How many remakes does it take for a remake to take gold? Black Christmas is still trying to figure that out. There are now three different Black Christmas movies, the original dates back to 1974, the first remake in 2006, and then another was birthed into the world in 2019. And wow is it…different.
Different in a good way though. Black Christmas (2019) stars Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Brittany O’Grady, and Lily Donoghue as sorority sisters who go through the bonding experience of a lifetime. It follows the traditional cookie cutter pattern initially, a pattern set by the original with the stereotype horror story of girls in a house being killed off one by one by some crazy, psycho man. However, just as you think you’re about to complete the traditional snowman cookie, it starts to unexpectedly morph in the oven and out comes a dragon cookie- catching you completely off guard and stunned, but pleased with the end result and the wild ride it took you on. DO NOT watch the trailer or read up on it before watching it- it’s best to go in blind, knowing nothing.
The writer and director seats are filled with women, Sophia Takal and April Wolfe, and I love the new direction they take the story. They also, not so subtly, weave in themes of fraternity culture toxicity and feminism. I applaud it for blatantly waving it’s feminist flag and slapping audience members in the face with it as well as shining the brightest of spotlights onto some issues of how fraternities can become toxic. Some may not appreciate it as much, which leads to the question you should ask yourself, “why not?” It takes a very big and bold look at women being their own person, with their own thoughts and desires, and coming up against someone who wants to subdue them.
One downside to the film I do not applaud is that it goes a bit too far for the ending, leaving you uncomfortable, laughing nervously, and thinking, “ummm, maybe they shouldn’t have done that?” I won’t go into it so as not to spoil anything- but overall, the film is still enjoyable.
How many remakes does it take before Hollywood stops doing remakes? We still don’t have that answer as it feels like Hollywood will remake ANYTHING to the end of time. But every now and then, you get a worthwhile remake like Black Christmas (2019). This serves as an example of a remake that brings something new and interesting to the table while keeping the same general spirit and idea of the original. I was not expecting to like this at all. I was expecting it to follow all the cliches of a simple slasher flick, but it threw some mentos up in that coca cola causing an eruption bigger and more entertaining than expected.
Spoilers: In the end, the sorority sisters face off against the possessed frat brothers in a building. Professor Gelson (Cary Elwes) gets ablazed (if that’s not a word it is now) by the sorority sisters. The sisters escape, locking all of the fraternity bros inside the burning building. Seeing as how the bros were possessed, pulling a St. Olga of Kiev and locking them all in a burning building to kill them seems a bit extreme. They broke the spell in the end, didn’t they!?! But, alas, those bros got broasted.
Disclaimer: Just because I am the Action Flick Chick and love action movies does not mean I condone real life violence in any way. Everyone has their own shit to deal with, be nice to each other.
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