The trailer for the Black Christmas remake was one of those previews that looked like it gave away everything. But, as everyone who saw the film last weekend discovered, that was anything but the case. There was one key element of the new Black Christmas that came very much by surprise, and since Bloody-Disgusting had the films director and co-writer Sophia Takal on the phone, we had to ask about.
Spoiler warning, folks!
Towards the end of Black Christmas, after the heroes of the film have defended themselves from a swarm of murderous misogynistic frat boys, they make a shocking discovery that their blood… isn’t bloody. It’s a viscous supernatural fluid that emerges from the bust of the college’s sexist founder, and it has infected all the men of the fraternity with Hawthorne’s regressive and hateful ideas. It is, quite literally, “toxic masculinity.”
That’s one hell of a shift after watching 2/3’s of a film that fits comfortably in a relatively grounded slasher genre. But Sophia Takal says it was an important part of making a film steeped in serious, real life violence palatable.
“There’s just like a lot of violence towards women that exists in the world,” Takal explains. “So it was important to me to make a movie that people could have fun with and get scared by and really enjoy and be entertained by. But I didn’t want the entertainment to be the women being killed, as the entertainment. So for us, turning it into something supernatural allowed there to be a little bit of a remove from reality so that there could be a little bit of a distance for people watching it. So that it could be still fun and wild and gonzo, and not feel so close to, I guess, what we felt was a version of the movie that could have felt bad to watch as a woman.”
“I want everyone to enjoy the movie of course, but there’s something particular I wanted to contribute, which was just when I watch a horror movie as a woman, and watching a woman run around in lingerie and her sexuality and her death are somehow intertwined in this really weird way, that doesn’t make me feel empowered,” Takal continues. “So I wanted a movie that wouldn’t give people that kind of feeling.”
“So after talking about it a lot with April [Wolfe, co-writer] we thought if we make the killer somehow supernatural, it A) can highlight kind of the ridiculousness of this old way of thinking, to take it outside the realm of reality, and B) just give a little bit of distance to the audience so that they can have fun and enjoy the movie,” Takal says.
But that decision to make Black Christmas more ridiculous could have potentially taken the edge off the film’s pointed commentary. Was Takal ever worried that by making the justification for the misogyny external that the film would lose some of its edge?
“I was never worried about [that]. It will be interesting to see if people have that criticism,” Takal says.
“I feel like the movie is pretty edgy, for lack of a better word. Pretty bold and pretty not afraid to say a point of view […],” Takal adds. “Did we absolve the men of [their crimes]? No, because Brian Huntley, who’s the rapist, his enablers are active participants of this even if it is supernatural. So people are choosing to enter into this cult of masculinity, so I don’t feel like it absolves them of anything really.”
It’s a point well taken. The killers in Black Christmas were all actively participating in their evil acts before the supernatural element came into their lives. The element of free will also explains why the character of Landon (Caleb Eberhart) is briefly brought into their cult but able to break free of the supernatural influence on his own.
“Yeah, that is why,” Takal explains. “Kind of the point of that little subplot is like, even good guys they’re not impervious to this way of thinking if they’re put into it, you know what I mean?”
“My idea is just like, men aren’t born hating women. They’re taught to hate women. Anyone can be taught to hate women if they’re around bad influences and in this case, the influence of the toxic goo,” Takal laughs. “But yeah, that is why Landon is able to escape it, because it’s not his essential self, in a way. Everyone else is there by their own volition. He’s kind of forced into it and brainwashed.”
Black Christmas is now playing in theaters everywhere.
