THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Hollywood went through it in the 2000s when remaking the Canadian classic, Black Christmas, when seeing it fail to meet expectations. In 2019, they tried again and failed worse.
PLOT
This adaptation takes place in Hawthorne College and follows Riley Stone of the Mu Kappa Epsilon sorority, who's suffering from PTSD due to being raped by Delta Kappa Omicron fraternity president Brian Huntley (Ryan Mcintyre). Ever since the incident, her sorority sister Kris has chosen to act loudly by petitioning the firing of DKO's founder Professor Gelson for his refusal to teach books written by women. When both girls attend a talent show with Marty, Jesse & Helena, Riley sees the frat brothers at DKO do a ritual in front of the bust of Hawthorne that was also petitioned off campus by Kris. After Riley also saves Helena from being assaulted by another DKO brother, the rest of the girls participate in the talent show by performing their own Christmas jingle that condemns rape culture, which intentionally annoys the frat since they support Brian rather than accept his actions were wrong. Sadly, Helena who chose to go back to the sorority house gets killed by a masked man as she was packing to go out of town for the holidays. This masked killer also took part in killing fellow sorority sister Lindsay (Lucy Currey). The next day, Riley joins the other sorority sisters to go pick out a Christmas tree, but Fran (Nathalie Morris) stays behind with also planning to go out of town. Sadly, she is killed as well by the same assailant. During the shopping for a tree, Riley gets a call from Helena's mother that she hasn't made it home for the holidays. With her also getting harassed on social media by someone claiming to be Hawthorne, she suspects both conflicts to be connected. When she tells Security Officer O'Leary about it, he dismisses it for not taking it too serious. When she returns to her sorority house, she is visited by Gelson to request taking down their talent show performance that was posted online, knowing it'll affect reputation. While she doesn't care about how it'll affect him, she does admit to Kris it can affect the sorority house entirely due to the threats she's been getting from Hawthorne. Just when Kris & Marty admit they're getting similar messages as well, they kick out Nate for sharing his own opinion of false equivalencies in victim blaming. Just after that happens, the three girls get more messages from Hawthorne before he appears to attack them with a bow and arrow who's already killed Jesse who walked out on their personal debate before she can confirm getting any messages. The girls try to hide due to Marty getting grazed and as Rliey goes out to call for help, a returning Nate gets himself killed when trying to protect them from the killer. Kris goes looking for Jesse only to find her dead in the attic. Riley does get to defend herself when using keys against the killer before the remaining sorority regroup with her. They barely get a moment to recuperate before more masked killers pursue them. Marty gets killed in her efforts to run away. Kris & Riley are able to kill one attacker and notice they're covered in the same black liquid from Hawthorne's bust Riley saw instead of blood, whereas O'Leary gets taken down by another while responding to a call of a similar incident occurring at Delta Sig. With DKO being deduced to be responsible for the attacks, Riley is motivated to take out the frat personally since the cops did not believe of what Brian did to her. Kris would be hesitant to take a stand, making Riley choose to go alone, but comes around when seeing surviving Delta Sig sisters who inform that the other sorority houses all over campus are being targeted. With Riley on her own, she runs into Landon, the only other guy who's been genuinely nice to her since her assault, offering to help however he can. They break into the house of DKO and he ransacks the place while she sneaks in to take down the source of their power. As Landon gets subdued and hypnotized to be a pledge, Riley gets subdued by Helena who has been helping Gelson and the frat house target women they identify as unruly thanks to the use of the liquid they discovered from the bust they use to create a pledge army made up of members with gender grievances. Despite being helpful, Helena is killed by a pledge before the intent to kill Riley next. Just as Riley tries to fight them all on her own, the other sorority sisters including Kris arrive to help her in the fight against all men. Riley is able to destroy the bust and causes the possession to deactivate on all the boys including Landon. The film ends with the ladies locking the men up (minus the innocent Landon) in the frat house to die in a fire caused by Kris, killing all the pledges including Gelson and Brian.
THOUGHTS
I didn't want to be a hater when it came to this because I just think there is room to make an interesting chance, but this was all over the place and I have to say that's not a good thing. Director Sophia Takal had the pressure to shake it up with important social commentary and it just doesn't work the way it has before. And I think because of it being intentionally manufactured instead of being natural about it is where I can't dig it the way others might. Since it's PG-13, the violence is so tame and it ain't clever about it. I don't want any more eye gouging, but a dip of graphicness would've been shock value for me. With the villains being a remorseless fraternity that dabbles with the supernatural like any horror cult would, it slams the message hard on how bad the sexism women get daily. I do respect an important message, but I just wish it was more organized because it's done a sense feeling far too predictable in how it's gonna go. The cast is very one noted, but I admire they chew it up to make their parts believable. When you got Cary Elwes involved, you know it's gonna spice it up however you interpret and he sure leads the case as Gelson that the men in power are the worst because they only see themselves to deserve it. With loyal followers like Brian who doesn't regret hurting people the way he did to Riley, you know these fuckers got to go and boy do they ever in grand fashion. Of course, it's nice to remember not every guy thinks alike since Rosehardt gave an honest performance out of Landon, the only guy who didn't see Riley as an object and just saw her as an equal, crush or not. DKO was a big threat, but the only guy who came off the wrong way with a point of view that made sense was Nate. Simon Mead has a good point that not every guy sucks, but is completely rude about it. The fact he waits 3 years to share his opinion that not every guy has the power makes him look dumb because he doesn't understand how bad it is for women everyday being taken advantage of in one way or another. So when he dies in a failed attempt of redemption. Hell, even Mark Neilson makes O'Leary too ignorant a guy to deal with since he ignores Riley's theory. Horror movie or not, every suspicion should be taken accounted for. The sisterhood of course is what sells the movie for those unaware of it being a remake or not and whether or not you buy into the chemistry, they make it worthwhile. Imogen Poots gives a strong lead performance as Riley who had to fight everyday to regain peace after what happened to her. She gets the momentum when calling out frat at the talent show and becomes content when conquering the frat. Respectively, Brittany O'Grady & Lily Donoghue make Jesse & Marty stand out for their loyalty to Riley which makes their deaths a bummer to get through. Then there Kris who brings the bigger shakeup compared to other girls. Aleyse Shannon stirs up the pot in making her rightfully loud as a feminist/leftist as there are important things of society that need to change. Riley's incident is what motivates her to take a stand. Even when it comes off weird she's wealthier than her and makes her activism come off as performative, she still wants her to confront her trauma and seeing Delta Sig is what motivates her to stand by that perspective. The insanity even continued when seeing Helena turn her back on her sisterhood just to believe she'd be happy in the tradwife style. Madeleine Adams does sell it that woman believing that lifestyle is a necessity compared to independence, which only made her death all the more ironic that it was based on betrayal. The amount of bad storytelling only continued to outweigh whatever potential of good qualities because a slew of events happen and don't make that much sense. Like from the top, I thought it was so dumb for the random guy passing by Lindsay not even reacting to her panicking that she mistook him to be following her. I mean that guy really knew he wasn’t the main character and just accepted it by ignoring the story. And fellow DKO brother Phil (Ben Black) should’ve not been to the cafe when he knows Riley and MKE goes there. It can’t be like there’s only cafe on or near campus. But honestly, how did the Hawthorne killers sneak in the house? You get inside where exactly, a back door or a window? It shouldn’t be a bad thing to answer this when you’re willing to explain the cult’s motive. Also, Jesse should’ve not went alone in getting decorations when Helena hasn’t been found. I mean splitting up is a death sentence in this genre and it’s embarrassing no one thinks about this long after Scream. And why didn’t one of the Hawthornes aim for the tire? You’ll make it hard for the girls to drive away once that slows them down. And lastly, why was Landon out in the streets? Was it part of a pledge he was doing with another frat or is he that bored that he walks around waiting for the plot to need him again? If these things were supposed to make sense, I wouldn’t be so irritated about it the way I am now. To wrap up, 2019’s Black Christmas is another botch of a do over that should’ve not been greenlit. If you enjoyed the 70s gem, avoid this remake at all costs.
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