I was quite hesitant to watch this as I really didn't like Jenn Wexler's debut "The Ranger '', but I saw some good reviews and it's a Christmas Horror so I thought why the hell not. Glad I did, because this is exactly the sort of low budget Indie Horror that I dig. Wexler really levelled up with this film. She clearly learned from the mistakes from her debut, and has put tonnes of effort into the areas that didn't work.
The story is seemingly pretty straight forward- a group of people are committing some random murders (and some not so) in order to resurrect a demon on Christmas. They end up at a girls boarding school where everyone has gone home for the holidays bar two students and two teachers. They end up being held hostage by the cult, and that's where the good times begin to roll.
First of all the screenplay and character writing is so much better than her debut. Hard to believe they were written by the same person honestly. Great casting, and better acting across the board. The murder cult were all really solid and given a surprising amount of development. And the two young girls played by Georgia Acken and Madison Baines were particularly good.
It starts off a little bit mean spirited with some pretty brutal kills, and stress inducing tension, but the excellent style kept me intrigued. Once intentions become clear and the story kicks in though I was totally on board. The twist was a little bit obvious, but I still welcomed it with open arms. The ending worked for me as well.
I mentioned style earlier, and this is another major step up for Wexler. The film is set in 1971, and all the period set/costume design is really well done. Shout out to the location scout for finding the great looking boarding school. They take full advantage of it as well with some nice lighting setups inside and cool framing of the front of the building. So yeah, great lighting, creative shots and just overall top notch cinematography. This is the sort of attention to detail that elevates it above other films with similar budgets.
Madison Baines and Georgia Acken are particularly good as the two students left behind for Christmas.
So yeah, this is definitely one of the better horror films I’ve seen this year. Probably better than every mainstream horror film I've seen as well if I’m being honest (yes even Talk 2 Me). In fact the two horror films that I rate the most have both been Shudder originals. And just when I was considering cancelling Shudder again. Kudos to them I guess? Props to Jen Wexler though. I love watching filmmakers progress like this, and I can't wait to see what she does next. Someone please give her a bigger budget!
FOUR out of FIVE blood sacrifices.
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