Blumhouse's take on Bob Clark's seminal 1974 festive slasher has a suitably seasonal setting but otherwise turns out to be a very slow, anaemic and lacklustre take on the material. Unappealing characters and bland dialogue fail to engage in this 2019 attempt that eschews the gleeful violence of the previous two versions, replacing it with a clumsy attempt to address issues of female consent and patriarchy that is handled bluntly and feels misplaced here. The decision to present a neutered and largely bloodless PG-13 cut that made it into cinemas proves pointless, as the whole point of juxtaposing Christmas with mean-spirited stalk-and-slash kills is lost - mild jump-scares are not enough. There is a reasonably effective twist about an hour in that raises interest for the final act, but this turns into a staggeringly silly half-hour that absolutely beggars belief - and as for the mid-credits scene...
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