Black Christmas [2019 version] (3 Stars)

"We're not insane, merely men".

This is the second remake of the 1974 film, "Black Christmas". I haven't watched either of the two previous versions, but I've read enough about them to know that the new version is so different that it can be considered a new film, copying only the background of the previous films but forging ahead in a different direction. Whereas the first films were pure slasher movies, the new film contains conspiracies and feminist messages.

The film takes place a few days in the future. I was amused to see the dates 19th and 20th December 2019 on screen. Riley and her friends in the MKD soriety house are getting ready to break up for Christmas. One by one the girls are attacked and killed by a hooded assailant with various weapons. It's not just the knife in the film poster, he also uses a bow and arrow.

Riley, played by Imogen Poots, has other problems on her mind. Two years previously she was raped by Brian Huntley, the president of the DKO fraternity. He was expelled from the university, but now he's visiting again for Christmas. When she receives threatening text messages she doesn't know whether they're from Brian or the mystery killer. Or maybe they're the same person.

As the poster above shows, the girls aren't intimidated. They pick up weapons and fight back against the slasher. That's very different to typical slasher films, in which one girl at most, the survivor, fights back.

And the story also has supernatural elements... but that would be telling too much.....

The problem with the film is that it doesn't know what it is. Is it a slasher movie or a girls-vs-boys free for all? I welcome feminist messages in films, but they seem out of place in this genre. In slasher films women don't make feminist speeches, they just get killed. The slasher picks on weak women.

I think I'll give it another chance and watch it when it comes out on Blu-ray. I want to watch the other versions first. Maybe then I'll be able to rate it higher. I don't know.