Younger fans may not have experienced this yet, but older Bloody Disgusting readers can attest to the genre going through stages of stagnation, and at times feeling bored with the constant cliches of horror cinema. We all know that feeling of repetitiveness that makes us roll our eyes, and many constantly scream that we need “more original horror.” Even when we’re getting just that (thanks, A24!), there are production companies developing faux sequels and remakes of horror classics. It’s an inevitability because they’re working from a proven structure and (usually) known intellectual property. It’s a business and they’re just trying to “play it safe”.

This brings us to Black Christmas, a remake of Bob Clark’s 1974 slasher film that set the stage for John Carpenter’s Halloween several years later. Interestingly, Blumhouse and Universal aligned to bring both franchises back to life, with the latter being an extraordinarily violent, canonized sequel to the original film. But with Black Christmas, the two have taken a much different approach, delivering (what looks like) a teen-friendly, PG-13 slasher that completely deviates from the original story.

With that said, here’s what makes Black Christmas interesting: perspective. Blumhouse and Universal were going to remake the film no matter what, so they could have either made another cookie cutter slasher or attempted to inject a renewed take on the source material. The original film, written and directed by men, was about a stranger creeping on a sorority house during Christmas break. All of the film’s situations were told from the perspective of males, which is fine (nobody is debating this). What makes the concept of 2019’s Black Christmas refreshing is that the new take is both written and directed by women (April Wolfe and Sophia Takal, respectively), and shares their perspective on a man – or men in this case – creeping on a sorority during Christmas break. All of the cliches and tropes you may have been expecting could become subverted in the eyes of the opposite sex.

When you step back and realize that Blumhouse and Universal are behind both Halloween and Black Christmas, two inherently similar films, it makes very little sense for them to make the same movie twice. A female-centric Black Christmas is different. It’s also interesting, and it’s always exciting when horror is given a new perspective to explore.

Digressing, Takal, who directed the seriously excellent Always Shine starring Mackenzie Davis, spoke with EW about Black Christmas this week, offering a phenomenal explanation as to why the female perspective should be exciting to horror fans.

“I hope to work with Blumhouse some more, but I’m also interested in maybe shifting away a bit from straightforward horror and finding other genres to work in, and also maybe making movies about some men and exploring that.

“I think some of the greatest movies about men are directed by women, just as some of the greatest movies about women are directed by men,” she elaborates.

“I actually think this movement of bringing female directors into the fold isn’t just about women telling women’s stories, but telling stories about people who are different from them too, just as men have done for hundreds of years.”

This is exactly what I’m trying to sell horror fans who are pushing back. Exploration. Newness. Fresh perspectives.

In regards to Black Christmas, Takal and Wolfe’s film aligns with the #MeToo Movement, offering a fresher take on recent social commentary.

“You know, this movie, even though it’s very, very loosely based on Black Christmas, I’d say the plot is extremely different. It’s more inspired by the feeling that Black Christmas made me feel watching it, this idea of misogyny always being out there and never totally eradicable. So that was the jumping-off point for how I came up with this plot.

“The original Black Christmas feels so contemporary and modern for the time,” she continues. “Since then I feel like there have been so many movies about sorority sisters where the women have been portrayed as dumb, bimbo-y idiots. What I love was this was a group of women who, even though there was some conflict and strife — you know, Margot Kidder was a real spitfire [laughs] — they were all very much three-dimensional, strong female characters. I wanted to make something that reflected our time right now, drawing more from what the original evoked for me rather than great plot points. For me, it was about what does it feel like to be a woman in 2019?

“[At] the beginning of the #MeToo Movement, it seemed like there was a really big reckoning, particularly in the film industry, but in lots of industries, where powerful men were being called out for their predatory behavior. And then, in early 2019, I sort of felt, and I know a lot of women who I know felt, the creeping back of these predatory men into positions of power and this feeling of like, “Oh, even when you’ve won the battle you still have to battle this patriarchal structure.” It seemed like everyone, the men and the women involved in the movie, on screen and off, were all really committed to exploring that feeling and were really interested in making a movie about that.”

Sure, Black Christmas could end up being a bad movie, but at least this remake is attempting to further the genre instead of merely repeating it. And to us, that’s pretty exciting.