Black Christmas

This year’s Black Christmas is the second remake of the original film from 1974. Where the 1974 original film used the slasher blueprint effectivly, long before John Carpenter’s Halloween, the 2006 remake was pretty forgettable and generic slasher flick. The 2019 is a different beast, it tries to step away from the generic slasher and bring in a more modern take by dealing with topical themes of sexism, assault and female empowerment. 

I was looking forward to this, but the film is colossally disappointing. Whilst I felt that some aspects of the PTSD from the sexual assault is interesting, but the majority of the films ‘wokeness’ (I hate using the word) feels as though it was written by a right-wing blogger whose aim was to satirise the “snowflake” generation. It painful obnoxiousness takes so much away from what would have been a potentially interesting take on the pressures put on women in a collage environment. I buy the idea that a white, rich young man has the privilege to get away with crimes but the film’s nauseating dialogue and heavy-handed take on the important issues at hand feel cheap and lacking in sincerity. 

For a film about female empowerment, relationships and everyday issues (from the minor to the major) the relationships between the “sisters” are pretty boring. Individually, the performances are fine, but together they have no real chemistry. They don’t feel like a group of real friends, more a collection of actors who haven’t really been given the time to build a rapport together. In the leading role is Imogen Poots who works wonders with the poor script bringing a level empathy to her character and the terrible position she is in.

Even as a horror film Black Christmas is a failure. A PG-13 movie doesn’t automatically mean that the film is a failure because a rating doesn’t stop you building a creepy, foreboding atmosphere. However, despite the winter setting the atmosphere is certainly not chilling. It’s so lacking in the chill factor that the first murder weapon really should have melted. The kills themselves are bloodless and unimaginative as the sorority girls are picked off one by one by a masked and hooded killer. To the film’s credit there was enough material to warrant a remake, I think it would have been refreshing to bring in 21st century topical themes to the slasher genre but not in a way that is reminiscent of right wing blogger trying to take the piss.