ALT: a poster that says " support your local gay club "

ALT: two women standing next to each other with one saying look i hate cops !!!

ALT: a woman in a red dress says lesbians while standing in front of a window

ALT: a close up of a woman smoking a cigarette with her eyes closed

ALT: a black and white photo of a monster with headphones on his head

I really wanted to like this more than I did. A queer holiday horror with a low budget? I was fully on board. The story is there—a trans woman with a true-crime podcast returns to her small town, only...

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Probably Alice Maio Mackay's most polished film, and although Carnage for Christmas is less rough around the edges than her previous works, there's still a lot to love here.

<p>Australian writer-director Alice Maio Mackay (working here once again with co-writer Benjamin Pahl Robinson) is a ridiculously young and prolific film-maker. She's also transgender, which helps to inform and layer her filmography. It's just a shame that her talent doesn't yet equal her enthusiasm, BUT <b>Carnage For Christmas</b> shows how far she has come since her debut feature, <b><a href="https://foritismansnumber.blogspot.com/2022/09/shudder-saturday-so-vam-2022.html">So Vam</a></b>. There continues to be something to be said, however, in favour of the past times when young aspiring film-makers would have more time to learn the craft as they struggled and hustled to find the funds and resources to get their films made. The worst elements of <b>Carnage For Christmas</b> are the ones that feel as if Mackay took the quickest and cheapest option when a bit of time and care might have reaped greater reward.</p><p>Jeremy Moinea plays Lola, a true-crime podcaster who heads home for the Christmas holiday. Heading home at that time of year can be stressful, even more so when you're a trans woman, and things get worse when someone starts a killing spree, endangering those in the present, many of them also being aware of similar killings that happened some time in the past.</p><p>It's very frustrating to see how Mackay seems content to churn out features that don't feel properly finished. The acting, the special effects, and even the plotting and dialogue all feel wildly varying in quality and half-assed. She has improved in a number of ways, mainly in the strength of the main ideas being explored, but has remained disappointingly stuck in other ways. </p><p>Moineau is a decent lead, which helps the movie immensely. She's not the best at the actual acting, but her presence and attitude more than makes up for that, and she's someone worth rooting for as she wades into increasingly dangerous waters. Dominique Booth isn't bad, playing Lola's sister, Zarif does enough to make his few scenes work, and Tumelo Nthupi and Joe Romeo manage to stand out from a surprisingly crowded supporting cast.</p><p>It's a shame that there isn't a bit more done here to comment on the very popular true-crime podcasting bubble, although other films have already made good headway through that fertile ground, but at least Mackay uses some of the brief runtime (this clocks in at just about 70 minutes) to explore another side of the trans experience. I won't detail any more here, I don't want to spoil anything that majorly contributes to the plotting, but Mackay feels like a stronger voice when depicting specific issues that surely come from a place of personal experience.</p><p>I still have a few other features helmed by Mackay to watch, but I'm not optimistic about any of them feeling fully-formed and fully worth my time. The slight upward trajectory of her abilities have helped me become just a little bit more enthusiastic though. I'll keep supporting her for a while yet, and I'll be absolutely delighted if she one day realises that she can help herself immensely by learning to walk more steadily before trying to run.<br/></p><p>4/10</p><p>If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing, and ALL of the links you need are here - <a href="https://linktr.ee/raidersofthepodcast">https://linktr.ee/raidersofthepodcast</a><br/>Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - <a href="https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews">https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews</a><br/>Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share">https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share</a></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMyW8R9bgQOTwMjz4v0dRcDPe6tgIm0JeCvBbJP4JhvknjGmqtb6a3HxlZ3HkFtnLiB_fMsJNpxn1vY3XDcrmq1bUo_9CnYA6Xw9lruuiFJp-aeExvvilP1XNQrn2YNv-jTGg9ElpvIf-50qXnks9tXXq1Cr9sRL5yqbrSASeptfdnySCzQKaWekDhje1k/s974/Screenshot%202024-12-14%20at%2022.10.19.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="974" data-original-width="866" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMyW8R9bgQOTwMjz4v0dRcDPe6tgIm0JeCvBbJP4JhvknjGmqtb6a3HxlZ3HkFtnLiB_fMsJNpxn1vY3XDcrmq1bUo_9CnYA6Xw9lruuiFJp-aeExvvilP1XNQrn2YNv-jTGg9ElpvIf-50qXnks9tXXq1Cr9sRL5yqbrSASeptfdnySCzQKaWekDhje1k/w356-h400/Screenshot%202024-12-14%20at%2022.10.19.png" width="356"/></a></div><p></p> <div style="clear: both;"></div>

Another day in De Sève for the afternoon, then across the street pretty quickly. We start with the makers of Kryptic : Director Kourtne...