Content Advisory: Homophobia, Transphobia
A transgender podcast returning home for the holidays reencounters her town’s legendary serial killer in Carnage for Christmas. Lola (Jeremy Moineau) is the successful co-host of a true-crime podcast who is travelling home for Christmas, to the small town of Purdan, for the first time since running away and transitioning. Lola stays with her sister Danielle (Dominique Booth), one of the few not prejudiced towards Lola’s status as a transgender woman. However, Lola’s return is followed by a killing spree by Purdan’s legendary Santa-dressed serial killer The Toy Maker.
Carnage for Christmas Synopsis
Carnage for Christmas is a “transgender holiday film” from highly prolific 19-year-old Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay. The film is a Christmas-themed slasher film, while also dealing with themes of transexual identity and prejudice. The film’s podcaster protagonist Lola uses her knowledge to become a defacto private investigator and find out who is terrorizing the town of Purdan as The Toy Maker, a serial killer Lola first encountered in her childhood.
My Thoughts on Carnage for Christmas
While there are some elements of Carnage for Christmas that have a campy charm, such as a religion teacher turned drag queen fighting back against the serial killer with her cone bra, the film suffers from a very garish, almost overexposed, visual style and the horror elements of the film being overshadowed by the transgender politics and satire. Carnage for Christmas is edited by Vera Drew of The People’s Joker, though this film is not an effective genre mash-up. While Carnage for Christmas is already director Alice Maio Mackay’s sixth film at only 19 years old, the quantity of her filmography, which includes last year’s T-Blockers, does not necessarily mean quality.
