The Sacrifice Game – Fantasia 2023
Natalie Portman Teaches Acting
July 20 to August 9, 2023
Content Advisory: Excessive or gratuitous violence
FILM FESTIVAL
Fantasia 2023
Fantasia Film Festival
PROGRAMME
Septentrion Shadows
A group left behind at their boarding school during Christmas Eve are terrorized by a gang of serial killers planning to conduct a demonic ritual in The Sacrifice Games. Samantha (Madison Baines) and Clara (Georgia Acken) are two students at the Blackvale School for Girls, who have been left behind for the 1971 Christmas holidays with their teacher Rose (Chloë Levine) and her boyfriend Jimmy (Gus Kenworthy). The group’s Christmas dinner is disrupted by the arrival of Jude (Mena Massoud), Maisie (Olivia Scott Welch), Grant (Derek Johns), and Doug (Laurent Pitre), a psychotic gang on a Christmas killing spree. Blackvale is the final stop of the Christmas Killers, who plan to conduct a sacrificial ritual to summon an all-powerful demon.
The Sacrifice Game – Synopsis
The Sacrifice Game is the sophomore feature from co-writer and director Jenn Wexler (The Ranger). The film stars Madison Baines (The Young Arsonists) and Georgia Acken as two boarding school students left behind during the Christmas of 1971. Their solitude is disrupted by the Manson Family-like Christmas Killers, played by Mena Massoud (Aladdin), Olivia Scott Welch (Fear Street: Part One – 1994), Derek Johns, and Laurent Pitre. The Christmas Killers hope to summon a demon to given them great power, however it is soon revealed that the dark entity has other plans for the gang.
My Thoughts on The Sacrifice Game
One of the most notable takeaways from The Sacrifice Game is Mena Massoud doing a complete 180 from his most well-known role as Aladdin and playing the main antagonist Jude as an absolutely hatable sleazy greaser serial killer. Massoud’s performance almost becomes too much, but thankfully the film pivots in the second half, revealing Jude and the other Christmas Killers in be in over their head when dealing with the demon they are trying to summon. I don’t want to give away too much, but The Sacrifice Game is a solid sophomore film from Jenn Wexler.
