#sophia takal

[femtober]

FEMTOBER BLOG: Fridays & Franchises

Happy Friday the 13th!

While no woman has directed an installment of the Jason Voorhees saga, there have been a few franchise films that women have helmed, including one featuring Jason's rival Freddy Kruger, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, directed by Rachel Talalay.

Perhaps somewhat predictably, Freddy's Dead received poor reception but was a modest box office success, outgrossing its previous installment. The movie was relatively tame in its violence; Talalay instead wanted to focus on more surreal meta humor that the series had begun to stray from. True to its name, Freddy's Dead is the last film in the original Nightmare canon. The next three installments (New Nightmare, Freddy vs. Jason, and its 2010 reboot) all existed in a separate canon from the original franchise. While Freddy's Dead is not necessarily looked on fondly, I personally find it to be a very passable installment in a franchise I otherwise don't really enjoy. The 90s introduced the more acerbic side of humor in horror, so the slapstick goofiness of Freddy's Dead feels like a fitting goodbye to the previous decade.

The most powerful man in horror currently, Jason Blum, infamously stated in 2018 that "There are not a lot of female directors period, and even less who are inclined to do horror." He's since rightfully walked back on this statement, and while Blumhouse - under its various labels - has produced a fair number of horror films directed by women on streaming and television, theatrical releases of these films are few and far between. Enter Black Christmas (2019) directed by Sophia Takal.

Black Christmas is an interesting beast. On first glance it seems as though there's heavy studio interference. There's virtually no language or blood, and the story seems fractured. How much interference, it's hard to say. Sophia Takal stands by her vision for the film, wanting to make it as feminist as possible for a PG-13 audience. The end result, unfortunately, is underwhelming. Black Christmas ultimately feels like a shadow of its predecessors. While the 2006 remake is also maligned, there's a certain level of insanity that serves the film well in hindsight. The 2019 version often feels less focused on horror and more on identity, a criticism I hate to make about a female-directed film. Black Christmas's negative reception may have helped it fade into obscurity; in addition to being a critical failure it was also a box office bomb. I'm not the biggest fan of Takal's work, and certainly not of Black Christmas, but I think the most important takeaway we can have from this film is that women should be allowed to fail. We do not need an all or nothing approach to intersectional filmmaking. Sometimes things can be bad, and sometimes they can be worse than bad. We persist.

To date, Black Christmas is the only major theatrically released Blumhouse horror directed by a woman. Of course, this will change in just a few weeks with the release of Five Nights at Freddy's, directed by Emma Tammi. I can't say I'm particularly excited about the content of the film, but the prospect of a highly anticipated studio film directed by a woman is a major milestone. Between FNAF and Barbie, it's a good year for women to be making films, but of course there's always room for more.

My biggest pet peeve with major films directed by women is the passing of the torch to a male director when the first film succeeds financially (see Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, etc.). Blumhouse is obviously planning on making FNAF a franchise IP, so it would be great to keep the momentum going with Tammi or another woman continuing to lead the series. Fingers crossed!

If you're interested in any other female-directed franchise horror films, check out the following: •Candyman (2021), directed by Nia DaCosta •See No Evil 2, directed by the Soska Sisters •Critters 3, directed by Kristine Peterson •The Slumber Party Massacre series •The Pet Sematary Series, directed by Mary Lambert •Sorority House Massacre, directed by Carol Frank •The Fear Street Trilogy, directed by Leigh Janiak •V/H/S/94, 99, and 85 •Darlin', directed by Pollyanna MacIntosh •Mirror, Mirror, directed by Marina Sargenti and more!

[dare-g]

Green (2011)

[mydarkapron]

BLACK CHRISTMAS, 2019

Sophia Takal

[badflicks]

Black Christmas (2019) 🍕

Remakes are tricky because you know you have a good concept and you can only fuck it up. And fuck it up they did 🥇

[SPOILERS]

In particular the supernatural BS was unnecessary and frankly entirely ludicrous. A secret occult formula provided by “the founder” of the university to make some potion to mind control frat boys and make them kill women activists??!? GTFO please. Could’ve been so much more than this and it kind of spoils the good in it, of which there is some but mostly stays in the space of unrealised potential.

[heartbreakfeelsgoodinablog]

Slay, girls

[lookforastronauts]

#148. Black Christmas (2019)

dir. Sophia Takal dop. Mark Schwartzbard

[rhettakins]

Black Christmas (2019)

Dir. Sophia Takal

I can’t believe I’ve gone four years without watching this because the general consensus was that it was terrible, and I have to say… it’s not terrible.

Hawthorne College is quieting down for the holidays as students travel home to spend time with their families. But as Riley and her sorority sisters prepare to deck the halls with seasonal parties, a mysterious cloaked figure starts to leave a bloody trail throughout the campus. Refusing to become hapless victims, Riley and her friends decide to band together and fight back against the psychotic Christmas killer.

[2ndaryprotocol]

#NowWatching New Year, New You (2018) 📱🍾💀

“𝚂𝚘𝚘𝚗 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚊 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚔 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝟷𝟸:𝟶𝟶, 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞.”

[videodrme]

BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974) dir. Bob Clark BLACK CHRISTMAS (2006) dir. Glen Morgan BLACK CHRISTMAS (2019) dir. Sophia Takal

[ecnmatic]

THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY (2023) Love Fest - 2x6 dir. Sophia Takal.

[mararhodus]

I say this as both a loud feminist and a believer that subtlety is overrated... Black Christmas 2019 is grating. I literally had to quit 30 minutes in and I *don't* do that.

Like, I genuinely don't care that the men are one-dimensional (boo fucking hoo,) but why in god's name are you trying to sell me a ""feminist"" film that treats forcing a woman who was sexually assaulted into a performance about her trauma in front of a large crowd that includes her rapist as the correct thing to do? Genuinely fuck you.

Extremely grateful Sophia Takal didn't get her hands on I Spit On Your Grave. That'd have been an absolute shit show.

[dare-g]

Getting Stoned with Caveh

[tctmp]

Drama  Horror  Mystery

[mykwatchesmovies23]

Always Shine

2016

Directed by Sophia Takal

1/10

Watched 12 March

[spookytuesdaypod]

no more bury your gays it’s time for the gays to bury you 😤😤😤😤😤

[rye-views]

Black Christmas (2019) dir. Sophia Takal. 7.5/10

I would not recommend this movie to my friends. I would not rewatch this movie.

I'm getting Sorority Row vibes. I'm getting slight murder in the dark game vibes since we're trying to be so silent while roaming the house.

If someone shot at me with an arrow...also why is the reload skill so fast? It's cool though.

It's interesting because they really apply a spectrum of character perspectives, esp. Helena's. I feel like somehow they could've gotten the message about misogyny better across. Idk, everything seemed so preachy. Maybe, if they did more action versus dialogue. But, this is a horror movie and action was really set aside for the killings.

Them calling Riley Ri is making me associate my name with her character.

Honestly, Riley talking about the magical bust and trying to take control of the wheel could make me think she's experiencing some kind of mental breakdown.

Lindsay's snow angel death was so unrealistic looking but very beautiful. Franny putting on her pad is also not accurate. wtf.

Franny is slightly amusing.

Nate really seems like trash right before he dies, doesn't he? I understand why he has his pov but he's really saying upsetting things by trying to exclude himself from the problem of patriarchy. Marty's comments about ants are lovely, but her defense against the dude was tragic and naive. Lesson from all horror movies: never use a weapon unless you're capable of using it/never attack unless you're capable.

Memorable Quotes: "Not insane, Miss Stone. Simply men."