I’m honestly just baffled at the poor reception for this. I know I shouldn’t be that shocked because I often like things others don’t, but this was especially surprising because so many of the ratings are so low. I also guess I shouldn’t be that surprised because the 2006 remake received reviews that were almost as bad and that was a damn great movie, fuck what anyone says.

I admit that I was pretty iffy during the first 15-20 minutes because I was painfully aware of all the hate and trying not to let it influence my own opinion, but then things get going and it just keeps getting better until becomes a full-blown pro-women slasher that turns the traditional expectations on end, especially during the truly awesome finale and it’s a great thing to see. I mean, the original Black Christmas is a solid 5 star movie but you can’t deny that there is very little in it that shows women defending themselves. Even the final girl does very little fighting back and what does happened is merely implied, not shown. So it’s nice to see a group of slasher victims here who always put up a fight. I’m not trying to say the original isn’t a feminist work because it very much is, but it’s on a subtler level. Here it’s on the front burner ready to scald any man that comes for it and my non-binary self loves that, especially in horror.

Imogen Poots (and I’m sorry but as great as she is the kid in me will always laugh at her name) and Aleyse Shannon (my personal favorite new way to spell “Elise”) do a fantastic job here, particularly Poots (hee hee forgive me) who really gives it her all. Cary Elwes is turning into a ridiculously yummy DILF. All the other guys looked like douches which was completely appropriate.

I also want to say that this was a movie made by women to empower women regardless of any extenuating circumstances. Would it have been a better movie had it been rated R? Yes, most likely I would have slapped this baby with a full 5 stars because the edits to avoid gore are a bit annoying, but that’s not the point. I’m so sick of seeing movies made by women be judged so damn hard and held to a higher standard. Like ok they made it but let’s sit around and talk about how they could have done it so much better because it’s a woman making it and we assume she isn’t as capable compared to most men out there openly making horror movies who flat out aren’t capable at all because they make problematic dreck? Isn’t that completely counterproductive when the idea is to get more women into the genre?!

Listen, if you were avoiding this based on the reviews, please give it a chance. I really fucking loved it and another viewing may bump it to a 4.5 so it’s definitely in my top 10 new releases from last year!