Girl Power (via a liberal dose of stabbing) and a "healthy" popcorn kick off our December movie nights.
Dave: Well, that was a bit scarier than I thought it would be. I assumed the 2019 remake of Black Christmas would be a solidly B-to-C horror film, with some deliciously over-the-top gore scenes - and it was - but there were also some great jump scares and, despite some heavy-handedness, a plot with a lot to like. Watching women stuck on a small, private college campus get picked off one by one kept both of us on the edge of our seats, and the "frat boys are brainwashed zombies" plotline was on point. I always love movies that play up the juxtaposition of campy, tacky nostalgia and murder/gore. The empowered women vs. Handmaid's Tale characters confrontation near the end of the film was a bit too ham-handed, as was the (quite literal) subsequent smashing and burning of the patriarchy. Still, it was refreshing to see a horror film with relatively robust female main characters and a bunch of men reduced to abject stereotypes rather than the other way around. Even though the villain was broadcast from the first scene, Black Christmas delivered with a resistance-tinged take on the classic horror film. (⭐️⭐⭐️⭐)
Kale lime popcorn seems an appropriate snack to have with such a woke, probably vegan-and-non-GMO movie. Despite the off-putting name (really, don't emphasize that your snack food contains kale), this was a light, tasty recipe that helped us use up most of the huge bag of kale we got this week from our farm share. I thought it had cheese in it (it didn't), so it must have had a lot of butter and, I'm guessing, a fair amount of salt. Maybe the popcorn board folks could have called this "Butter and Lime Popcorn" and just pretended the kale was a garnish. Still, it was delicious and, unlike many of our popcorns, actually visually appealing, with the green and purple kale (yes, we got purple kale) peeking out from between the popcorn kernels. I'm not sure the recipe was delicious enough to warrant making both kale chips and popcorn, though. (⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2)
Joe: Dave just loves his Hallmark Christmas movies, so it was no surprise to me that he selected Black Christmas as tonight's flick. Having seen neither of the previous iterations of this film (the OG in 1974 and the much-maligned 2006 reboot), I wasn't really sure what to expect. The PG-13 rating hinted at a taming-down of the gore (and, thankfully, I was correct), but there were some delightfully fun scares along the way, even if they were fairly predictable. There's some typical horror film nonsense where something supernatural that's woefully under-explained functions as the primary keystone to the proceedings, but, if nothing else, this film requires you to turn off your brain and enjoy the thrills. I suppose it also wants you think about the pseudo-feminist themes woven throughout, but it's probably better that you don't. Though I did enjoy the all-female ass-kicking during the otherwise incomprehensible ending. (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Kale and lime is a curious combination, is it not. The Popcorn Board so rarely fucks up recipes, but this was... weird. First, I did not use store-bought kale chips. Kale chips are ridiculously easy to make, and if you're buying store-bought, you've been had. So I made two batches of kale chips last night, only one of which survived for today's recipe. Crushing them up and adding them to lime-buttered popcorn ultimately makes no sense because they become soggy, leaving you with reconstituted cooked kale with lime zest and popcorn. Not a great meal, really. Not ghastly. But not great. Kinda like the movie! (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Popcorn recipe from: Popcorn Board
Black Christmas [2019] on IMDB.
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