Shudder Secrets: The Sacrifice Game: Holiday Home Invasion Meets Occult Horror

With It’s a Wonderful Knife, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, and now The Sacrifice Game, it’s been quite a year for holiday horror. Directed by Jenn Wexler, who co-wrote the script with her partner, Sean Redlitz, The Sacrifice Game uses Christmas as a backdrop to tell a much more interesting story about female friendship, serial killers, and a gnarly demon. The feature also combines elements of home invasion with occult horror.

While The Sacrifice Game may have a snowy, isolated setting and a few Christmas jingles, it’s much more focused on the horror than it is the holiday cheer. Wexler also manages to take familiar and well-worn tropes and flip them, making for a lean 90 minutes that never feels redundant or boring.

The Sacrifice Game and a Familiar Home/School Invasion Premise

From the outset, it’s clear The Sacrifice Game isn’t messing around. This is a film with some surprising kills and plenty of blood. It opens with four serial killers, Maisie (Olivia Scott Welch), Jude (Mena Massoud), Grant (Derek Johns), and Doug (Laurent Pitre), knocking on the door of what seems like a safe, suburban home, only to slaughter everyone inside. This is before the title card even flashes on the screen in mustard yellow, fitting since this feature takes place in the late 1970s. The beginning, or the title card at least, has the feel of a 70s genre movie.

It’s clear from this gory opening that this movie isn’t out to spread holiday cheer. To add, these killers have distinct personalities. Both Jude and Maisie are charismatic ringleaders, while Grant is the muscle, a Vietnam vet still suffering from PTSD. Doug, meanwhile, is the reluctant fourth wheel with a car. It’s unclear why he’s even with the group other than for his vehicle.

This feature simply wouldn’t have worked without the villainous foursome, and Welch and Massoud’s performances especially stand out. They make a heinous and frightening on-screen duo with a dash of humor, too.

While the opening makes it seem like the group will pillage one tinsel-wrapped home after the other, Wexler subverts that opening by setting most of the film in a rural prep school. It’s there where the killers encounter students Samantha (Maidson Baines) and Clara (Georgia Acken), a girl with a strange sort of power who senses when the group murders. Teacher Rose (Chloë Levine) watches over the girls during the holiday season because they have nowhere else to go. Ultimately, after hitting a deer, the killers arrive at the school.

The Sacrifice Game and Occult Horror

By the halfway point, it’s clear The Sacrifice Game isn’t just a home/school invasion film. It turns out the foursome kill to satisfy a demon, to harness its power. It’s a cool twist that keeps the plot interesting while elevating the prep school location. Apparently, the school harbors ancient magic, including how to conjure a demon and channel its power through sacrifice.

By the film’s last act, the very idea of said sacrifice game flips. Without spoiling anything, let’s just say the killers regret ever coming to the school in the first place. There’s also something to be said about the school as a location. It just feels cold, sterile, and isolating, a total contrast to most holiday films and their array of green and red color palates. Just think of the house in Home Alone, for instance. Here, we have much gloomier and drab tones. This feature’s setting simply feels bleak, and there’s more than one gruesome scene that warrants the film’s title.

Is The Sacrifice Game a Holiday Hit or Dud?

I suspect The Sacrifice Game won’t be for everyone. But for fans of Black Christmas, Christmas Evil, and the more macabre holiday offerings, add this one to the must-watch list. It’s a solid horror feature with plenty of surprises and bloody yuletide delights. Wexler and Redlitz took the time to develop the characters while grounding the narrative in female friendship and agency.

The Sacrifice Game streams on Shudder starting December 8.