Adult Swim Yule Log

Cozy up by this warm, crackling fire... and yule get burned.

Adult Swim Yule Log, AKA "The Fireplace", is a 2022 horror film written and directed by Casper Kelly (Too Many Cooks) and distributed by [adult swim].

At first, appearing to be a traditional Yule log presentation, it eventually reveals itself to be a full-length horror story. In it, a couple and a group of podcasters spend the night in a double-booked cabin, unaware that two killers are already inside and lying in wait. However, they are not the only threat to watch out for as dark forces surround the living room's fireplace and the burning yule log inside...

A sequel, Yule Log 2: Branchin' Out was released in December 2024. It reveals that Zoe managed to survive, but is traumatized and paranoid that the log will hunt her down. She attempts to take a vacation, only to wind up in Mistletoe, a quaint little town right out of (and outright compared to) a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. But the log is still alive and knows where she is...

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The film contains examples of:

• Accidental Murder: Henry unwittingly kills his mother after being tricked by the man in the fireplace,, erasing himself from history.
• Aliens Are Bastards: Upon the aliens killing Mother, one would be forgiven for believing it's a Big Damn Heroes moment. However, the alien then starts attacking Alex despite him being a hostage.
• Antagonist Title: Both titles count. "Adult Swim Yule Log" and "The Fireplace". The former is the main killer and the latter references the cabin's fireplace, which might be inherently evil.
• Ambiguous Situation: Very little is explicitly confirmed as to what the hell is going on - is the cabin, the log or both evil? What relation does the Man In The Fireplace have to the cabin's past? What is the Cult doing? Hints are given, but it's never made clear.
• Ambiguous Syntax: In the sequel, Zoe is given the warning "hate is vanquished when love remains". This doesn't mean the Log is defeated by The Power of Love, but that its harmed by the ashes of dead loved ones - literally, love's remains. Zoe angrily asks why Nana didn't just say that.
• Artifact of Doom: The fireplace itself, as flashbacks would seem to imply, but it's not really clear what's going on with it exactly. At any rate, it seems to have a malevolent quasi-satanic being dwelling within it who also uses other fireplaces as portals. Or is he in the log?
• Badass Santa: Shows up with little explanation in the sequel teaming up with Holly to destroy the Log.
• The Bad Guys Are Cops: A variant. The worst you can say about the real police is that they're kind of incompetent. But the officers on the case aren't actually cops.
• Bad Influencer: Beauregard of the second movie is a wealthy influencer, and also a selfish, arrogant prick who is trying to buy out the local ornament store and tries to betray Zoe to the Log
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The film first presents itself as a Yule log, before turning into a 90-minute surrealist horror film.
  • Alex initially looks like he’s using the camera to film a skeezy sex tape without his girlfriend’s knowledge, but he’s actually recording his marriage proposal.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Mother and Pletherface, the log, the Man In The Fireplace, a murderous cult and space aliens at all attacking the cabin at the same time, in mostly unrelated circumstances.
• Body Horror: In the sequel, Nana is pricked by a splinter from the log. It causes a log to grow inside her, eventually with branches bursting from her skin and a new log pushing her head completely off to take over her body.
• The Cameo: The killer from Too Many Cooks, as played by William Tokarsky, briefly appears in the man in the fireplace's elevator portal.
• Camera Abuse: When the Yule Log awakens, we see its perspective as it ascends the stairs and kills a man in the shower.
• Demonic Possession: Implied. Zoe suspects the Sheriff did something to the Yule Log to turn it into a sentient murderer. He's later revealed to be a member of a cult that worships the tree the log was cut from, so it's possible.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: Most of the threats in the movie, bizarre as they often are, fit together. The sudden attack by brain eating space aliens who die within a few minutes of appearing? Less so.
• Downer Ending: Everyone (aside from Holly) is killed by the Yuletide log. The sequel reveals Zoe survived as well, but is deeply traumatized.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: The Yule Log is always on fire when it's killing people, and even being smothered or shoved in a fridge won't put out its fire. Fire in general works as a sign of its presence, with some scenes even burning away to reveal it.
• Evil Tainted the Place: The cabin has, over the years, been the site of a lynching, a homophobic murder, a suicide, a violent slave revolt and an implied child killing, leading to its current state - the log screams random phrases from these crimes as it attacks. It's implied the original stain was Issac selling his illegitimate child to a monstrous owner, leading to his murder by the mother and possible transformation into the Man In The Fireplace.
• Expy: Pleatherface is a clear reference to Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • Though the man in the fireplace puts up a genial and polite front at first, his malevolence becomes a lot clearer as he manipulates and preys upon his victims' insecurities and, in Zoe's case, suicidal tendencies.
  • Mother acts as if she's helping her shy son find a girlfriend, cheerfully talking with Alex and giving advice even as her son violently rapes and kills women.
• Gainax Ending: We cut out to show the movie as a work of fiction created by a modern day Issac and Rosa, who are happily in love. They go to leave...and the room bursts into flame as they shift back to their original forms, Issac desperately apologising for what he did before shifting into the Man In The Fireplace. Then we cut back to Zoe and Alex having the Log suddenly smash through their window and kill them. The end!
• Gay Best Friend: Jakesy from the sequel. One of the many parodies of Lifetime tropes in the movie.
• Genre Shift: The first film is a comedy horror with some psychological horror and sci-fi elements. The sequel is a spoof of cheesy Lifetime Christmas movies with some horror added.
• Groin Attack: Zoe responds to Arvid's advances by ramming a butcher’s knife into his crotch. Repeatedly.
• Hollywood Intellectual Disability: Jaxon from the sequel appears to have some kind of mental disability, possibly somewhere on the autistic spectrum. He acts much younger than he is and has a loose grasp on reality, believing that the log taking over his grandmother's body and killing people was just his grandmother gaining superpowers and not knowing how to control them. Even by the end, he still thinks the log is his grandmother and is trying to nurse it back to health.
• Hope Spot:
  • When Alex is talking to Mother, it seems like he's convinced her to let them go...before she laughs and asks if he really thinks she's stupid enough to fall for his persuasion.
  • The film appears to end with Zoe and Alex marrying and starting a family. However, flames begin to appear on the screen, revealing they never really escaped the log.
  • In Yule Log 2, Holly and Santa Claus capture the log and grind it up in a mulcher, then bury it under hot asphalt. Unfortunately, a single splinter escapes.
• Ironic Echo: "Would that it were so," said by various incarnations of Isaac and Pleatherface's mom. It was what was said when Issac sent his illegitimate son to a sadistic slaver, beginning the cabin's corruption.
• It Can Think: While the original movie had the log as mindlessly destructive, in the sequel it shows far more intelligence, able to do things like hide as a normal log and understand technology.
• Impersonating an Officer: The sheriff and deputy at the start of the movie are actually cultists, as Zoe discovers when she calls the real police.
• Kill It with Water: A rare triple-subversion. In the finale of the second movie, Zoe tries putting out the various logs transformed by the original, but they soon reignite. She figures that she must need to kill the original, and dousing it in water damages it enough to let them kill it...until it revives anyway, forcing them to find its real weakness to finish it off.
• Lighter and Softer: The sequel. There's far more comedy, although part of that is the result of the film spending as much time spoofing Hallmark films as it does being horror.
• Medium Blending: The sequel has fun with this. Everything involving Zoe and the events of the first film is portrayed in widescreen with darker lighting and ominous music. Everything related to the town of Mistletoe, as befitting a Hallmark film, is shot full screen, is much brighter, and has corny holiday music playing in the background. At one point, Zoe even notices the change, stepping back and forth between the two in confusion.
• Meet Cute: Exaggerated for comedy in the sequel, where Zoe literally can't walk more than a few minutes without crashing into a clumsy hunk. At one point it becomes a plot point as they stop her escaping the town by making her miss the helicopter.
• Mind Screw: The film starts off as a Texas Chainsaw Massacre parody before quickly devolving as the plot deviates into several subplots.
• Ms. Fanservice: Holly, whose most covering outfit is a pair of short shorts and a low-cut top. When she strips down to her thong bikini the camera is always conveniently at about buns-height.
• Nervous Wreck: Zoe has a severe anxiety disorder, to the extent that at one point she attempted suicide. This only becomes worse as the horrifying events of the movie occur. To be fair to her, in this case, most of the things she was paranoid about were completely real.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: The Log is seemingly indestructible, having survived axes, wood-chippers, fires and even bombs. The only way to destroy it is the ashes of the beloved dead, although even that's implied not to fully destroy it.
• No Name Given: While we learn Pleatherface is called Arvid, his mother is never given any name but "Mother".
• The Oner: For the first 37 minutes, the camera is almost completely stationary, albeit with some transitions during flashbacks. After the log claims its first victim, the film goes to more traditional editing.
• Outside-Context Problem: The aliens in the first movie really don't tie into anything else in the story, aside from maybe justifying the presence of the blogging group. And aside from conveniently killing Pleatherface's mother and wounding Alex, don't contribute much either.
• Outside-Genre Foe: The second movie is a fairly stock hallmark romcom about a small business owner struggling with a wealthy competitor that halfway through gets invaded by a murderous Botanical Abomination who starts killing everyone. The cinematography even shifts depending on whether the Log's there.
• Precision F-Strike: in the sequel Jaxon responds to the Log returning to life after being shredded with "are you fucking kidding me. His father is unsure whether to reprimand him or not.
• The Problem with Pen Island: When attacking, the Log seems to be screaming "arson!" over and over, fitting with its fiery nature. It's actually screaming "our son!", which was what Rosa said as she killed Issac over selling their son to a sadistic owner rather than the kindly one he originally promised.
• Property of Love: Deconstructed. The cabin's original owners, Issac and Rosa, are a slaver and a slave respectively who are in a romantic relationship. While it at first seems relatively happy, the power disparity soon comes up when he causally sells their son to a cruel and brutal master, which she can do nothing about. She brutally murders him in revenge, lacking any other option to change it.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Pleatherface is a murderous rapist with the mind of a child.
• Race Fetish: Holly is accused of having a thing for Asian guys, which she denies. When her Asian boyfriend Henry is erased from existence we see that she has another Asian boyfriend in his place.
• Ret-Gone: After going back in time, Henry is tricked by the man in the fireplace into unwittingly killing his mother who is pregnant with him. As a result, he is erased from existence.
• Satanic Archetype: A darkly charming Southern man dwells inside of the eponymous log and offers deals to alter people's past regrets. In truth, doing so erases them from history. It's implied its spite over his inability to change his past.
• Serial Killer: Pleatherface murdered several women as part of his mother's attempt to have him conceive a grandson for herself. This also overlaps with Serial Rapist.
• Sequel Hook: The sequel ends with Jaxon, still believing his grandmother to be alive in the log, nursing a branch from it back to life..
• The Stoner: Deconstructed. Henry is the most obviously stoned of the podcast group, spends all his screentime high on edibles, and also deals. However, he's very insecure and considers himself a failure (especially compared to his siblings, who are doctors). The little man in the fire is able to exploit this to trick Henry into erasing himself from existence.
• Sudden Downer Ending: The sequel ends with Zoe finally having a Big Damn Kiss with Birt, his ornament store saved, and everyone cheering... and then the Man In The Fireplace appears with a small army of cultists and aliens. The film smashes to black as we hear them break through the store's glass door. Also works as a case of The End... Or Is It?.
• Surreal Horror: Things really go off the rails when Henry climbs inside the fireplace and finds a burning tavern inhabited by a demonic Southern man, a reindeer-headed bartender, and an elevator that can travel back and forth through time and give riders a view from anyone's fireplace.
• Survivor's Guilt: The source of Zoe's mental health issues - she had a colleague take some money to the bank, who was then robbed and killed. This becomes much worse in the sequel when her fiance was murdered, leading to her becoming convinced she's cursed to bring death to all around her.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: In the sequel, Zoe starts having trauma-based hallucinations of the Log, making it unclear at several points where she's actually being attacked or simply having a flashback.
• Values Dissonance: In-Universe. The Man In The Fireplace, who was implied to be a slave trader in life, bitterly notes that he was considered a good man in his time, and angrily asks Zoe how she thinks she'll be remembered in the future.
• Villainous Rescue: The aliens save Alex by killing Mother, and Pleatherface saves Zoe by decapitating the alien.
• Would Hurt a Child: In the sequel, we see the titular killer murdering an entire family on a camping trip, including the kids. We also see it later attempt to kill Jaxon.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: One member of the podcast group, the girl named Holly, is last seen running away from the cabin into the woods, fed up with the whole thing. It's possible the log tracked her down too, but if not she may be the sole survivor of the evening.
  • The sequel reveals she did indeed survive, and set out to destroy the Yule Log with the help of Santa Claus.
• When Trees Attack: The eponymous yuletide log was harvested from a cursed tree, and maliciously attacks everyone it can see.

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