Black Christmas

The second remake of Bob Clake’s 1974’s horror classic may take the title to entice horror fans, but its way too busy with its own anti-men message that it forgets what makes a good slasher film work….

There are many good Feminist movies out there that carry the message across and do it in a way that is worthy of its subject. The recent Apple+ acclaimed tale The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston and Reece Witherspoon carried a proper and worthy message in the age of the #MeToo era, while the modern horror classic The Babadook showed a female character in Amelia that was a strong and engaging in which most woman could relate too, despite the ghostly going’s on.

The message in Black Christmas, the second remake of the much loved horror classic that inspired the likes of Halloween is simple. All men are evil! Now that is fine to a degree because as the news tells, there have been many males in high authority who have wrongly abused their power and its right that films use those themes, but the trouble with this new entry is that its overkill.

Not a scene goes by without some character telling us the viewer how bad the male species are and when its repeated over and over, it sort of loses the impact of the message its trying to make.

For a slasher and this is why most horror fans will seek out the film, then sadly it falls miserably flat. The kills are tedious, with most kills off screen and each set-piece fails to either engage or offer any sort of excitement that we so desperately need!

The film really fails to expand on its character Riley (Imogen Potts) who was sexually assaulted and is now struggling to adapt to life. Apart from her close sorority sisters, no one else sadly believed that the incident happened and even now the rapist himself is walking around free and happily with no consequences of his actions,

There is enough meat on the bone there to make a decent plot and Potts to her credit carries the character through each frame, but again its a storyline that doesn’t really get the impact it deserves. With a lame killing right from the off that feels like it came from a 90’s bad Slasher film, the tone of the movie is all over the place, with each passing frame getting more ridiculous as the plot progresses.

A real good riff on the famous “Santa” dance scene in Mean Girls, in which the girls turn on the men with a nice ditty about sexual assault does peak the interest little, but with Cary Elwes walking around with an “I AM EVIL” signposted on his forehead – he hasn’t but I am guessing 99% of you will guess his intent – the film soon falls back into its sluggish approach before and for no apparent reason, offers up black magic into the mix, which bizarrely detracts from the very point its trying to make!

A lack of scares, blood and any tension will have many horror fans twiddling their thumbs and wondering how much longer they have to endure before the final credits roll and debating to reach for the off button,

And as film the film finally reaches its climax and the message of “Girl Power” still ringing in your ears, you can not help but feel that Buffy herself done something similar in an episode way back in the 90’s.

Only that time, Miss Summers offered a more exciting fun adventure carrying the same sort of message, without having to resort to the heavy ham fisted approach!

There is only one great horror film that deserves the title Black Christmas, but even the 2006 first remake seems a work of art compared to this sorry entry….