Black Christmas review

With its prowling camera hunting nubile teens through a cavernous sorority house, Bob Clark’s 1974 original is the missing link between Psycho and Halloween. It is, then, a seminal slasher – and scary as hell despite crawling along like it has a knife in its back.

From Glen Morgan – the producer of Final Destination 1 and 3 – comes a dunderhead redux that quickens the pace but not the pulse. The premise is the same but the sorority sisters are now just so much sweet meat to feed to the grinder, their expanded numbers and shrunken charisma leading to a flurry of senseless, suspenseless deaths. Refusing to learn from the Chain Saw and Hills Have Eyes remakes, Morgan also burdens his mad-eyed killer with – shudder – a backstory.

Positives? An Argento-esque fixation with eyes and voyeurism and a couple of serviceable in-jokes (“It’s the last house on the right”). Ho, ho, ho-hum.