Black Christmas (2019)

Why do these screams matter?

An explicitly feminist horror film grounded in our current political climate, Black Christmas contains social criticism so pronounced that at times its explicit political messaging overshadows its horror tropes and conventions. The film centers on a group of sorority sisters who are being killed one by one on their college campus by a misogynistic fraternity immersed in dark magic. The four most prominent sisters are Riley (Imogene Poots), Kris, (Aleyse Shannon), Jesse (Brittany O’Grady), and Marty (Lily Donoghue).

Our first scream happens in the movie’s opening moments. Lindsey (Lucy Currey) is walking alone across her college campus at night when she realizes someone is following her. But when her frantic calls for help go unanswered, Lindsey is forced to confront the masked assailant alone.

The woman in peril trope that opens many slasher films is certainly nothing new. And Lindsey’s death sequence here is a fairly traditional one. As she walks across the desolate campus, we feel a sense of dread that slowly escalates in keeping with the building music. Lindsey’s realization that she is being followed and her attempts to reach out for help, both by calling her friends and knocking on the door of a tranquil-looking home adorned with Christmas decorations, indicate her awareness that she is in danger. But it is her screams for help here that most fully express her panic and fear.

Lindsey’s experience is also a reflection of cultural norms related to female safety. The reason why this sequence works is because the audience can identify the inherent danger Lindsey faces being a woman walking alone at night. There is an assumption that Lindsey’s behavior is risky, a cultural framing that is evident in everything from college campus safety classes that stress the dangers of walking alone to apps designed to track the movements of family and friends. Lindsey’s mounting fear as she starts to suspect she is being followed is an expressly gendered one and her scream at finally coming face to face with her attacker is, in part, an acknowledgment of how certain spaces are less safe for women than they are for men.

The threat of violent infiltration continues in our next scene when Kris, having had enough of the threatening messages the sorority has been receiving, responds to the caller with threats of her own. Fearing reprisal, Riley yells at Kris for always being too confrontational. Their argument is interrupted when a bow-wielding masked figure enters the house.

The dialogue that precedes these screams is an important one because it reflects feminist division over the best way to deal with threats of sexual violence. Riley, a rape survivor, is fearful of drawing too much attention to herself and wants to call the police for help. But Kris, whose overt activism has made her a target in the past, believes in taking matters into her own hands and confronting would-be harassers directly. But when faced with an outside threat, the two instinctually band together. Marty’s decision to sacrifice herself so that the other two can flee reiterates to the audience that despite their ideological differences, these women are united in sisterhood. The argument that happens between Riley and Kris is also a reflection of how women voted in the 2016 election. As a white woman who still believes that institutional structures will save her, Riley is expressing an opinion echoed in a significant number of female Trump voters. But as a Black woman aware of layers of intersectional oppression, Kris’ mandate to fight back carries with it an intimate understanding that institutional structures typically do not solve for sexual violence but, rather, contribute to it.  And the film does, ultimately, come down on the side of Kris. In our final scream, Kris leads a group of women into the frat house where Riley has been taken against her will.

Kris’s scream at this moment encapsulates a lot of things: rage at the men intent on rendering women submissive, grief over the lingering effects of her assault, and frustration that these battles must still be fought. When Riley says to Kris during the melee that Kris was right all along and finally agrees that they have to fight back, the scream she releases in this moment reads as a pointed battle cry. It also conveys Riley’s understanding of the need for women to stay vigilant against forces of oppression and to repudiate directly all forms of sexism, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. When considered in tandem, the screams of Lindsey and Riley comprise a narrative arc that reminds viewers of the violence embedded in patriarchal structures and suggests women have no choice but to fight back.

Works Cited

“An examination of the 2016 electorate, based on validated voters.” Pew Research Center, 9 Aug. 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/.

Ball, Aimee Lee. “Staying safe on campus.” The New York Times, 20 July 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/education/edlife/students-fear-venturing-out-alone-at-night-on-campus.html.

Black Christmas. Directed by Sophia Takal, performances by Imogene Poots, Aleyse Shannon, and Lucy Currey, Universal Pictures, 2019.

Ohlheiser, Abby. “Don’t leave campus: Parents are now using tracking apps to watch their kids at college.” The Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/22/dont-leave-campus-parents-are-now-using-tracking-apps-watch-their-kids-college/.