Summary: A group of female students are 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.
This will be a short review.
Pros:
The Characters… sometimes. I think Imogen Poots is mostly good. I’ve seen her in other films, and she has done way better stuff, but I think the broken character she shows at the beginning, she does really well, and it was great watching her gain her strength through the dance number. I think she has a lot of nuance and does it well. She is the best actor in the film. The other three girls are fine. Aleyse Shannon as Kris was up and down, I thought the actress was fine, very expressive eyes, but I liked her more when the stuff hit the fan. Lily Donoghue as Marty, was kind of forgettable. I remember her mostly because of a scene she has later on but she’s not bad. Brittany O’Grady as Jesse first seemed like she might be a mean girl but I kind of liked her energy, but we don’t see a ton of her unfortunately.
The Intent of the Message. I have not seen the original Canadian film nor have I seen the remake of that film, which this is a remake of lol, but I think the message that’s in the movie is important and powerful. It talks about some of the horrible things that happen to women in college, how it can affect them afterwards and how often women are not believed in their claims. All this happens in real life and that’s intense. I liked that the movie decided to include that in their story.
Cons:
Ham Acting. Outside of the main four girls, literally all the other characters… well I guess the men in the movie were terrible. Even Cary Elwes who I like. It was terrible line reading and the bad dialogue and stupid twists didn’t help but wow. The kid that Riley (Poots) meets, Landon, wow, he was pretty terrible. Any time he was on screen, I cringed.
Beats You Over the Head. I am a woman and I understand what the message the movie wanted to portray, and I got it but sheesh! I strongly dislike when movies have a powerful message but take it to the extreme and just beat you over the head. This movie does that. I think it’s cool that they talked about the horrible things that happen to women in college (in the world really), not to mention how it affects people afterwards and that kind of stuff is powerful, but when you take that and then have one of your main characters constantly shouting it and then have the villains be just extremely misogynistic… I just found myself rolling my eyes. I like the overall intent of the message but relax, be more subtle. If people don’t get it, they’re just refusing to get it.
Parts of the Story. So, I get what the movie was trying to do but I think the whole reveal of the bad guys at the end, how they were able to do what they do, the black goo and all that was so dumb. I was kind of enjoying the movie, it’s nothing spectacular and don’t get me wrong, I’m aware that a lot of horror/slasher films have kind of “supernatural” elements, but it felt weird in this one. When it was revealed, I swear my eyeballs popped out of my sockets from me rolling them so hard.
PG-13? Obviously not all horror films have to be PG-13 but a slasher film I feel like should be. There’s a scene where one of the girls find a sorority sister with a piece of glass stuck in her face, but they only show her profile, just enough for you to tell she was killed. Awesome, but it’s a slasher film, they should have gone all out and made it Rated R. I mean, why not? I thought that was weird.
Overall, I think the movie isn’t horrible. It could be overall enjoyable. The main four girls are fine, with Imogen Poots standing out, but she has her moments of being annoying too. Even she can’t always elevate bad writing. The intent of the message was also great, but I think that gets bogged down because the movie is literally hitting you like a pinata with the message. Like calm down. The twist at the end… dumb. I don’t know what the original movie or the 2006 remake was like, but dumb. Also, perhaps this movie might have benefited from being Rated R? I don’t know but if you’re looking for something to watch while cleaning your room or doing laundry, sure, pop this in. It’s fine. It’s not really that good but it’s fine.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.
Have you seen Black Christmas? What are your thoughts on the film? What is your favorite Slasher film? Let me know in the comments below! Be sure to like, comment and follow this blog for more content!
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