Film Review: Black Christmas

While it might not be a big name for most mainstream moviegoers, Black Christmas is a 1974 slasher film from Bob Clark, which is considered by many to be not just one of the earliest, but among the very best of the genre – a feat he managed to do twice with equally influential works Porky’s and A Christmas Story in their respective genres several years later. The film was loosely remade once already in 2006 from writer/director, Glen Morgan, but we are here to talk about the new remake, which is a Blumhouse release from director, Sophia Takal, who also co-wrote the film with April Wolfe.

Not straying too far from the basic idea of the original, this film follows a group of friends Riley (Imogen Poots), Kris (Aleyse Shannon), Marty (Lily Donoghue), Jesse (Brittany O’Grady), who are students at the prestigious Hawthorne College trying to take it easy during winter break. However, they are shaken by a string of murders of young women on campus, one of which was a close friend. As the killer remains on the loose, the women find themselves not trusting anyone around them, and must eventually fend for themselves as they become targeted.

Just to get this out of the way, I have the trailer linked in this review, as I usually do in my reviews, but I would avoid watching it if you haven’t already, especially if your one of those spoiler sensitive types, because it does give away a lot of information that would be best kept as a surprise for the film.

The new Black Christmas takes the basic setup of the original film, and the filmmakers update it so that the experience of the film not only reflects modern day in its plot, but also its themes. This will prove to be one of the more divisive elements about the film, I would assume. The film is very upfront and very aggressive in approaching the film in a way that leans on the female perspective and the female experience, especially as it relates to young women on college campuses. The film alludes to and openly discusses the ways young women are harassed, not taken seriously, or are perceived to be too outspoken. It touches on a lot of ideas, and it does so loudly and clearly with no sense of subtlety or grace. Some will undoubtedly get turned off by that, but to me subtlety shouldn’t be much of a priority for a genre as blunt and simplistic as the slasher.

And as upfront the film is about its themes, it doesn’t come across cynical. If anything, the film is downright pissed. It’s pissed about rape culture, it’s pissed about guys like Brett Kavanaugh getting into positions of power, it’s pissed about frat boy rapists being talked about in the news like they’re boys who will miss out on big opportunities and not as the criminals they are, it’s pissed about the police not believing victims of assault, it (and I’m guessing by extension – the filmmakers) is pissed off, and who the hell am I to say it shouldn’t be? If anything, this particular genre allows that anger and frustration at societal systems to be dealt with through a violent catharsis, and that is very much the case with this film.

Speaking of violent catharsis, the film has already been dealing with some attention because of its PG-13 rating. While I am a firm believer in the idea that you don’t need an R-rating to be scary, I was still admittedly underwhelmed by the violence in Black Christmas. Thankfully, Takal is a skilled enough filmmaker to create suspenseful sequences, but as soon as the knives start coming out, there is often very little blood, we don’t linger on the deaths all that much, and some of the kills just aren’t as satisfying or as inventive as they could be; even the idea of it being taking place in the holidays doesn’t factor in all that much.

The cast is also very good. Everyone has a believable presence and dynamic, they each have distinct personalities, and given that they’re young college students, it would make sense for them to be as outspoken about the topics that are brought up. Imogen Poots has most of the dramatic heft to pull, so naturally, she stands out. Her character has experienced an assault some time ago, but nothing came of it when she tried to report it. She carries herself like she’s carrying an incredible weight on her shoulders. Her face is somber, eyes dreary, and the panic that arises when those terrible memories come back are startling to watch. You do get invested after a spending so much time with them, so once the bodies start dropping, it is sad to see some characters go.

Black Christmas keeps things fairly simple, and it makes the resulting film a pretty tight and tense exercise. The surprises that show up, assuming you haven’t been spoiled by the trailers, are fun and an interesting way to differentiate this film from the original and the previous remake. Some of the ways the film goes about exploring its ideas makes me think it would be a pretty cool double feature with Ready Or Not from earlier this year. I am not overly familiar with Sophia Takal’s works, but I was deeply impressed with her second feature, Always Shine, from 2016, which I highly recommend. I kinda wished Black Christmas would get as bold as that film did, but it’s still a solid piece of work that is firmly rooted in the horror that women experience in the here and now.