‘Carnage For Christmas’ Salem Horror Fest 2024 Review: An Incredible Slay Ride
Carnage for Christmas opens with a close-up on Lola (Jeremy Moineau), a true-crime podcaster, discussing a small town’s haunting past and whispered urban legend, immediately evoking memories of The Fog’s Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau). Armed with a silky DJ voice, that goddess of flannel protected her community with unpaid overtime, a mic, and investigation skills! Sure, Carnage for Christmas has no zombie fishermen; however, its heroine, Lola, feels like she’s cut from that same cloth, relying on the power of spreading vetted information to save the day. Both leads become beacons in communities clouded with bias. Overall, the plot follows Lola’s return to her hometown since she’s transitioned, where transphobia and homophobia hang thickly in the oppressive air. Of course, bodies begin stacking up the longer she’s home with cryptic clues of holiday toys and body parts.
Directed by Alice Maio Mackay and co-written by Mackay and Ben Pahl Robinson, Carnage for Christmas’ greatest strength is Lola’s straightforward and ACAB approach to solving a murder mystery involving her queer community. From the jump, we trust Lola’s calm, cool, and confident handling of cases. Her voice is so magnetic that listening to her tell tales is equally (and, sometimes, a bit more) captivating than watching any action unfold due to Moineau’s command of the material. If this film was content to stay in its sound booth storytelling setting (a la Pontypool), it’d still be a riveting watch.
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However, this is Mackay we’re discussing here! If any of her previous films—So Vam, T Blockers, and Bad Girl Boogey—have shown us anything, it’s that they’re led by trans women who don’t give a f*** about inhabiting safe or predictable storylines. Yes, these are films determined to break down inequitable barriers affecting the trans and queer community. But they are also films that enjoy being messy, loud, and unmoored. Alien parasites! Teenage vamps! Now, a killer holiday slasher unveiling a town’s buried past comes alive.
Like her previous work, Mackay’s dialogue brazenly (and admirably) declares the death of queer subtext. At times, this makes conversations between characters sound a bit forced—especially during first meetings between characters. But it’s still refreshing to see people unquestionably out on screen. The world of her films feels like an alternate reality where it’s safe to be queer and trans and questioning, and the more visual stimuli of that, the better for our brains. Plus, it’s easy to handwave some clunky exposition, especially when the majority of characters’ banter is breezy and naturalistic post-greetings.
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Part of the joy of her work is that it feels like you have no idea how this plane will land while also being confident that the runway will be lit up with the carcasses of transphobes, homophobes, and a gleefully DIY punk rock aesthetic with glowsticks. In other words, it’s one hell of a fun ride to witness. However, Carnage for Christmas feels like a slight departure from her previous entries.
Its embodiment of a crime-solving plot follows the subgenre’s more traditional choices: a cop sidekick, a Nancy Drew-like lead, a killer unmasked, and a clean third-act ending. Additionally, and especially because it’s so ACAB, it’s hard not to pause at the choices made around the few POC characters in this film who are made serviceable to the plot but don’t feel developed enough. Still, there are enough creative punches between the plot points to feel like a Mackay production with gore-filled presents up its Santa sleeves.
Makeup designer Adele Shearwin (Talk 2 Me) serves up some impressive kill scenes that fans of procedural body horror like Seven and Spiral will find deliciously demented. Emmy-nominated Vera Drew (The People’s Joker) layers cut after cut throughout Carnage for Christmas in a way that makes you feel as if you’re watching a photograph burn under the spotlight into your iris, adding to the gorgeously trippy and visually alluring aesthetic shooting style. By the end of its runtime, you’ll be saddened that this campy adventure has to end and begging others to invest in Mackay’s feature work so we can see more lived-in worlds with refreshingly spunky characters facing all the horrors of the real and unreal.
Summary
While a slight departure from her previous works, Alice Maio Mackay’s ‘Carnage For Christmas’ is a bloody and unabashedly queer good time.
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