Carnage for Christmas

 Lola (Jeremy Moineau), a true crime podcaster, has got a kick-ass origin story for a Nancy Drew-style character: In the town she lived in as a kid, there was an abandoned house in which a toymaker snapped, killed his family, and hid the remains all over the place before hanging himself in the attic. The police never find the body of one of his kids.

 In a lovely animated segment (provided by editor Vera Drew) narrated by Lola on her podcast (the Nancy Crew), the kids in town force her young (pre-transition) self to go in to try and summon the ghost of the Toymaker. The results are unexpectedly chaotic (a local drunk was squatting in the place), but during the chaos Lola notices some loose boards... and ends up finding the bones of the missing victim.

 A call from a listener called 'Spring-heeled Jack' (which the podcasters mistake for a Jack the Killer reference; Tut tut) convinces Lola to go back to her home town to put together an episode about the Toymaker. She's never been back since transitioning to a woman, for reasons that will quickly become clear.

 Very quickly. The town of Purdan is a small Australian (did I mention the film is Australian?) conservative backwater, and most people Lola meets very quickly show some degree of transphobia. There are some bright spots, too - her sister Danielle (Dominique booth) is endlessly supportive, and she's built a network of queer friends based off a local nightclub that immediately welcome Lola as one of their own.
 The bad news is that the night she arrives, someone in a santa suit (and a really creepy mask) kills two women with a hammer and starts leaving Christmas cards for Lola. The police are no help - in fact, they seem to be actively hindering the investigation - so Lola starts digging around with a little help from new friends and old acquaintances.

 It's a well-written film (by director Alice Maio Mackay and Benjamin Pahl Robinson), full of warmth, wit, fun dialog and great characters. Lola herself is resourceful, endlessly empathetic and smart - a great protagonist, beautifully realized by Moineau. The rest of the acting is mostly at the unprofessional but enthusiastic level, and with a few exceptions everyone is pretty likeable. I'm less enamored of the mystery itself, which entails a generic, very poorly drawn conspiracy and developments that come out completely from the blue; The fact it's a bit shit hurts the movie as a whole, since it's central to the film (it's closer to a giallo or a standard detective yarn than a slasher or a horror film).
 There are a few kills, but there's next to no tension to them, especially as the film's aggressively punky, DIY style tends to gets in the way of the action. The editing and overlay of different effects on the first toymaker attack are so over the top that it actually reminded me of Hausu*. I actually found that endearing, but... yeah, mileage will vary aggressively.

 Elsewhere the experimentation is slightly less wild, but there are a ton of garish, bizarre transitions, superpositions, and very artificial lighting schemes. I wouldn't say it's a great-looking film overall, but for its budget level (think regional production)... well, it does look amazing, and consistently maintains a lot of energy. Elbow grease by the barrel.
 It's also gory, but in mostly a pretty silly way that piles on clean, pink butcher's remains. Alice Maio Mackay is only twenty, by the way, and this is her fifth feature film. 

 I liked it, would subscribe to the Nancy Crew podcast, hit like, follow, and all that.

*: An extremely experimental Japanese film which might as well appear in the dictionary next to the words Crazy, Batshit. Highly recommended if you're after that sort of thing.