Black Christmas (2019)

"Naturally, qualms are raised about the dubious reputation of the university’s 19th-century founder ('He owned slaves – in the North!'). Naturally, too, there are protests afoot against the resident conservative literature professor (Cary Elwes), an amalgam of culture warrior Jordan Peterson and Giles from Buffy who quotes Camille Paglia and smirkingly defends his choice to teach an all-male canon. All this threatens to veer towards the heavy-handed, but there's enough wit to make it work."

"But if the 2019 "Black Christmas" is not nearly as chilling as the original, it is genuinely barbed as gender satire, and it cleverly pre-empts obvious outrage."

"Blended brilliantly, this remake of Black Christmas makes for holiday horror that's a tantalising and terrifying treat."

"Blended brilliantly, this remake of Black Christmas makes for holiday horror that's a tantalising and terrifying treat."

"[Black Christmas] mostly feels personal and urgent thanks to some atmospheric scare scenes and some sharp dialogue that reflect the world outside the movie theatre in ways that most other studio-distributed horror films don't."

"It's a movie made for a syllabus, not to entertain."

"The second attempt to resurrect the 1974 campus-set horror is a well-intentioned yet ultimately unconvincing modernisation."

"Unfortunately, Takal's Black Christmas is far more ordinary, a blunt object in a fight demanding either sharp knives or explosives."

"An innovative if at times crudely diverting fright flick in which the heroines, and the villains as well, are all playing their part in a larger scheme."