Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Black Christmas (2019)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Length: 1h 32min
Rating: PG-13
Director: Sophia Takal
Writers: Sophia Takal, April
Wolfe, Roy Moore
Actors: Imogen Poots, Aleyse
Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O'Grady, Caleb Eberhardt, Cary Elwes, Simon
Mead, Madeleine Adams, Nathalie Morris, Ben Black, Zoë Robins, Ryan McIntyre,
Mark Neilson, Lucy Currey, Jonny McBride
IMDb Blurb: A group of female
students is stalked by a stranger during their Christmas break. That is until
the young sorority pledges discover that the killer is part of an underground
college conspiracy.
Cat’s Point of View:
What can I say, I can’t resist watching a movie where the plot focuses on
something happy and wholesome, like Christmas, and flips it into something dark
and sinister. I’m always curious as to what lengths the story will go to in
order to pull it off – and whether or not it can claim success at such. When that
concept was coupled with a chance to watch Cary Elwes (Saw, Stranger Things,
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One) and Imogen Poots (Fright
Night, Green Room, Vivarium) in action – both actors I greatly admire – I
was eagerly anticipating my experience viewing Black Christmas.
Of course, I did realize at the outset that this movie was a
remake. Whenever someone tries to revamp a horror movie, the odds tend to be
stacked against the film unless it bringing something to the table that was missing
from the original that made it lacking. Of course, then there’s entirely
rebooting the concept to take it into another direction. That option tends to
be less successful more often, finding backlash from fans of the original in
addition to the usual suspects among critics.
This particular Black Christmas had a lot to answer
for, considering this wasn’t just a remake but the second remake of the
original 1974 movie. From what I’ve gathered while reading up on this 2019 version,
the story was intentionally brought in a different direction than its
predecessors rather than producing a shot-for-shot redo. Aside from the title
and broad plot elements involving dead sorority girls on the cusp of Christmas
break, there aren’t any direct tie-ins with the other Black Christmas
movies.
This updated Black Christmas landed on screens amid
the #MeToo Movement. It attempted to give us a solid feminist story where the
strength of sisterhood was pitted against the patriarchy and long-standing
collegiate gender bias and the struggles of campus rape-culture. These messages
were loud and clear and fairly bashed in the face of the audience. Don’t get me
wrong – especially in the case of the latter topic – subtlety and subtext
wouldn’t have done that particular message justice, but everything else felt a
little heavy-handed. At one point I found myself thinking, yes I get it that
this is a feminist movie but wasn’t this supposed to be a slasher? What
happened to the slashing?
Therein, I believe, was one of the main downfalls of this
iteration of Black Christmas – it was PG-13. Bending this story to meet
the rating requirement just to reach a wider audience pretty much slashed the Achilles
tendon of the whole production. There was no gore, the method whereby the
antagonists attempt to accomplish their goals felt weak and didn’t have enough
to hold it together, and there weren’t enough laughs or even screams to
counterbalance all the heavy-handed politics.
I loved the core connections and sisterhood among the girls
and how they supported each other, for the most part- but that was generally
it. Everything else just felt rushed and I perpetually felt like I missed something
important that happened before the movie even began. While all of the twinkly
lights were pretty, they couldn’t out-shine the fact that there was little of
the promised horror actually in the film.
To be clear, I didn’t hate Black Christmas. I just don’t think it accomplished what it
wanted to, and it wouldn’t be my choice for a re-watch during its titular
season… or really at all.
Rotten Tomatoes Critic
Score – 40%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience
Score – 31%
Metascore – 49%
Metacritic User Score – 1.9/10
IMDB Score – 3.5/10
Trust the Dice: Cat’s
Rating – 2/5
P.S. - There is a brief mid-credits scene.
Movie Trailer:
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