The 2019 ‘Black Christmas’ Was Too Clever For Its Own Good

Trigger Warning: The following contains discussions of sexual assault.

The Big Picture

• Black Christmas is a feminist slasher film that highlights the violence against women on college campuses and the need for action to stop it.
• The movie portrays the toxic culture that exists in fraternities and the role of toxic masculinity in perpetuating violence against women.
• The final girls in Black Christmas are fierce fighters who refuse to be victims and take matters into their own hands to reclaim their power.

‘Tis the season to hunt down some frat bros. The 2019 slasher horror remake, Black Christmas, is a celebration of sisterhood that highlights the comradery women have formed on college campuses across America as they face ongoing violence brought against them. It’s been well documented that there has been an epidemic of violence against women in universities for centuries, and it was placed under the spotlight thanks to former President Barack Obama’s initiative, “It’s On Us.” Highlighting the lack of response surrounding assault, it demanded action from colleges, particularly men, to not stand by and allow women to be victimized any longer. Writers Sophia Takal and April Wolfe hold this issue at the forefront of our minds in Black Christmas. Takal is also the director of the film, and she uses masked serial killers hunting down women during Christmas break on campus as a metaphor for the ongoing issue that is plaguing American universities.

What Is ‘Black Christmas’ About?

A remake of the cult-classic 1974 slasher film, Olivia Hussey stars in the original as a sorority sister who is hunted by a masked killer over Christmas break, and it saw little success at the time of its release. In the years since it’s become an acclaimed feminist classic, and its remake is bound for the same destiny. Starring Imogen Poots as Riley Stone, she attends Hawthorne University and lives in the Mu Kappa Epsilon (MKE) sorority house with several of her sisters. A survivor herself, she was sexually assaulted by the former president of the Delta Kappa Omicron (DKO) fraternity, Brain Huntley. Dealing with PTSD as a result, she and her MKE sisters, Kris (Aleyse Shannon), Marty (Lily Donoghue), and Jesse (Brittany O’Grady), decide to perform a song protesting rape culture in fraternities at the DKO fraternity holiday talent show, and the song causes an uproar. It’s the best Christmas-themed performance since Mean Girls, and the violence that ensues is a powerful reminder of the repercussions that come when women come forward to speak their truth. The violence in question includes a gruesome string of sorority sister murders at Hawthorne University. As masked men hunt the girls down through the frigid snow, it turns out they are not just any men — they are DKO frat bros.

Black Christmas begins as most slasher films do, audiences witness the brutal murder of the first victim. Up there with Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street as one of the scariest opening scenes in horror movies, a sorority sister leaves the library at night and walks home alone. That alone could be a horror story for any woman. As she begins to receive threatening DMs on her phone, she is hunted down through the snow and killed with an icicle by a masked killer. As her paranoia grows leading up to her murder, she can’t help but shake the feeling that someone is following her. Takal puts audiences in the young woman’s shoes, and we feel the true terror of what it’s like for women to walk home in the darkness. It’s a harsh way to begin the movie, but it grabs viewers’ attention and forces them to confront the problems female college students face head-on.

‘Black Christmas’ Is a Modern Day, Feminist Slasher Classic

As the four women, along with a couple of other sisters, stay behind for break, they begin to face the deadly consequences of their performance. As it turns out, the DKO frat brothers’ hazing process includes a mandatory rite of passage: killing sorority sisters. It’s symbolic of the toxic culture that begins freshmen year when men rush fraternities and the encouragement of certain behaviors that involve violence against women. But the film crucially notes that the instillment of toxic masculinity does not only begin in fraternities, it begins in the classroom. College is a place where the next generation of young minds are shaped, and unfortunately, it is sometimes not for the better. Cary Elwes plays Professor Landon, a misogynistic English teacher who rarely teaches any books written by anyone other than white males, which leads to a petition for him to be fired from the university. He seeks his revenge by becoming a mentor to the DKO fraternity in more ways than one, and Black Christmas exemplifies how toxic masculinity is passed down through generations.

Black Christmas is too clever for its own good, and for some reason, audiences and critics alike could not stomach its female empowerment. There is an abundance of high school coming-of-age films thanks to the likes of John Hughes and Richard Linklater, but the college experience for women is rarely touched upon. The Black Christmas remake decides to engage with that experience in full force, and the character of Riley is one of the fiercest final girls in recent memory. She begins the movie as a survivor and ends it as a fighter. While the frat house is a literal dungeon of rotting minds, Riley and her sisters, especially Kris, battle for change. Men in the movie are not affected by the ongoing violence and are permitted to be out of touch with reality while the women are painfully aware of what is going on. They cannot afford ignorance because it would cost them their lives, so they decide to grab snow shovels, car keys, and Christmas lights to fight back.

In ‘Black Christmas,’ the Final Girls Are Fierce Fighters

The masks the DKO fraternity wear in this slasher movie as they continue their plight against sorority sisters symbolize the anonymity college men are granted. They are protected from their crimes against women, while the women bear the brunt of those crimes and are left exposed and vulnerable. College lays the foundation for men to behave badly as they transition from boys to men, and Black Christmas argues that it is not only the education system that sacrifices women but society as well as the privileged white male takes what he learns from school and incorporates it into his adult life. Additionally, the irony of the fraternity praying to the bust of the University’s founder, Calvin Hawthorne, is not lost on the movie either. By honoring a wealthy white man who was a known sexist and racist, the school is upholding ancient traditions that have no place in this modern world, and it encourages men at the school to never change their ways. But if the movie knows anything, it is that women are resilient, and the sorority sisters take matters into their own hands by refusing to be the prey as they’re stalked on campus.

As Riley and co. hunt down the frat brothers, Black Christmas is an invigorating call to battle that serves as a wake-up call to college campuses everywhere that the violent behavior towards women exhibited in countless fraternities cannot continue. Poots gives a revelatory performance as Riley, and by the film’s end, she is a masterful hunter who takes down masked men while reclaiming her power. The film should absolutely be on everyone’s list this holiday season, and it also just happens to be a great slasher film with many final girls to root for. One of the most powerful scenes comes when Riley begs college campus security for help after receiving threatening DMs, and she is dismissed for being paranoid. She and the rest of the sorority are then forced to seek other avenues of retribution if they want to survive the night. It’s a sobering thought, but the women decide to step out of line to speak their truth anyway and wield an icicle or two as they go down a bloody path of revenge among the Christmas carols and snow.

Not All ‘Black Christmases’ Are Created Equal

While the 1974 original is a horror classic and the 2019 version is a decent updated remake, one installment in the franchise belongs in the attic gathering dust just like old Christmas lights. The notorious 2006 remake of Black Christmas, starring Lacey Chabert, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Katie Cassidy, and Michelle Trachtenberg, is a complete failure in female empowerment, and was a critical bomb, focusing on the exploitation of the violence and sexual assault against women in the film. The 1974 version addresses sexual assault and abortion in an extremely progressive way. Made during a turbulent period in America that also saw the tail end of the second wave of feminism, the film was ahead of its time. But, unlike the 2019 remake, the sisters do not have the benefit of living in a “woke” society where women’s stories are given the platform they deserve, and the movie itself did not have that benefit either, as it bombed at the box office. The film also features feminist icon Margot Kidder (Superman), and she’s particularly electric as the fierce sorority sister, Barb, and her outspoken persona when dealing with the perverted man on the phone and the sexism in society makes her a prime target for the killer. Hussey portrays Jess, the much more soft-spoken and reserved sister, making her a prime example of a classic final girl. Jess comes into her own as the film progresses as more women get murdered, and Hussey should be hailed as the original final girl who influenced the iconic characters to come. Without Hussey, there would be no empowered final girls like Laurie Strode or Nancy Thompson, and at least now that the film has gained some of the recognition it deserves. Hailed as a feminist cult-classic, it’s the perfect movie to dust off this holiday season just like your Christmas lights and get ready to be spooked.

2019’s Black Christmas is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix