Black Christmas | 2019 | PG-13 | – 4.7.5

Why is “Black Christmas” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violence, terror, thematic content involving sexual assault, language, sexual material and drinking.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kisses and a near rape and discussions of a rape in the past, and several young women wear skimpy elf costumes during a holiday performance and sing a song about sex and sexual assault; many scenes of people being followed and murdered with some blood shown and other murders with a black liquid spewing as if it is blood, and several arguments and references to a drug being administered to young women at fraternity parties; and at least 1 F-word and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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When sorority sisters are being stalked and begin disappearing from a college campus, a few gather the courage to fight those responsible and they discover that the killer is part of an underground misogynistic college conspiracy. With Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O’Grady, Caleb Eberhardt, Cary Elwes, Simon Mead, Madeleine Adams, Nathalie Morris, Ben Black, Zoë Robins and Ryan McIntyre. Directed by Sophia Takal. [Running Time: 1:32]

Black Christmas SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A young man kisses a young woman and pushes her back on a bed, he unfastens his pants (we see his bare chest and abdomen) and reaches for a condom as the young woman seems to try to clear her head (she is drunk or drugged) and says “Wait!”; another young woman enters the room interrupting them and takes the first young woman away as the young man complains. A young woman has a couple of flashbacks to a young man attacking her after he drugged her (rape is implied and we see him holding her wrists as he straddles her).
► A young man and a young woman smile at each other in a flirtatious manner. A young man and a young woman have an awkward interaction after she invites him to a dinner.
► Four young women wear “sexy elf costumes” and sing a song on stage at a fraternity party (cleavage, bare shoulders and bare legs to the upper thighs are seen) and the lyrics include joking references to sex in a fraternity house and then they shift to descriptions of being drugged and raped. A young woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage. A young woman opens her pants and puts a “Diva cup” between her legs before going to an exam (we see no nudity).
► A young woman makes a reference to “self-care” and never needing a man again (implying a sex aid). A young woman talks about her father leaving her mother and that she understands why. A young woman says she’s “wearing a thong and some other underwear” and another woman says, “I’m wearing nothing.”

Black Christmas VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A young woman walks alone in the dark and a man walks behind her; she receives threatening DMs and becomes frightened, holding her keys as a weapon until the man crosses the street, she turns around to face a person wearing a heavy robe with a hood and she screams, runs to a nearby house, the stalker follows and she falls over a snowman, runs again and another person wearing a heavy robe answers the door, shoves the young woman to the ground and stabs her in the chest with an icicle (we hear a crunch). A person wearing a hooded robe wraps a string of lights around a young woman’s neck from behind her and jerks her back (we hear a crunch). A young woman in a dark storage room plugs in string lights that don’t light and when one finally does light, she sees a person wearing a hooded robe and a mask as the person lunges toward her and she screams (we see her dead in a chair wrapped with the lights around her neck later). A young woman raises an axe and charges toward a masked person who takes the axe and stabs her in the abdomen (we see her on the floor with blood on her sweater); she grabs the person’s legs as he tries to leave the room and he kicks her in the head (we see blood on the young woman’s mouth and we see her dead later).
► A person with a bow and arrows grabs a young woman and holds her against a wall as he slowly cuts her cheeks (we see blood); he tries to kiss her and she pulls away and gets a set of keys from the floor and stabs the attacker in the neck (she is sprayed with a black liquid and we see the keys sticking out of the attacker’s neck). A masked person stands on a kitchen counter and jumps down to attack a young woman; he slams her on the counter and holds her by the throat and another young woman stabs him in the back and the first young woman stabs him in the head. A masked person holds a young woman around the throat and she begins to lose consciousness until the attacker is shot in the back by an arrow; many young women with weapons enter the room and fight with many young men (we see people being tasered, stabbed, punched and kicked, and we hear crunching but do not see blood). A young man picks up an axe and raises it to hit a person holding a bow and arrows, the bow person shoots, and the young man falls to the floor dead (below the frame). A masked person moves toward a young woman and snaps her neck quickly (she falls dead and we hear a snap). A young woman is pinned on the floor by a young man, she wrestles with him, gets free and then slams his head on a step. A young woman throws an oil lamp toward a man, setting his robe on fire, and we hear him scream as he runs out of the room in flames. Several young women block a door with bats through the handles to keep people inside from getting out as the room and the building are engulfed in flames.
► A security guard arrives at a house where young women are being attacked and we see one young woman stabbing someone on the floor when the door is opened and the security guard is stabbed in the back (we hear a crunch and see the bloody knife blade as he falls dead). A young woman pulls on a set of keys in a dead person’s neck (they won’t come free), an attacker comes from behind her and chokes her and another young woman smothers the attacker with a plastic bag over his face. A young woman cuts a young man’s face with a hair comb (we see blood on his cheek). A young woman is shown dead with blue-tinged skin, sitting on a balcony. A young woman backs into her room and closes the door and we see a hooded individual standing behind her (she is presumably killed).
► An arrow sails through a room and nearly hits three young women, another arrow strikes one young woman in the leg (we see blood on her legs and later on her cheek) and the three run and hide in a closet. Two young women move quietly through a house where a person with a bow and arrows is prowling; one young woman carries a broomstick as a weapon. Two young women get into a car as a person wearing a mask and hooded robe shoots an arrow at them (no one is struck). A young man holds a young woman and another tells her to “bow to the king” as a masked person enters the room.
► A young woman has a nightmare and flashes back to an incident when she was attacked by a young man; we see him pouring a powder into a drink and he holds the nearly unconscious young woman down on a bed by the wrists. A young woman regains consciousness in a room where she is tied to a chair and many robed people stand around the room pounding bats on the floor. A young woman is startled when a man touches her on the shoulder. A young woman finds another young woman tied to a piece of furniture in a room and when she unties her, she is struck in the head and knocked unconscious.
► Several young women and a young man argue and one young woman pushes the young man out of the house. A threatening message on a phone reads, “What do Christmas hams and sorority girls have in common?” “They both squeal before they die.” A young woman receives a DM that reads, “I can’t wait to see if you’ll put up a fight.” We understand that a young woman’s parents died. A man talks about the threat posed by women and that women are trying to repress their true maleness, and that women must be compliant and obedient. A young woman talks about women taking their rightful place behind men. A reference is made to men “killing disobedient women.” People make several comments about what a young man did to a young woman and that he should be in jail for what he did, but that no one believed her when she reported it (she was drugged and sexually assaulted). A young woman says that her sister will, “String her up” if she misses her train. A young woman calls out to a cat, “I swear I am never feeding you again” as she tries to find the cat, and she follows by saying, “Ask my childhood hamster. It’s super dead.” A few phone messages and texts are heard and seen and refer to people not arriving home as they were supposed to. A professor talks about people circulating a petition to have him fired for teaching the traditional, male dominated “classics.” A security guard tells a young woman, “Boys will be…, well you know.” A young woman reports weird occurrences to a campus security guard who dismisses her.
► A young man throws things around a room breaking equipment and furniture while yelling angrily; several people wearing hooded robes approach him and tell him he’ll have to undergo some hazing and he bends over holding his head and he moans when he hears a high-pitched whistle. A young woman throws a bust on the floor breaking it to pieces (we see the pieces and a pool of black liquid around it). A young woman drags a snow shovel as a weapon through a dark street. People in an audience throw things at four young women singing a song about being attacked by fraternity members.
► The bust of a college founder is shown in a room and we see it with streams of black liquid (like blood) coming from its eyes and collecting in a puddle at its base. We see what resembles gargoyles on campus buildings. Fraternity pledges take part in a ritual where they wear heavy robes and one of the older members smears a black liquid on the foreheads while reciting some words. Several young men in a fraternity are shown wearing robes with hoods in several scenes.
► A young woman vomits after drinking too much and we hear splattering and retching (we do not see goo). A young woman holds her mouth and runs out of a room (presumably to vomit, but we hear and see nothing). Two young women talk about a “Diva cup” and it is implied that it is a device to catch urine. A comment is made that someone “projectile vomited” (we do not see this). A young woman rinses her mouth and spits in a sink (we do not see anything). A cat is shown with a black liquid on its paws.

Black Christmas LANGUAGE 5

 – At least 1 F-word, 1 obscene hand gesture, 5 sexual references, 18 scatological terms, 6 anatomical terms, 14 mild obscenities, name-calling (orphans, crusading, racist, sexist, white supremacist, frat boy, bold, coward, dumb game, little girl, creepy, lame, morons, teases, Miss Jew, fat [scatological term deleted], weird, not human, insane, traitor, grouchy, pushy, hysterical, man hating, defamatory), exclamations (what the heck, freaked out, come on, seriously, calm down), 11 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Oh God, I Swear To God, God Knows Who, Jesus, Oh Thank God). | profanity glossary |

Black Christmas SUBSTANCE USE

 – People at a fraternity party are shown drinking alcohol, several young women drink champagne, a young woman carries a bottle of wine and a glass with her, beer bottles and cups are shown on the porch of a house after a party, and a young man drinks a beer.

Black Christmas DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Rape, Rohypnol, fraternities, sororities, gender roles, misogyny, racism, sexism, rape culture, being shy, patriarchy, college traditions, fraternity rituals, dark arts, magic, friendship, self-defense, courage, Charles Dickens, supernatural activity.

Black Christmas MESSAGE

 – Women can fight back against misogyny and should never stop fighting.