The revenge of the sorority girls is a Christmas present to feminism.

• Gore factor: ★★☆☆☆
• Female rage factor: ★★★★★
• Feminism factor: ★★★★★
• Slasher factor: ★★★★★
• Supernatural factor: ★★★★★
• Social commentary factor: ★★★★★
• Christmas factor: ★★★★☆

Black Christmas is loosely based on the original Black Christmas (1974) film. But while the sorority girls get killed one by one by an unknown killer in 1974, this time they take up their weapons and charge at those who are killing women, just because they’re women. It stars Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O’Grady, Caleb Eberhardt, Cary Elwes. Directed by Sophia Takal and written by Sophia Takal, April Wolfe, Roy Moore.

Duration 1h 32m.

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Plot

At Hawthorne College something strange is going on. When Lindsay a student from Delta Sigma goes home for Christmas break she gets attacked. Her sorority sister Oona is worried about her. But their sorority isn’t the only one fighting off cloacked killers. 

Riley Stone is a student at Hawthorne College and member of the Mu Kappa Epsilon sorority, She struggles with PTSD after being raped by Delta Kappa Omicron fraternity president Brian Huntley, who is now an alumni. But everybody treats her like she’s the pariah and lied about the whole ordeal. Which makes it even more traumatic. Meanwhile their professor is refusing to teach from textbooks written by female authors and he’s rather openly a misogynist. Riley’s sorority sister Kris is petitioning to get rid of him and she has already succeeded to remove the statue of the evenly misogynist founder Calvin Hawthorne.

When Christmas break is coming, some girls of her house are leaving for home, while Riley, Kris, Jesse and Marty stay at the house. But one of the girls doesn’t make it home. While Riley, Kris, Jesse and Marty participate in a talent show singing a Christmas song while calling out her rapist, it gets out of hand. Kris puts the video of the performance online but doesn’t know Riley’s last words outing Brian as her rapist is also in the footage. Riley starts to receive threatening messages from Calvin Hawthorne as did Lindsay. And Helena’s upset mother calls her that she hasn’t come home yet. When she goes to the security guard she again isn’t believed.

Things get worse when the girls are attacked at their own house and have to defend themselves from multiple assailants dressed in black robes. And their house isn’t the only one. Riley figures it has something to do with DKO. So the girls’ houses are teaming up and assemble to end the deadly patriarchy at their university once and for all. 

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Short Review

Most slasher films revolve around a male killer, killing young women in a brutal way. Mostly because they are women. And sadly the reality is no different. Women are killed each day by men just because they a women, femicide happens everywhere, not just in movies. And it happens as well in this movie. 

This film is a loose remake of the 1974 slasher film Black Christmas and even has references to it. It has some resemblance to the original. It’s also about sorority girls getting killed during Christmas break. They have a white cat called Claudette while the white cat in 1974 was called Claude. They aren’t believed by the police who says that most of the time when girls go missing they are with their boyfriend. In 1974 a boyfriend tells his girlfriend what she can or can’t do and he forbids her to have an abortion or else, while now men are trying to control women in every way and take action on the or else part. 

The big difference is that now instead of being picked off one by one by an unknown killer, who doesn’t get caught or punished, this time the women don’t take crap anymore. They take matters in their own hands and go all warrior style. It’s a refreshing take on a slasher where the women might seem helpless, they are getting killed and men are still stronger than women, but women are not as helpless as the men might think. And there is the supernatural part that plays a key role in in the story that makes this a supernatural slasher made by women for women.

The girls don’t just fight their killers, they fight patriarchy, misogyny and fight for their equal rights. Marty has a discussion about equal rites and inappropriate behavior about it with her boyfriend Nate. A very relatable but important argument. And in the end they proof that they prevail and don’t let them subjugate ever again. 

Although it now seems like it’s a film that puts women against men and vice versa, and that women are good and men are bad, the film doesn’t have this black-and-white take. There certainly are some good men in this film, men who support women and who can think for themselves. But there are also women who like men to be in charge, to be subjugated. Just like in the real world.

Although this film certainly is based on a statement and feminism, it also has some good kills, quirky likable characters and supernatural elements. The film doesn’t forget it’s basically at the core a slasher. The kills are brutal, but instead of running away the girls almost  immediately take action and try to fight back. Not always with success though. They figure out that the key to a slasher is the element of surprise. You never know where the killer is, when he shows up and when or if you are getting killed. So they take the surprise to the killer once they find out who is responsible for all this mayhem. They get help from Riley’s love interest Landon and face the killers and the supernatural misogyny. What happens then is that all of their rage comes out in a battle between the killers and the final girls. 

The film has a big supernatural element in it with black magic that is the cause of all this. While you can say that the frat boys were supernaturally taken over to behave this way, Riley’s love interest Landon proves that you have to be willing to be controlled and he certainly is not. 

Black Christmas is an ode to slashers and to women, where women are killed by men, but take back their power to destroy misogynist patriarchy. And gives the therm final girl a whole new meaning.