During the Christmas holiday, a serial killer is loose
on a college campus and murdering sorority girls. HORROR
|
Black Christmas (2019)Directed by Sophia Takal
Written by Sophia Takal and April Wolfe Starring Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O’Grady, Caleb Eberhardt, Cary Elwes Remake of 1974’s Black Christmas and 2006's Black Christmas |
When Blumhouse first announced they were going to be releasing a Black Christmas remake which they had secretly been filming, I was pretty interested. I’m a big fan of the original and figured they would have that magic spark like they had with the recent Halloween. Especially if you take into account that the original film seems to be more of a cult classic and extremely underrated outside of the horror community. Then, the first trailer dropped. My initial interest started to turn towards apprehension at where exactly they were going with this one. So, I held off until curiosity got the best of me. Plus, I’ve already seen the prior remake, so I figured this couldn’t be much else. Well, I was wrong. At least the first attempt at remaking this actually tried to tell a story over pushing a political agenda.
Just to be upfront, I have zero issues with social commentary in horror films. Especially some of the more recent social issues that seem to be all over the news today. If you want to make a movie with great characters and story first, then your commentary second, have at it. It’s why George A. Romero is so respected in the community. The way this version of Black Christmas goes about it is where I have issues. Instead of a remotely good story or characters, we are given a movie which beats you over the head with its political agenda. Which is, that men, all men, are inherently evil and should not be trusted. There is nothing in this “remake” that remotely echoes the original. Besides two nods to weapons from the original, this is a completely new story with no Billy and no creepy phone calls. This, instead, is a movie which wanted to push its agenda first and slapped on the name of a beloved horror classic to get butts in seats. Of all the train-wreck movies I’ve sat through, this is one of the worst. This is a watered down (rated PG-13), political, pushing agenda, slapped a well-known title on it, atrocity of a film. For those wanting a little dark fun on their Christmas, just stick with the original. Hell, even the early 2000's remake would be fine too. Just stay away from this. Also, Blumhouse, between this and Fantasy Island, enough with the black goo. |