Director: Sophia Takal
Screenwriters: Sophia Takal and April Wolfe
Lily Donoghue
Country: USA/NZ
Runtime: 92 mins.
Australian release date: 12 December 2019
Previewed at: Universal theatrette, Sydney, on 3 December 2019.
When Blumhouse Productions is mentioned in a film's opening credits, you can usually be assured that you're in for a fresh take on the horror genre. Think of the Jordan Peele movies Get Out and Us, Leigh Whannell's Upgrade or M. Night Shyamalan's Glass. Jason Blum, the force behind Blumhouse, is the Roger Corman of the current decade, so it's a disappointment when a film like Black Christmas fails to live up to expectations. A remake of the 1974 slasher pic of the same name that starred Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea and Margot Kidder, this updated version has been given the #MeToo treatment but it's not enough to save it from ennui.
As venerable, ivy-league Hawthorne College is shutting down for the Christmas holidays, Riley (Imogen Poots) and some of her sorority sisters from Mu Kappa Epsilon are planning to stay on and enjoy the end-of-the-year campus parties. They've put together a routine for the lads in one of the oldest male fraternities, Delta Kappa Omega, that still maintains its old-fashioned attitudes to women, and the girls' act is intended to show them up. A few years earlier, Riley had accused one of the frat boys of date-rape but she wasn't believed and this little song-and-dance number is going to be her revenge. Before the big night, however, Riley becomes suspicious that some of her college friends haven't made it home for the holidays and she learns that a robed and hooded figure is stalking the girls but, once again, the authorities don't believe her. It looks like the sisters are going to have to be "doin' it for themselves."
English actress Imogen Poots, who we last saw in the National Theatre Live production of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, comports herself well here as a young woman who's life has been thrown out of kilter by the double-whammy of her rape and the subsequent lack of justice. She's deflated and lacks trust in men, although her interest has been slowly aroused by Landon (Caleb Eberhardt), who seems like a decent guy. She's supported by a posse of young actresses (Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O'Grady and Madeleine Adams) who all bring purpose to their small roles but this is largely Poots' film. Cary Elwes pops up as a male chauvinist lecturer at the university, who's given the fabulous line, "Not insane, simply men."
One of the best things about Black Christmas is its setting. Filmed in New Zealand in Dunedin with the University of Otago standing in for Hawthorne College, the movie looks great. Directed and written by women, Sophia Takal and April Wolfe, and with its mainly female leading cast, this film is certainly timely but, beyond that, it's a bit of a let-down. There are no real surprises here and the denouement is pretty silly - perfect for teens out on a date but not too many others. Even dyed-in-the-wool fans of the slasher genre won't find much Christmas cheer in this one.