Review: carnage for christmas (2024)

MARCH 9TH, 2024

Holiday-themed horror is nearly as old as the genre itself. While Halloween, for obvious reasons, lends itself to the genre the best, Christmas appears to be another popular choice for holiday horror. And, honestly, why wouldn’t it be? Despite the facade of cheer, Christmas is a pretty spooky holiday no matter how one looks at it. The Pagan traditions behind the holiday, like Halloween, have a spooky edge but the forced holiday “cheer” is equally terrifying to those who fear going home rather than celebrating it. This makes the dearth of queer, Christmas horror all the stranger.

Luckily Alice Maio Mackay’s latest release Carnage for Christmas, which premiered at this year’s Salem Horror Festival, is a great way to fill this very specific genre niche. Taking cues from early holiday horror classics like 1974’s Black Christmas combined with the fun style of old teen detective shows, Mackay presents a high-octane, stylish slasher that encapsulates the all-too-familiar feeling of returning to a place that isn’t really home for the holidays. It’s easily Mackay’s most stylish and unabashedly fun work yet.

Carnage follows Lola (Jeremy Moineau), a true crime podcaster, who returns to her hometown for the holidays. After moving to the city and forming her own community with partner Charlie (Zarif) and best friend Farrah (Cassie Hamilton) coming home, especially after transitioning, is unappealing to say the least. Although her sister Danielle (Dominique Booth) provides some comfort, Lola’s return also coincides with the return of an urban legend: a murderer in dirty Santa garb. Lola must use her true crime know-how in order to stop the killer before it kills those closest to her.

Photo courtesy of FilmFreeway

With each new release, it’s obvious that Mackay becomes more assured of herself as a filmmaker; her direction is progressively more creative and self-assured. Like with most of Mackay’s films, the largely recurring cast and crew certainly understand the assignment. Per usual, there’s gorgeous neon lighting and a fun techno-esque score. Carnage has some of Mackay’s most creative direction yet, littered with kinetic sequences and interesting shots. The mystery-thriller edge to this holiday horror allows for some really fun shots as Lola and team search for clues. The kills also get a lot of extra love in Carnage as well, with a perfect amount of suspense and pay-off. The synchronicity between Mackay and cinematographer Aaron Schuppan, who has worked on all of Mackay’s previous four features, is at its peak here. Carnage also includes a few new additions, notably its animated sequences and punchy transitions–courtesy of the People’s Joker herself Vera Drew, who edited the film. On a technical level, this is easily Mackay’s most polished work yet.

Compared to her previous features, particularly last year’s Satranic Panic, Carnage for Christmas is considerably light on story. That’s not a bad thing since no second of the 70 minute runtime is wasted. There’s still a lot of thematic work around violence against trans women both before and after coming out, with the little nuances played to perfection by Moineau. Lola is a much more self-assured protagonist, perhaps a reflection of Mackay’s own confidence, and knows exactly how to handle herself in her conservative town. She openly sasses corrupt and lazy cops and brazenly decides to track down the killer herself. Lola, even moreso than Danielle and her friends, still harbors a lot of hard feelings towards the town and its inhabitants. While she remains a little wary, at the behest of Charlie, she’s more than willing to get her hands dirty. 

Carnage for Christmas is a fun queer spin on holiday horror. While it’s a little light on story, the technical aspects of the film are consistently exciting enough to hold attention. It’s another solid work by Mackay, one that makes having Christmas in May much more fun.

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Rating: 🦄🦄🦄🦄

Red Broadwell is a first-year film studies MA student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Their other work can be found at https://redbroadwell.journoportfolio.com

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Stay spooky!   

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