The Big Picture

The Sacrifice Game offers a refreshing twist on the holiday horror genre, delivering a unique and captivating finale that makes it a potential Christmas horror classic. Georgia Acken steals the show with her darkly comedic performance, elevating the film with her commitment and poise. While some parts of the movie feel undercooked, the satisfying and wacky ending, along with Acken’s standout performance, make it a worthwhile horror experience.

There is something that will always be special about a good new genre film to watch at Christmas to break up the many works of disposable holiday fluff that can dominate the season. Nothing against those films, but they can far too easily fall into a familiar pattern that feels like just a rote assembly of scenes we’ve already seen many times before rather than something truly unique. Sure, there is always the action classic Die Hard to fall back on, but that conversation about whether it is truly a Christmas movie has long been put to bed at this point. There is then a hunger for something new and, for those looking for something more horrifying, a bit more on the bloody side to go with their holiday meal. This desire is largely fulfilled in writer-director Jenn Wexler’s Shudder horror The Sacrifice Game as it manages to send up tropes of the genre before putting a twist on them when it counts.

The precise reasons the film works as a fun holiday horror aren’t felt until quite near the end, but the payoff where it gets quite a bit more wacky makes it all worth it. It creates a gift of a finale that elevates the film above its meandering setup. Will it be remembered as a new Christmas horror classic? Very possibly as it does send you out with a cheery smile on your face based on the accumulation of gags that end with the showstopper of an end. None of this can be discussed in any detail so as not to spoil the surprises, but the journey is worth it for the destination. There is still much that feels a little undercooked in the meal being presented, but that dessert is as good a way as any to ensure some of the less delectable crumbs it doled out are forgotten by the time it sinks its teeth into the main event.

What Is ‘The Sacrifice Game’ About?

The basic premise of the film is if The Holdovers was centered less around the existential angst of being alive in a chaotic world and instead leaned fully into the demonic. Specifically, the holdovers in this case are the young Samantha (Madison Baines) and Clara (Georgia Acken) who will be spending their holidays at the Blackvale School for Girls in 1971. Their chaperone Rose (Chloë Levine) and her boyfriend Jimmy (Gus Kenworthy) are the only other people there. That is, until a roving gang of murderers comes knocking on the door on Christmas Eve. Led by the maniacal Jude, who is hilariously played by Mena Massoud of the recent live-action Aladdin remake, they seem to be after something demonic in nature as they are cutting off the skin of their victims that all bear a mysterious symbol. There is also a personal connection to it all as Jude’s right hand/lover Maisie (Olivia Scott Welch) previously went to this same school back in the day. The other two members of the group, the gruff muscle Grant (Derek Johns) and their drunken driver Doug (Laurent Pitre), are less integral to the reason they’re there, though often just as playful as everything descends into chaos.

The nature of this descent surrounds something that is alluded to via flashbacks though doesn’t quite lay all the cards all the table until the film is ready to flip it over. Once this flipping occurs, it gets closer to being a gleefully mean-spirited horror ride to hell on par with some of the best films in the genre from this year thus far. It is in this jolly twist of fate that the film embraces the weird just in the nick of time to ensure the more belabored setup is redeemed. Leading up to this, there is never a moment where the characters aren’t sufficiently chewing up the scene. In particular, Massoud captures just the right balance of despicable charm and frightening menace to give everything the necessary spark before it then catches fire. Similarly, Pitre gets some great lines that keep everything light and silly before it lands the greatest punchline of all. He is a supporting character who ends up becoming one of its greatest assets as he provides the jokes and line deliveries that smooth over some of the otherwise clunky exposition that the film requires to keep things building. That much of this turns out to be a misdirect and the truth was staring us in the face the whole time ultimately renders some of the film rather inevitably inert. However, the key to it all comes from a character that is lurking in the shadows before stepping into the spotlight.

Georgia Acken Steals the Show in ‘The Sacrifice Game’
Image via Shudder

Without talking about how, why, or in what manner, it is Acken who emerges as the darkly delightful standout of The Sacrifice Game. In her feature debut, she quickly kicks everything up a notch when all hinges upon her to do so. She is more than just a creepy kid who delivers proclamations about the plot when the film needs her to, but someone who instills everything with a sense of darkly comedic dread in one showstopping scene after another. Some of this involves some solid gore effects, including one involving a hand on a dining table, but it would be nothing without her performance to give it a beating heart. She is the reason to see the film in the same way Isabelle Fuhrman is in Orphan and Orphan: First Kill. While doing her own thing, she brings that same commitment and poise to a character that makes it all properly fun. It may be taking it too far to clamor for a sequel to what was already a bit of a shaky horror film, but it is Acken who would be worth following anywhere. No matter what season or shape it would take, she is the maniacally beating heart that gives it life.

Rating: 7/10

The Sacrifice Game is available to stream on Shudder in the U.S. starting December 8.

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