Bob Clark’s 1974 horror movie, ‘Black Christmas’, is an under appreciated classic of the slasher genre, pre-dating the ground-breaking ‘Halloween’ by four years. The 2006 remake has little to recommend it, other than an impressive cast. Now, in this festive season, we have another go round of the tale. Though in all honestly, it does not bare much resemblance to the original other than the most basic set up. A group of women at university start receiving threatening direct messages, and then begin to be attacked in their sorority house…
Although billed as a horror, this works much better in the first half when it is more of a suspenseful thriller when who the bad guy is isn’t so clear. It also has an interesting twist in that the lead character, Riley (Imogen Poots) is recovering from a sexual assault and it seems that her and her friends calling out frat boys’ behaviour triggers the events.
The second half starts well with Riley and her friends trying to survive an attack in their sorority house. But then, the climax fizzles out. First of all, a number of new characters are introduced very late on, which gives and air of confusion to proceedings. Then the final confrontation is very poorly shot by director Sophia Takal, and is a damp squib. It doesn’t help that, the film was heavily edited to obtain a 15 rating / PG-13 rating in the US. The ending feels really rushed and is strangely bloodless.
Not un-enjoyable but a little disappointing in the end.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10