Black Christmas

If you know someone in your life who you hate then buy them a ticket to see this. Then sit back and laugh like Mr Burns knowing they are watching this awful movie.

We live in an age where even remakes get remakes. That is the case with Black Christmas. I liked the original enough for an aged slasher from the 70s. Even the remake, which I re-watched a few years back was mildly entertaining. So I thought, another update while wildly unnecessary, would still be a good watch. Boy, was I wrong. This film is so boring and all around terrible that is very much so the worst movie I've seen in 2019.

The film is about a group of sorority sisters who want to bond over the holidays and also spend time to uncover the men in a local frat who have committed crimes against them. However, it turns out members of the sorority start getting murdered right after receiving texts from someone impersonating the controversial founder of the college that they attend. This film stars Imogen Poots, Cary Elwes, and a bunch of terrible actors no one cares about.

Not only is this film mind numbingly boring for an hour, its overbearing theme of modern feminist and touching on modern women v men issues completely takes away from anything the film wants to build up. It was so off putting, the dialogue ludicrously bad. I feel like this script was written by a high school student who likes to go to parties, and goes on Twitter to glaze over whatever people are outraged about.The acting is no good, although Poots tried her very best. The scares are so predictable, there's no interest in who the killer is because I was so far removed from interested.

You can make a good film that is strong on feminsm without being so on the nose about it! These characters are all so shallow and blend into one another.Also, the plot gets so horrendously bad as it goes along holy cow. People at the cinema were audibly annoyed with the ridiculous writing. This is certainly the worst film I've seen all year and makes it predecessors look like absolute classics. Do yourself a favor, and don't make the mistake of seeing this crap.

2/10

The biggest offender of the latest incarnation of 'Black Christmas' is its lack of imagination. There's no mystique. There's no mystery. Considering its namesake, it doesn't even seem to attempt to try and retain any of the key components that makes the original film such a classic.

For starters, the film is incredibly flat. The direction and cinematography is dull and uninspired, and the film feels completely lifeless as a result, lacking in any mood and suspense almost entirely, and substituting with way too many cheap jump scares.

The script is just as awkward, with unbelievably cringeworthy dialogue, unlikeable characters, with them making too many questionable decisions, and frankly, it asks a little too much for suspension of disbelief.

As a remake, it misses the mark horrendously. As a horror film, it leaves a lot to be desired. It's both a bad film, and an incredibly boring one.

No one was expecting a remake of Black Christmas, nor was anyone asking for it, so its announcement in June felt sudden. What kind of interest can there be in the cult proto-slasher of 1974? Especially after the notorious 2006 remake, which many still either recall as a nightmare or consider it an unintentional comedy because of its torture porn elements, plot holes, and ridiculous killers. However...

The rights to the concept were bought by Blumhouse with director Sophia Takal and screenwriter April Wolfe to helm the newest incarnation. Takal had previously shot some lazy indie thriller about mean-spirited female friendship and a full-length episode of the anthology series Into the Dark... also about mean-spirited female friendship. And with New Year's entourage. Perhaps, everything starts there. The two saw the opportunity to depict all of their modern ideas, only with some snow and toothless screamers.

Don't try to find any tributes to the original besides a gender-swapped sorority house cat (in 1974, we had Claude, now we have Claudette) and an attempt to strangle one of the villains with polyethylene. Instead, there's a group of stereotypical modern college girls, one of whom, Riley (Imogen Poots), suffers from emotional trauma after being raped by one of the frat bros (Ryan McIntire), who escaped the punishment and even dared to return to the college grounds. But the girls have worse problems: the most obnoxious student, Chris (Aleyse Shannon), demands the dismissal of one of the old-school professors for his boomer-ish way of teaching. While Professor Gelson (Cary Elwes) is trolling the Twitter suffragists by quoting Camille Paglia, female students begin to disappear. At first, nobody cares about the off-key acting blonde girl from literally every trailer and promo (Lucy Curry), but the further disappearances begin to slowly alarm. The campus police shrugs and isn't eager to do anything (another clumsy curtsy to the original), so Riley begins her own investigation.

With the subtlety of a jackhammer, Takal and Wolfe eagerly expose the cult of toxic masculinity, and every man is either evil or stupid. Armored with the tenets of Judith Butler, Gloria Steinem and many other founding mothers of women's studies, the duo weaponizes their liberal arts degrees but quickly finds itself cornered by their own ambition, unable to materialize timely messages, so they resort to supernatural gimmicks, where "toxicity" becomes literal. No Billy, no Agnes, no real freedom from male opinion. Somewhere in 1974, Jess Bradford sighs heavily while firmly announcing to her boyfriend the decision to have an abortion. Turns out that women's rights aren't about freedom of choice, but about driving away the "white men science" from universities.

Black Christmas doesn't want to be a horror movie. In fact, it doesn't want to be a film. But it wants to be an essay, wrapped in Christmas lights in a hypocritical attempt to capitalize on a familiar title. An essay, albeit with a budget of $5KK, is not capable of being exciting and thrilling. Even in others negative reviews, only Imogen Poots is rightfully praised, but she is underutilized by the writers, who didn't care to give her character a decent development. Cary Elves wasn't told this isn't another Saw movie, and something like "game over" is always about to burst from his perpetually menacing grin.

The film is mostly praised for showing certain socially disturbing topics familiar to many upper-middle class millenials. Campus abuse and rape culture were highlighted in The Hunting Ground, and the pointless gory gender violence was shown in epic Assassination Nation. What do we get in Black Christmas? The fear of walking down the street alone at night, the keys clutched in a shaking fist, and the annoyance with "not all men".

Black Christmas is a boring, bloodless, cheap-looking thriller that dramatically lacks appreciation for the genre, opting instead to radicalize the audience without a single care for the horror fans. Unlike the first two films, this one won't be fondly remembered in decades to come. A famous Russian actress Faina Ranevskaya is quoted as saying, "Making a bad movie is like spitting in the eternity." That's exactly what Takal and Wolfe did.

And I thought the 2006 remake was bad? HA. This one makes it look like a great movie! Seriously guys, this movie had no quality plot, writing, thought, or direction. The characters were exceptionally bad and unlikable and had no depth. The scares were cliché and very unoriginal. It's a total introvert to the 1974 cult classic. The original actually had suspense, a creepy atmosphere, scary scenes, and an effective direction. This one had none of those things... I'm very surprised because Blumhouse usually makes quality films, from my experience. Very disappointed.

DO NOT ruin your holidays and see Black Christmas! The original is great, but not this one!