The Scare Salon

I know I haven’t been posting on here much lately, but that’s mostly because I’ve been busy with work, and also because I’ve been trying to take in as many 2025 horror flicks as possible with a view to doing another massive, year-end top twenty like I did for 2024. But as the holidays are coming up, I figured I could do at least one Christmas horror just to get everyone in the spirit. It took me forever to decide which one I wanted to do, though; as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve already covered most of the good Christmas horror movies, so it’s getting harder every year to come up with something worth watching. Perusing Shudder’s “Unhappy Holidays” collection, I first started with 2005’s Santa’s Slay, but I just couldn’t get into it; it’s funny and brutal and all, but I just wasn’t in the mood for a horror comedy, I guess, so I turned it off and kept looking, searching for something with more of a creepy Christmas vibe rather than a zany one.

And that’s when I came across a 2023 film called The Sacrifice Game, directed by Jenn Wexler. I’d never heard of it, but it had several glowing reviews from the always-discerning Shudder viewership, and it was based around a spooky school for girls and featured a murderous cult. Sounded like my cup of eggnog, so I fired it up. And damn, I’m glad I did; this turned out to be a pretty great Christmas horror all around, with a chilly, eerie setting, some fairly savage violence, good acting performances, and a twisty plot that kept the story interesting for the entire runtime.

The Sacrifice Game doesn’t fuck around at all, and gets you hooked into the story right away. Set in 1971, the film opens with a gang of killers—led by the slick, charismatic Jude (Mena Massoud), with his crew including stoic Vietnam vet Grant (Derek Johns), seductive Maisie (Olivia Scott Welch), and twitchy Doug (Laurent Pitre)—ruthlessly murdering a couple in their home, Manson family style. We’re not immediately sure what their motives are, but from mentions of a particular schedule they’re presumably keeping to, we’re led to assume that the gang is doing a killing spree for some ritualistic purpose.

Meanwhile, there’s a remote all-girls boarding school called Blackvale Academy, which is just letting out for the Christmas break. Most of the students are heading home for the holidays, but two girls are forced to stay behind: sweet but troubled newcomer Samantha (Madison Baines) and quiet, enigmatic Clara (Georgia Acken), both of whom are the targets of mean-girl bullies. Samantha was placed in the school after her mother died and her stepfather didn’t want to deal with her; she was actually supposed to go home for Christmas, but her douchey stepfather called and told her he wasn’t coming to get her after all. Clara’s family is more of a mystery; the mean girls ask if she’s an orphan, but she never answers the question, simply grabbing the notebook she’s always scribbling in and stalking off. The only other people remaining at the school with the girls is young, sympathetic teacher Rose (Chloë Levine), and her boyfriend Jimmy (Gus Kenworthy), who also works at Blackvale. There’s also a security guard, but he doesn’t factor much into the story.

The girls have heard about the gang of murderers making their way across the region, dubbed The Christmas Killers by the media; they’re nervous about the proximity of the crimes, but figure what are the odds the killers will end up at the school? Well…pretty fucking good, as it turns out.

While Jimmy is dropping off the last of the students at the train station, leaving Rose, Samantha, and Clara alone at the school and preparing for Christmas dinner, the killers turn up on their doorstep, initially asking for help. Doug has been shot in the arm during an encounter with police, and Rose reluctantly lets the group inside so she can patch him up. But in short order, it becomes clear to everyone that this is indeed the gang the news has been warning about, and from this point forward, the film becomes a tense, invasion-style narrative, but with an intriguing supernatural, Satanic cult angle.

One of the best things about the film is the way it plays with expectations; while the killers are contemptible people, they all have distinct personalities and hidden depths, and all have what they believe are legitimate reasons for doing what they’re doing. On the other side, Rose and the girls are suitably terrified (though Clara seems oddly unfazed by the horrific situation, for reasons that become obvious later), but attempt to fight back against their fates at every opportunity.

About two-thirds of the way through the movie, there’s something of a twist that I won’t spoil, but it makes the movie even more fun and fucked up going forward.

Performance-wise, the young leads absolutely carry this film. Georgia Acken is great as Clara; her quiet intensity builds to something extraordinary, and Madison Baines brings a low-key strength and honor to Samantha, making her arc from scared teen to empowered accomplice feel earned. The killers are also fantastic, especially Mena Massoud’s dangerously charming menace as Jude and Laurent Pitre’s vulnerable, reluctant turn as Doug, but the standout villain energy comes from the group dynamic as a whole, with all of the actors playing really well off one another.

Director Jenn Wexler leans hard into a 1970s retro aesthetic here, without it feeling gimmicky: grainy film stock vibes, period-appropriate fashion, and a soundtrack that mixes creepy carols with ominous synths. The setup is tense and claustrophobic, making great use of the empty school hallways and flickering Christmas lights for atmosphere. The pacing is tight, with no filler or slow spots, and scares come more from tension and inevitability than cheap jumps, which I always appreciate. There’s also some genuinely gnarly kills (the practical gore here is top-notch—shoutout to the effects team for those arterial sprays and throat slashes). And besides all that, The Sacrifice Game has some real emotional heft to it, boasting an ending that’s sort of heartwarming, in a messed up way.

In the crowded field of holiday horrors, The Sacrifice Game stands out for nicely subverting the invasion horror formula while still delivering the goods on blood and atmosphere. It’s got heart (twisted as it is), strong female leads, and just enough supernatural flair to elevate it beyond pure slasher territory. If you’re a fan of stuff like Black Christmas (the original, obviously) or Better Watch Out, or want to see a Christmas-specific, supernatural version of something like The Strangers, this should scratch that itch nicely.

Until next time, keep it creepy (and Christmassy), my friends.