Richard E Grant narrates Anomaly's Christmas card: a tale of abduction, adornment & escape
Twisted as a festive wreath, Anomaly has ditched the good-feeling Christmas cards for a dark film, 'O'Human Being,' telling the tale of a world where man is victim to a massacre perpetrated by....fir trees.
Each year, on average, the UK is responsible for the cull of up to eight million Christmas trees, which are literally uprooted to stand in our homes for the 12 days of Christmas.
As the film satirically suggests, they are decorated, against their will, with gaudy decorations, that involves ramming a fairy's bottom atop their head. Once their 12-day sentence is up, the trees ultimately end up on the cold street outside, waiting for the removal man to put them out their misery.
Narrated by Richard E. Grant, 'O'Human Being' is a retake on Prince Albert's Christmas tradition.
The animated film, created by Unreasonable Studios, opens with an ominously ambiguous address from a bodiless voice: "Dearest Sarah. If you are reading this, I am dead."
It then goes on to detail the protagonist's sinister abduction by a family of four, who chop his feet off with an axe, before tieing him up and transporting him to their living room.
Although his natural instinct is to make a dash for it, our captive finds he is unable to move, for his feet-less legs have been planted into a pot.
Desperate to return home to his family and his beloved wife, Peter - the human Christmas tree - devises a plan of escape, which the trees repeatedly thwart.
As the days pass, Peter begins to lose hope. His letters home to his wife, Sarah, register his increasingly bewildered mental state: "I'm left only contemplating the blunt absurdity of this life. All is lost, all is fucked."
The alternative Christmas card's chronicle of Peter’s existential journey through his hostage, mutilation and systematic torture, sees him finally escape by 'playing dead' on the side of the street, before being picked up by a waste removal truck, with the other 'stiffs'.
As the credits roll, an eerie version of 'O'Christmas Tree' plays, sung by a ghostly choir of children: "O'Human Being, O'Human Being, how lovely are thy fingers. O'Human Being, O'Human Being, how lovely is thy flesh?"
The agony, hope, despair and acceptance that Peter endures, ultimately delivers a profound Christmas message for children everywhere: "Christmas trees are for life, not just for Christmas."
Oli Beale who was instrumental to the creation of Anomaly's grisly film commented: “Christmas ads are all a bit ‘nice’. So we’ve gone dark this year."
This is the third annual film from Anomaly that follows last years grisly 'Dear Satan,' narrated by Patrick Stewart and '12 days of Christmas - a tale of avian misery' starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
