The Sacrifice Game (2023)

We're going to start this off with a combination spoiler and content warning, because I absolutely loved this movie, it's packed with twists and surprises you're better off not knowing about, and it's also got some extremely disturbing sequences some of you probably are better off being aware of before deciding whether to see it. If gore and violence are dealbreakers for you, this might be worth avoiding, or at the very least holding off until someone who knows your precise limits can advise you on whether it's worth proceeding. However, if you're able to handle a handful of brutal moments, the payoffs here are plentiful, and - again - better if you don't know what's coming. So if you enjoy horror, dark fantasy, or anything of the sort, please stop reading now if that warning didn't scare you off. This is one of the rare incidences where it actually matters.

The Sacrifice Game is sort of a nesting doll of genres, twists, and ideas. It lets you in on just enough to tip you off on the direction it's headed, but keeps surprising you with just how far it's actually willing to go. After a cold opening showcasing a brutal home invasion, the movie begins by masquerading as a story about two lost teenage souls stuck together over the holidays who are destined to be best friends if they can only connect. Anyone paying attention understands one of the leads is being set up for a reveal connected to the occult, but - if you're like me - you're expecting something in the vein of The Shining or perhaps The Craft. But while I suspect both were major influences, the movie's also using our familiarity with these as misdirects. It's got something else up its sleeve, and that something is... well....

Actually the really sweet story about two teenage girls it seemed to be masquerading as at the start. Only, see, one of those teenage girls is an ancient demon (or perhaps some other similar horror or old god) who's masterminded everything horrible that's occurred over the course of the movie, and the other connects with her by murdering a woman with an axe.

I warned you there were going to be spoilers.

Let's back up. The girls are Samantha (the non-demonic one, played by Madison Baines) and Clara (Georgia Acken). Also present is their teacher, Rose (Chloë Levine), who for a time seems to be a contender for the movie's main POV character.

The film plays with point-of-view a great deal. As the story progresses, we're also given some insight into the killers, a group of four cultists ritually sacrificing their victims in an attempt to summon a demon one of them read about years earlier when she was a student at the girl's academy Samantha and Clara are stuck at. It's worth noting that, despite how frightening they seem, the killers are treated as characters, not monsters, and by the end the movie asks us to sympathize with them to an extent. In a sense, we'll learn they're victims, too, both because their pasts drove them to where they ended up and because, well... someone else is ultimately calling the shots here.

But first we need a Christmas Eve dinner, when the killers force their way in and hold the kids, Rose, and eventually Rose's boyfriend hostage. They brutally kill Rose's boyfriend after he tries fighting back, then sacrifice Rose in a ritual to complete the summoning while the frightened children watch.

Well, frightened child: Clara never shows any real signs she's afraid and even smiles when she knows the killers can't see her do so. We also know she's been in the cellar pouring over the same arcane texts that inspired the killers in the first place, and that she's carved symbols into her arm. I was pretty certain she was either channeling whatever power they were trying to tap into or in some other way one step ahead of them on the mystical front.

I was wrong: she was a few million steps ahead. And, as I already spoiled, a few million years (or five thousand, depending on your preferred cosmology). As the killers bicker among themselves over why a demon didn't physically manifest in front of them at the stroke of midnight on Christmas, Clara is biding her time. She starts playing mind games, getting them to wander off one by one, until her, Grant (the strongest of the four killers), and Samantha are alone.

She then lets Grant in on her secret, leveraging his trauma from serving in Vietnam to manipulate and control him. She gets him to release Samantha, who's still mostly scared and confused. She hasn't figured out that Clara is the demon, and she doesn't want to leave her behind. But Clara is adamant that Samantha will die if she stays, so Samantha makes a run for it.

Before long Clara has everyone except Grant bound around a table mirroring the Christmas dinner earlier in the movie. But while that featured gaudy holiday decorations, this is more pagan in design, complete with the head of a deer the killers hit with their car earlier in the film. She explains who (or, to the limited degree the question is ever answered) what she is and how she's been captive in the school for centuries. She of course orchestrated everything so they'd complete the ritual to release her, a process that also requires their deaths. She can't do it herself, of course - that would be against the rules - so she needs them to sacrifice each other or themselves. At her command, Grant mains them one by one, then kills the other two men. When he gets to the last of the killers, he kills himself instead, leaving only Maisie, who'd gone to the school and originally found the ritual, alive.

It's at this point Samantha, having found both her courage and an axe, emerges to try and save her friend or die trying.

Incidentally, the fact I'm even hesitating to call the moment she bursts through the door, axe in hand, to find her classmate overseeing a dark ritual while the last killer runs past her screaming the funniest in the movie should give you a good indication just how great some of this is.

Clara, operating on a deadline, is trying to use magic to drive Maisie to suicide before dawn, but Samantha, finally piecing together the reality of the situation, breaks her concentration. The two have a confrontation in which they battle for the fate of the world share their feelings in a heart-to-heart discussion. It is - and I cannot stress this enough - an angsty teenage conversation relying on the delightful absurdity inherent in the fact one is a literal ancient being of darkness dressed like Wednesday Addams to sell the emotional sincerity of the situation, and....

Look, I'm sure this isn't going to work for everyone. I'm sure there are genre fans who checked out when the movie that had until now consistently escalated into darker and darker territory took an abrupt turn into teenage drama, but... I don't know what to tell you: I just found it absolutely delightful.

It ends with Samantha pleading to Clara (who at that point is literally floating in the air pontificating on how pitiful mortals are) to let her in, then Clara, emotionally drained, pleads, "Let me out." Then, choosing friendship over, well, humanity, she kills Maisie just as the woman's about to escape the school. Free of her curse, Clara steps out and asks if Samantha wants to come with her. The two take hands and head out into the world together on Christmas morning.

And, again, no notes on that ending. Just utter perfection. I'm still chuckling thinking about it.

Honestly, I don't have a lot of notes about the movie as a whole. The magical bindings were a bit cheesy in the scene Clara was ritually sacrificing the killers (kind of sparkly magic things - I'm not sure why they went that route), but that's about as trivial as complaints get. A couple sequences made me squirm, but that's a preference thing - I'm sure serious horror fans were elated by the realistic practical gore effects.

I already mentioned the movie was careful to treat everyone as a character with a point-of-view. Empathy was a major theme in the film, and the narrative was committed to the idea. Despite everything they'd done, I felt at least a little sorry for all but one of the killers (the leader was pretty awful, albeit pathetic). And even when the scope of Clara's culpability was revealed (she orchestrated every killing, remember, including that of Rose), I still wanted her to get away, in part because she, too, was a victim of sorts.

It's genuinely impressive the movie is able to make that work in spite of the horrific events we've been shown, and director Jenn Wexler deserves all the credit in the world for pulling it off.

Let's talk Christmas. From a basic story standpoint, the holidays serve as a catalyst for isolating the protagonists. In addition, the cultural weight of being abandoned at Christmas serves as a character beat enhancing the idea both Samantha and Clara feel like outcasts. As the killers commit their crimes, the holidays are also used for juxtaposition - we see decorations while they're murdering victims, and both their dinner and ritual are set in front of traditional holiday elements, including music, lights, and even an engagement ring (Rose's boyfriend was going to propose).

But it's the ritual organized by Clara I find most interesting. The gaudy lights and holiday music are replaced with decorations with an older, more primal vibe. The animal head, lit candles, and assorted plants feel pagan in nature. Likewise, the sacrifice hints at older traditions. The use of the holidays as a sort of a boundary between one era and the next that's crossed through sacrifice is an idea we've seen before in Christmas horror, including in Prometheus.

And of course there's the holiday connection to the other genre at the core of this movie: the teen adventure. The Harry Potter movies (sidenote: fuck J.K. Rowling and her transphobic bullshit) might be the most interesting parallel, as those also explore the idea of kids stuck at a boarding school over winter break and crossover with genre, albeit in a very different way for very different audiences. And of course it's hilarious The Holdovers came out the same year this did: the two films could literally be set in the same town exactly one year apart.

What's relevant here is that the holidays bridge the divide between genres. This is, after all, the reason Samantha is able to relate with the feelings of isolation and confinement that allow her to connect with Clara. By serving purposes in both genres, they act as a sort of glue that helps the twist work. 

Whether any of that interests you, the movie itself is delightful, surprising, and - despite its subject matter - bizarrely sweet. The cast is great, with Georgia Acken being the clear standout, shifting convincingly between neglected child to terrifying unholy entity to literally both at the same time. The violence and gore are definitely going to be too much for some viewers, and I'm sure others won't be as eager to go along with the big-hearted twist at the end as I was. But those willing to follow the movie on its offbeat path to its even more offbeat destination are in for a real treat.

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