Cary Elwes – Tripping Through Gateways

Welcome to Christmas time at Hawthorne College. As people are getting ready to leave for break, sorority girls are disappearing. Riley is in her senior year and trying to still come to terms with being raped by a popular frat boy years earlier. She came forward and was not believed. Her best friend Kris is a crusading feminist, leading the cause to get the literature Professor fired. This has the girls a bit on the outs with the male class. It is made all the worse when at a party, the girls call out Riley’s rapist publicly.

The second remake of the Bob Clark classic avoids the biggest mistakes of the previous remake by really not being a remake at all. This is a new take with a different type of killer.

Other than a sorority and a college setting, there is little in common with Bob Clark’s original or the previous remake. And there are some real positives.

I really enjoyed the chemistry of the leads. I was able to buy their friendships. There are some great visuals taking full advantage of the college’s architecture and setting. And the adding of the gender politics angle is not as obtrusive as some one think (the irony being the folks most offended by the film are already echoing the villains). The film is pretty basic feminist theory, the kind that rankles guys like Stefan Molyneux. So, yeah, if you are set off by stuff like “the patriarchy” and references to “rape culture”? I suppose that you might struggle with this film.

The biggest flaw is that male characters never feel fleshed out enough to make sense beyond their stereotypical frat boys. The only exceptions are the boyfriend of sorority girl Marty, Nate and Landon… a polite love interest for Riley. They are, throughout the film portrayed and decent guys. Then there is Cary Elwes’ Professor Gelson. He is a character that could have been a great bit of misdirection. He is, after all, soft spoken and seemingly gentle. But the film also makes it clear from the start his bone to pick is related to the “Conflict of the Sexes”. And oddly, he just seems like such an empty character.

Overall, this is an okay slasher film. And if you are going to make more Black Christmas films? Maybe an anthology franchise of horror stories set at Christmas is the way to go. This is not a classic, (and face it, will be flattened by Jumanji the Next Level and Frozen 2) but it is a serviceable horror film.

Truth be told, I was not anticipating much with this film. It was motion capture and seemed like a vanity project for Carrey to show off.

And yet, the motion capture was not as distracting as I expected. The character designs had an old storybook look.

And yes, it is an opportunity for Carrey to show off, but this film works in his favor. Carrey provides the voice of Scrooge and all three Ghosts. The film has some of the most imaginative takes on the ghosts, as only animation allows.

The Ghost of Christmas Present has a flame for a head, symbolic of the birth of hope (at least to me) to be mined from the past. While the Ghost of Christmas Present appears very much like other incarnations in his wreath crown and red robe, Carrey plays him with a wicked glee. This is a powerful component of the Ghost that can often be missed. He enjoys sticking it to Scrooge by using his own words against him. The best adaptions of the story remember this.

Marley is spot on. He is downright horrifying, as is fitting to the story. If your Marley is not fear inducing, you are getting it all wrong. And here, Marley’s arrival is intense.

The performances are all effective. Oldman’s Marley is grim, angry and desperate. His Bob Cratchit kindly and gentle. Colin Firth brings warmth and joy to Fred. But Carrey? He shines as Scrooge. He brings the right amount of fear and bitterness to Scrooge. His ghosts echo his voice ever so slightly, as if each ghost has a direct link to Scrooge.

Post conversion Scrooge hits all the right notes. He is giddy, joyful and full of hope. There is a glint of childish mischievousness in him as he plays off the expectations of those around him and then surprises them.

The one sore spot for me is that there two absurd and over the top effects sequences. The first has Scrooge rocketing through the sky after extinguishing the ghost of Christmas Past. The second is where Scrooge shrinks and grows while trying to outrun the horses of the Ghost of Christmas Future.

But overall, writer/director Robert Zemeckis and his cast seem to understand the story, and put together a pretty effective version of the tale. They get the horror element, the scary aspect of the story, but also the hope and redemption. I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

Tag: Cary Elwes

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