scenes as well. Queer actors play queer characters, including leads Widdop and McCleod, and many crew members were openly queer. Most importantly, the culture of the production was consciously inclusive and affirming.
One of the first things that stood out to Thirteen was that the call sheet listed everyone’s pronouns and had an attached one-sheet on the set protocols, which included advice on what to do if someone corrects you on their pronouns (say “thank you”—not “sorry”—and move on). According to Thirteen, everyone in the film recognized the importance of acknowledging and respecting each other’s identities, in large part because the two leads, Widdop and McCleod, are both non-binary, as were numerous people on the crew.
“It’s just insane, the amount of he/they [and] she/they that we have working on the crew,” Widdop says in Better Off. “And also to put our pronouns on the call sheet! Like, big props!”
On-Set Euphoria
The inclusion of pronouns on the call sheet may seem like a small, basic detail, but it speaks volumes about the kind of work environment line producer Amanda Verhagen created, along with MacIntyre and Kennedy. It also had an unexpected personal impact on Thirteen.
“I’ve been non-binary my whole life, but because I have such short [working] relationships with people, I don’t really correct anyone on my pronouns. Or I wasn’t at the time,” they say. “But it was different on Knife; I was getting correctly gendered for my entire day, every day. Usually I would get euphoria from doing a good job, but even on harder days I still went home feeling good. I started realizing, ‘Oh, I do fucking care about my pronouns. This does make a tangible difference in my life.’”
The actors’ performances also reflect the positive on-set environment. According to Thirteen, MacIntyre routinely gives actors a lot of space and freedom to develop their characters. He also has a knack for casting. Better Off highlights the chemistry between Widdop and McCleod and how it led to the romance between their characters being clearly portrayed rather than left as subtext.
“I never saw that growing up. I would have loved to see that as a kid, to see two actors that are non-binary come together and have a romance,” Widdop says in their interview. “And yes, it is a ‘lesbian’ romance, it’s a queer romance. But it’s just so beautiful to be able to be a part of that. I’m truly doing this for my younger self because that’s what I would’ve wanted to see.”
Better Off Together
Working alongside writer Bash Ortega, Thirteen drew inspiration from watching and working with their fellow queer and non-binary filmmakers on the set of It’s a Wonderful Knife. The experience of starting out as strangers and then bonding, creating, and thriving on the set of a horror movie reminded them of what they would read about in old issues of Fangoria—stories about DIY filmmaking, transgressive art, and societal outcasts coming together to create something amazing.
“Bash is a really close friend of mine. They were so instrumental in making Better Off,” Thirteen says. They added that they first met each other at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. “Bash is actually also trans. This is a documentary pieced together in post by two Brooklyn-based trans artists!”
Queer people have always been driving forces in the horror genre. But it hasn’t been until relatively recently that queer characters could be portrayed explicitly, authentically, and neutrally, rather than being demonized, presented as the butt of a joke, or kept entirely subtextual. Better Off underscores both the importance of queer representation in horror and the importance of queer stories that aren’t about being queer.
“Queer people can find themselves in a Hallmark parody slasher nightmare,” Thirteen says. “And the movie can just be a film with queer people in it.”
It’s a Wonderful Knife is now available to own on Blu-Ray.
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