Carnage for Christmas (2024)

December 24, 2024 10:24 AM

[TRAILER] When true-crime podcaster and sleuth Lola (Jeremy Moineau) visits her hometown at Christmas for the first time since running away and transitioning, the vengeful ghost of a historical murderer and urban legend seemingly arises to kill again. The fifth feature film from 20 year-old filmmaker Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay.

Directed by Alice Maio Mackay. Screenplay by Alice Maio Mackay, Benjamin Pahl Robinson. Cinematography by Aaron Schuppan. Edited by Vera Drew. Produced by Alice Maio Mackay for her own company, One Manner Productions.

89% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming in the US on Shudder. Also available for digital rental/purchase. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (1 comment total)

This is the second of Mackay's films I have seen, the first being her first feature, So Vam. On that one, her filmmaking was a little janky, but as a very young trans woman filmmaker, she's a pretty refreshing voice for the genre and it makes up for a lot.

By the time we get to Carnage for Christmas, she's come a fair way. Her actual directing chops are solidifying a bit. Her next leap forward may have to wait for a bigger budget and/or a bolder screenplay idea.

If she's gone from "actual watchable no budget movie with some finer points" at 17 to "pretty fun ultra low-budget genre fare with a refreshing queer/punk edge" in three years, who even knows where she will be in five or ten years.

Maybe I'm just linking them because he also made a Christmas movie, but Carnage for Christmas is something like a queer Joe Begos film, if you can imagine that: marginalized people with interesting voices bopping around a mostly standard genre premise, to solidly entertaining effect, even with some rough edges.

Like with Begos, your affection for this one may hinge on how interested you are in the characters Mackay gives you.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:54 AM on December 24 [1 favorite]