After starting out like any other Yule Log video with cheery music playing over a warmly lit fireplace for the first couple of minutes, the Adult Swim Yule Log special slowly devolves into the story of a young couple that fall prey to a series of disturbing and increasingly strange circumstances while spending the holidays in a remote cabin.

The special actually marks the feature-length debut of Casper Kelly, who has shown his mastery of subversively creepy comedy with the likes of a Blair Witch Project parody starring Mystery Inc., called The Scooby-Doo Project and, most famously, the hilarious and horrifying 2014 short film, Too Many Cooks.

The filmmaker has also written for cartoons like CatDog, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies, as well as co-created the live-action Adult Swim series Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell. One of his first contributions to more earnest horror was in the 2018 movie Mandy where he crafted the bizarre in-universe commercial for a branch of mac-and-cheese called “Cheddar Goblin.”

You can watch the Adult Swim Yule Log (aka The Fireplace) on HBO Max or here:

https://www.adultswim.com/videos/specials/adult-swim-yule-log

Links:

• https://www.polygon.com/23501856/adult-swim-yule-log-casper-kelly-watch-the-fireplace