THE SACRIFICE GAME (2023)

New streaming on Shudder!
Directed by Jenn Wexler.
Written by Sean Redlitz, Jenn Wexler.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/FgUtPsloNxs

It’s 1971 and Samantha (Madison Baines) finds out she has to stay at her boarding school for the Christmas break instead of going home. But it’s okay. The class outcast Clara (Georgia Acken) and their young teacher Rose (Chloë Levine) are there to help her celebrate the holidays anyway. Meanwhile, a cult lead by the maniacal Jude (Mena Massoud) have been murdering seemingly random people every night leading up to Christmas Eve. When the cult shows up at the doorway of the boarding school, they force their way in and sit themselves down for a dinner with Samantha, Clara, and Rose, but what secrets does this boarding school have lurking in its basement and what does it have to do with the cult’s rampage?

Jenn Wexler delivered the fun and frantic THE RANGER a few years back and returns with another thrill a minute rollercoaster of a horror yarn set on Christmas. While the Christmassy aspects don’t really take center stage to the story, it does provide a nice way to get our protagonists alone and that’s all the impetus needed for some merry mayhem. Wexler keeps the story popping by jumping back and forth between teenage angst at the school to the cult’s various attacks. And once the cult shows up, things continue to get nice and dire as these guys mean business and play for keeps, as evidenced by some pretty significant deaths along the way.

Much of what makes this film work is the cast. On the side of the angels, sort of, is Madison Baines’ Samantha and Georgia Acken’s Clara who have good chemistry together despite the fact that both are reluctant to form a bond. Their young age doesn’t seem to be a factor in delivering the drama needed for their pivotal roles in the story. While I love Chloe Levine as an actress, especially in the tragically underseen THE TRANSFIGURATION and the previously mentioned THE RANGER, I feel she might have been miscast as the young teacher. Sure she may be the right age for the role, but Levine has a youthfulness that makes her feel right at home with the two very much younger girls she is supposed to be watching. Levine just didn’t fit as the oldest of this group of protagonists for me.

In the opposite corner are the cult members. I really liked the messed-up dynamic of the group as every one of the them seems to be in love with Olivia Scott Welch’s Maisie and for good reason. She is quite the temptress, despite her young age. Laurent Pitre’s Doug has the right kind of smarm and reminds me a bit of a young Ed Norton here. And while Mena Massoud’s Jude is center stage most of the time and does deliver a diabolically bent performance, his gleeful “I’m so bad and I love it” attitude wears a bit thin. Seeing these despicable people take on the seemingly innocent girls of the school is a dire dynamic indeed.

There are twists and turns galore in THE SACRIFICE GAME. There might be a tiny lull in the middle as the final plot point is driven all the way home a little too much, but for the most part, all of these turns work. I’ll leave it at that, as I feel the surprises are what make this movie work so well. While the subversion of expectations have become absolutely expected these days, Wexler is able to make it all make sense and entertaining. Add in a wonderful 70’s flair as well as some great 70’s music, and you’ve got a solid holiday horror film that is definitely worth a watch.