RECENT WATCHES: The Sacrifice Game (2023)

In 2018, Jenn Wexler would direct “The Ranger.” Though it's hard for a retro-leaning slasher movie to stand out in our modern indie horror landscape, Wexler's film managed to put her own twist on the premise, largely by bringing a punk rock energy to the proceedings. A woman making a name for herself in horror usually attracts attention. I'm sure the momentum of her career was paused slightly, thanks to COVID. However, Wexler is finally back with her second feature, “The Sacrifice Game.” And, hey, what do you know, it's a Christmas set fright film. This “Game” dropped on Shudder earlier in the month, where horror nerds can judge where this falls in the Christmas mayhem canon. 

In the mid-seventies, a quartet of killers are terrorizing a small town in the weeks leading up into the holidays. They enter homes and butcher people in ritualistic manners. The looming threat terrifies Samantha, a young girl left at Blackvale Academy as Christmas approaches. The only other student stuck at the school is the mysterious loner, Clara. The Christmas Killers show up on the academy's steps, worming their way inside by faking an injury. Soon, they trap both girls and a teacher in their twisted game. The murderers intend on summoning a demon with their bloody ceremony, as Christmas Eve slowly turns into Christmas morning. However, who the victims are and who the monsters are in this scenario is not immediately apparent...

When most Christmas horror movies are slasher films or anthologies, it is refreshing that “The Sacrifice Game” goes in a slightly different direction. For the first half of its runtime, this is unmistakably a twist on the home invasion movie. Granted, it's a mostly empty school being invaded by a band of roving psychos, not a home. Yet the intent is the same. The killers don't just murder their victims and get out. They tie them up, force them to participate in a twisted Christmas dinner, and play a number of psychological games with them. You can see the DNA of “Funny Games” or “The Strangers” here, though “The Sacrifice Game” isn't as sadistic or purposely intense as either of those. Largely because the murderers are a bit too exaggerated to take seriously, especially Mena Massoud as vamping ringleader Jude. It's also because “The Sacrifice Game” foregrounds its Christmas ambiance so much, creating an obvious ironic contrast to the violence on display here. 

When I saw that “The Sacrifice Game” is set in the seventies, my first assumption was that this is simply an aesthetic decision. Filmmakers like Wexler often set out to emulate the look and feel of retro movies, simply because they love them. Yet I do think “The Sacrifice Game” does invoke the decade in ways that aren't so superficial. Jude and his gang bring to mind Krug's family from “The Last House on the Left,” which was naturally inspired by Charles Manson and his inner circle. This reflects the lingering fears of the hippy subculture, of the changing cultural tide, still relevant at the time. One of Jude's group is also a Vietnam veteran, radicalized by his time overseas. While it could never do this the way actual movies from the seventies did, “The Sacrifice Game” does earn points for working the anxieties of its time period into its script. 

Unfortunately, the film takes a big narrative turn about half-way through. The home invasion premise essentially plays out to its logical end point. The story then continues pass that, slowly turning into a supernatural horror movie. This simply isn't as compelling, largely because the film feels the end to explain the mechanics of its demonic ritual a little too much. The movie really does feel like it's filling time until the finale, splitting characters up and leaving certain parties off-screen until the plot needs them. That last act features some really goofy attempts at scares, via monsters leaping into frame or a very mouthy villain. Wexler is attempting to turn audience's expectations and sympathies on their heads, via switching around who are the victims and who are the monsters. Yet it doesn't land, simply because none of these people are that well defined and the situation is too exaggerated to generate much tension.  

It's a bummer that “The Sacrifice Game” peters out so harshly before it's over. I was really enjoying the earlier sections, how it balanced a grim tension with a campier sense of throwback horror fun. “The Ranger” did that too, so clearly it's something Wexler is good at. Yet I think the script was trying too hard to be too clever, by subverting audience's expectations and catch us off-guard. If it wanted to do that, it probably shouldn't have foreshadowed its own twist quite so much. Still, I've got to give credit where it's due. The film looks good, has a solid cast, and works quite well before it starts to go off the rails. Of the roughly twenty Christmas horror movies that get made every year, this still isn't anywhere close to being the worst one in 2023. [6/10]