Christmas horror meets home invasion and satanic ritualistic sacrifice in writer/director/producer Jenn Wexler’s off-the-wall The Sacrifice Game. After bouncing from festival to festival while building buzz amongst the genre community, this fun flick somehow still lives up to the hype. Set in the early 70s in the wake of the Manson Family murders, The Sacrifice Game takes place on three nights leading up to Christmas of 1971. For those who hang back for the holidays at their boarding school, a night of yuletide cheer turns blood red—four unwanted guests infamously known as the “Christmas Killers” are seeking a place to lay low, and where better than Blackvale School for Girls? Wexler slowly builds the tension, wringing maximum thrills from a confined setting. An ensemble of exciting acting talent—including Mena Massoud (Aladdin, Reprisal), Olivia Scott Welch (Netflix’s Fear Street Trilogy, Panic), and newcomers Georgia Acken and Madison Baines—and mostly practical effects keep the horror rooted in reality.
Having recently lost her mother, Samantha (Baines) looks forward to returning home for the holidays with her stepfather, as news reports swirl of sacrificial Christmas slayings sweeping the local area. When Mr. Kramer cancels on picking up Samantha, the stage is set for the mania that will follow. The only other child who stays behind is quiet loner and bully target Clara (Acken), while their teacher, Rose (Chloe Levine), supervises Blackvale School in the absence of the remaining staff and student body. With Christmas dinner prepped and in the oven, a pounding on the door indicating the arrival of the four villains upends the trajectory of the film in a major way.
Their leader and “vessel” Jude (Massoud) comes across seriously depraved and sadistic; Massoud displays every bit of manic energy needed for the role, and then some. Jude has probably the most quotable dialogue in the film. Second in command is his girlfriend, Maisie (Welch), followed by loose cannon Doug (Laurent Pitre). These two and Massoud go gloriously over-the-top, whereas the fourth member of their cult-crew, Grant (Derek Johns), fulfills the lumbering lunk quota. The crew intimidates from their very first scene, wherein they forcibly enter a home after Jude slits a man’s throat with ease. The camera playfully tracks them around the outside of this home as they unleash the carnage within, including the painting of an important symbol on the home’s glass doors.
Each of our leads trapped in the boarding school with these sadistic maniacs are likable characters we do not wish to see go. I was surprised that bespectacled cutie Gus Kenworthy shows up as Rose’s boyfriend, Jimmy; a far cry from his turn as Chet in American Horror Story: 1984, The Sacrifice Game still posits the Olympic silver medalist in slasher-adjacent territory. Levine also impresses as Rose, a selfless character not afraid to put herself in harm’s way to protect the two children. Horror fans may have complex feelings about child actors in the genre, but worry not for Georgia Acken or Madison Baines. Acken especially has heavy lifting given the breadth and variety of her performance. Baines’s Samantha remains a focal point throughout, and an easy one for the audience to latch onto for their sympathies.
Taking a page from classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Sacrifice Game features not just one but two iconic dinner table sequences to inject eerie chills and satisfying thrills. Another sequence that juxtaposes a jolty dance against unfolding carnage recalls cult classic, Night of the Demons. Wexler wears horror inspirations happily on her sleeves—The Sacrifice Game manages to have a personality all its own whilst leaning into those references gleefully. Practical effects that include bursts of gory violence add color beyond impressive cinematography, courtesy of Alexandre Bussiere.
Shudder has put out a certified new Christmas horror classic that earns a spot in regular rotation, somewhere alongside P2 and 2006’s Black Christmas. Jenn Wexler combines bleak storytelling and darkly humorous characters for an unforgettable game to play over and over again. This holiday season, if The Sacrifice Game is the only present under the tree, let its twisted sensibilities shed the blood of the innocent forevermore.
The Sacrifice Game unspools pages of torment, streaming exclusively for Shudder subscribers on Friday, December 8th.
One thought on “Film Review: The Sacrifice Game”