She’s walking on the street. It’s dark and snowy – she can almost feel the freezing air going through her jacket like a sharp knife. Lindsey (Lucy Currey) looks around and sees a man who appears to follow her. The woman takes out her keys and puts each one between her fingers. Suddenly, the female part of the audience keeps nodding and clapping their hands. The importance of the keys for women is staggering. The small, shiny objects, sometimes dangling on the lanyard, hold the ultimate power for women everywhere. We all have at least one situation in our life where we grabbed the jingling object and made it a weapon, in case this guy is really trying to hurt us.
That’s how Sophia Takal and April Wolfe open up the remake of 1974’s cult slasher film, Black Christmas. Both women updated the main topic of the film and elevated it to the new, modern social issues that people have to deal with. The subjects such as rape, the case of the #MeToo movement, etc. stand at the forefront of the plot. That just makes it even more impressive than your typical horror in this genre. It’s angry, terrifying, empowering even – all that surrounded with the threatening notes of holiday songs playing in the background and a stalker out to get you.
Up in The Frat House…
Hawthorne College is where four female characters attend. Riley (Imogen Poots), Kris (Aleyse Shannon), Marty (Lily Donoghue), and Jesse (Brittany O’Grady) prepare themselves for the most joyful time of the year – holidays. The four of them decide to stay in their cozy dorm manor for that time. When students start leaving for the break, the girls are busy looking for a perfect tree and fixing holiday feasts, etc.
At the same time, Riley struggles with the brutal events from the last year, just as the known fraternity throws a party before they leave. After the girls create (a rightful, may I say) chaos, they find out that they may be in danger. Women from their campus start missing left and right, Riley, in the meantime, keeps receiving dangerous and creepy direct messages from the account of the founder of the school – Calvin Hawthorne. Before they know it, they are faced with death – the masked stalker hunts them down for their lives.
Fighting back is what they are trying to do. That, however, doesn’t seem to be so easy. It all goes way back to Calvin Hawthorne, who was known for his racism, sexism, and misogyny.
Slay, girls, slay!
Takal and Wolfe did a fantastic job with character development, especially the role of Riley. The main character was witty, smart, the type of a young woman that passes you by on her way to the class, and you desperately wish to be her friend. At the beginning – somewhat shy, but the events throughout the Black Christmas plot forced her to face her demons and fight back with whatever she can – keys, sharpened broomstick, etc.
The character who, too, deserves an applause is Kris. Played by Shannon, the girl would be your favorite feminist friend. The heroine fights against the chauvinism of teachers and male students at all costs and doesn’t concede them to destroy her ambitions by low comments. Both Shannon and Poots portray great friends. The picture is a fresh breath of air from the typical back-stabbing, toxic female friendship that we’ve been fed up until recent years (thankfully, nowadays we get to see true face of a bond between women.)
The females mentioned above, as well as Donoghue and O’Grady’s strong characters, create an ensemble that won’t bend to the will of threatened men. The time is up for the male part of students to grow up and hold themselves accountable, according to Riley and her friends. Feminism, #MeToo, and rape cases are the main condiments of Black Christmas. That makes the film by Takal and Wolfe a pop culture discourse that is not only a slasher film – it’s a modern manifesto against toxic masculinity. With the song “Up in The Frat House”, that’s an angry monologue to the fraternity, the creators creatively describe a problem of the rape/assault that’s being treated too light, even at the end of the decade.
After the first reviews of Black Christmas came through, most people were not expected the film to be what they thought it would be; thus, some didn’t find it “scary enough.” But, as mentioned above, Black Christmas is not your typical slasher film. It’s an updated, modernized remake of 1974 production by Bob Clark, that’s perfectly suited to contemporary times. It’s a phenomenal proclamation that is written and directed for women and men according to its topicality.
Interesting references
What makes an unusual turn was the presence of black magic in the film. However, as one dives more deeply into the pop culture from previous years, the last name Hawthorne sounds very familiar. Last year, Ryan Murphy created American Horror Story: Apocalypse, where “Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men” was a significant threat for Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) and her Coven. Similarly to Hawthorne College in Black Christmas, the fraternity is in the fight with female students. The is also a similar fight – between men and women and their rightful place in life. This connection, even if accidental, is a funny fact that makes Black Christmas’ witchcraft plot line even more enjoyable.
The film is an exquisite feast for the mind, it’s not so much for the action or jump scares. Based on the cult slasher, Takal and Wolfe presented the audience the horror that’s almost too real for women. The jump scares and blood spatting weren’t the main focus of the film, toxic masculinity and violence were. Whatever you think about Black Christmas, you cannot deny its importance.
And what did you think about the film? Do you share similar feelings?
Black Christmas premiered on December 13th in US and on December 12th in UK.
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