Riley Stone is the main protagonist of the 2019 Black Christmas remake.
Riley is described as one of the Hawthorne College students. She befriends with her Mu Kappa Epsilon sisters — Marty, Kris and Jesse. She also has a crush on a guy named Landon. But when some of the sisters, including Lindsay and Helena, start going missing, she and her fellows question whether they can trust any man.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Riley is a student at the Hawthorne College's Mu Kappa Epsilon (ΜΚΕ) sorority. She lost her parents years ago so she always has been a battler, but three years before the events of the movie, she was raped by Delta Kappa Omicron (DKO) fraternity president Brian Huntley. Which made her lose the confidence and courage she had in herself.
Black Christmas (2019)
Riley is woken up by her brotherhood's pet cat Claudette. Riley gets up, gets dressed, and looks at herself in a mirror when a sorority sister named Franny opens the door to her room and says, "I have an ending in 10 minutes and I can't find my menstrual cup," Riley opens a drawer of his desk, he hands her a bag and asks, "How do you miss a menstrual cup?" and Franny responds: "In a canton" and puts the bag to calm down. He leaves and Riley smiles, looks at herself in the mirror, and puts a comb from her desk in her hair. Riley comes out of her room and as she walks upstairs to her frat, another sorority sister and friend of hers named Helena walks up to her and shows her a video of her singing on stage and tells her that she should be the one who participated in the DKO talent show in the choreographed dance. Riley asks her: "Where did you get that from?", Helena tells her that Kris, another sister in her sorority, has sent it to her but now she feels like a plan B and Riley tells her, to cheer her up, as they lower the stairs to the floor below: " "B" for "Good"? Or for "brutal" or "bright" or ... I'm running out of "B"."A sorority sister of hers named Franny appears saying that she could not find her menstrual cup. But Riley encourages her not to feel like a plan B and gives her a comb saying it helped her become confident. Afterward, Riley goes to her class with Professor Gelson, who reveals that Kris, another sorority sister of Riley, has requested two petitions, one about that university founder and notorious misogynist Calvin Hawthorne's bust be moved from the main building and another requesting Gelson be fired due to his refusal to teach books written by women.
In class, Professor Gelson asks Riley what the chapter of the book he has read is trying to teach. Riley says that she believes that women are guided by instinct and men more by the brain and that women live in a man's world even if they don't like it. But Gelson says the book was written by a woman and talks about how hard it is to do her job with the petition for her dismissal. He tells them that they have no wicked plan or secret meetings with men planning to bury the women. After class, Kris is outside and asks everyone she sees if they film her petition against Professor Gelson until she sees Riley and Marty and tells her friends that Gelson is going down. Kris talks about Hawthorne dabbling in black magic but Riley and Marty don't believe it. After talking about it, Riley goes to her job, as a waitress, at a coffee shop with Kris and Marty.
In the cafeteria, Riley, Kris, and Marty discuss the reasons for Kris's petition against Professor Gleason. During the discussion, a boy named Landon decides to sign Kris's petition, and to her surprise, that makes Marty sign as well. Riley and Landon stare at each other until a boy named Phil from the Delta Kappa Omicron sorority (DKO) arrives and tells them that Bryan Huntley will be returning to town to oversee the talent show.
Tonight the group arrives at the DKO fraternity and as they get ready, Marty's boyfriend takes a picture of everyone before going on stage, including Riley. Riley decides to go find Helena, seeing that she is not there. While searching, Riley glimpses a strange ritual involving DKO rookies and a black goo seeping from Calvin Hawthorne's bust, but she shrugs it off and continues to search for Helena. She finds Helena about to be sexually assaulted by one of the frat boys, saves her, and seeing that she is not in a position to do the dance and song for the talent show, Riley sends her home and asks her to see a message when she arrives home.
Riley tells the other girls and Kris looks at her and tells her that she must take Helena's place in the contest. Riley at first refuses because Bryan was there but Kris convinces her, reminding her of what Bryan did to her, that nobody believed her and that she was a battler before and that it is time for her to be one again. Riley decides to do it.
On stage, Riley, Kris, Jesse, and Marty sing a song criticizing the rape culture in the frat and declaring that Brian raped Riley. The lyrics of the song are:
Kris: ♪ I came to see you at the fraternity ♪ ♪ You can imagine what I want to do ♪
Marty: ♪ First, get drunk and kiss each other ♪
Jesse: ♪ Then you and I will move on to S-E-X ♪
Kris, Marty, and Jesse: ♪ But ho, ho, ho ♪ ♪ That was not the plan ♪ ♪ Ho, ho, ho, that was not the plan ♪ ♪ Because what happened here actually ... ♪
Riley: ♪ It's that I was forced against my will ♪ ♪ There's a lot of shit in this frat ♪ ♪ And everyone should know. ♪ ♪ Don't heat you, don't make you up ♪ ♪ It was impossible because I was unconscious ♪
Riley, Kris, Marty, and Jesse: ♪ Ho, ho, ho, that was not the plan ♪ ♪ Ho, ho, ho ♪ ♪ That was not the plan ♪ ♪ In the fraternity yes, click, click, click ♪ ♪ It is very disgusting what you do here ♪
Riley: ♪ Protecting yourselves is going to end ♪ ♪ Let no one doubt, there is only one truth ♪ ♪ And do not say more that I was the culprit ♪ ♪ What you did is called aggression ♪
Riley, Kris, Marty, and Jesse: ♪ Ho, ho, ho ♪ ♪ That was not the plan ♪ ♪ Ho, ho, ho, that was not the plan ♪ ♪ In the frat yes, ho, ho, ho ♪ ♪ First I get high and then he put it in me ♪
The public loves it. The girls leave the stage and Riley says "Let's see if Brian Huntley doesn't rape another aunt like that.". The girls along with Nate leave the fraternity when Landon catches up with them, and after talking with Landon, they all decide to go to the cafeteria to celebrate but before Riley says "I'm going to write to my friend Helena to see if she has arrived safely." Kris says that Heleba has already sent her a message, she reads it and says "So we can go" and Riley says "Well let's go" and they all leave. Along the way, Riley and Landon start telling bad jokes and beginning to fall in love, and the girls invite him to their Christmas dinner.
The next morning, Riley looks to see if Helena has sent him any messages, Franny enters and congratulates her on yesterday's show and before leaving she asks him not to give Clodeth too much to eat. When Riley comes downstairs with Clodeth, she sees that her friends notice that some of her things are missing and are looking for them non-stop and she tells them that someone from DKO was at his frat last night because Clodeth has black goo on his paws. Riley and Kris agree that it must be a joke and that they take Jesse's crystal, Kris's glove, Franny's menstrual cup, and everything they can't find. Nate asks them to hurry up and they go to find a Christmas tree to decorate the frat.
While searching for a tree, Riley begins receiving threatening direct messages from a Calvin Hawthorne account. She also receives a call from Helena's mother, explaining that Helena had not come home and that she was worried. Riley promises to find her.
When they arrive at the house of the fraternity, Riley begins to look for her in her room but does not find there is no sign of her and calls her on the phone but does not answer either. Riley goes to talk to her sorority sisters about the disappearance of Helena and Lindsey and suggests talking to the security man, but Kris, Marty, and Nate think that they must have only been delayed due to the snow blocking the train. Even so, Riley decides to go talk to the security man.
Riley continues to receive threatening messages and feels like she's being watched. Upon entering the university, she meets Landon, and the two start talking: Landon says "Riley, hi.", Riley says "Hello, what are you doing here?", Landon says "I am also glad to see you", Riley says "Sorry, uh ...", Landon says "I was getting ideas to win you over at jokes tonight. You're good?", Riley says "Have you ... Are you sending me private messages?", Landon says "Me? No! I do not use social networks. The whole privacy move strikes me. But I can get one ... and send you private messages, if you want?", Riley says "I have to go.", Landon says "Ok, um ... Is tonight still going?", Riley says "Clear", Landon says "Very well". And Riley leaves.
Riley talks to the security officer about Helena's disappearance, the weird messages, and Brian Huntley being back, and she has a feeling it could all be related. But the guard believes that there must be a logical explanation for each event and does not see the relationship, and is even surprised when he asks about Landón, who he just met, but Riley denies it was him.
The two of them go to the DKO fraternity, but no one is there and the guard tells him not to worry and that the boys must be playing a prank on him for acting.
When the guard leaves, Riley approaches the DKO fraternity and calls Helena to see if she is inside, when she is surprised by Professor Gelson and causes her to drop her papers. Helping him pick them up, Riley sees that he has a list with the names of the girls in his sorority, including her. She tells him that she lost her comb at the frat and Gelson offers to let her pass, he also tells her that Kris has uploaded the video of the performance to the Internet and that the boys would appreciate it if he would remove it, he also explains a little about the history of the university and the sacrifices that have been made for it. When Gelson opens the door, Riley leaves.
That night, Riley arrives at her frat and starts fighting with Kris, saying "Don't screw me Kris?!", Marty says "Did you talk to campus security?", Riley asks "Did you upload last night's video to the internet?", Kris says "Yes. Why what? Does it have visualizations? ", Riley asks "Have you seen it to the end?", Kris says "I didn't need it. I lived it", Riley shows them the end of the video and Marty says "Oh God", Jesse decides to go find Christmas lights for dinner decorations because when they fight, gets stressed out a lot. Kris, trying to make peace, says "Well, I'm going to cut that part right now. Okay?" but Riley, annoyed, continues with the fight saying "It already has 50,000 views", Kris defends herself by saying "That was the idea: denounce the macho culture of frat boys to motivate other women", Riley says "We are not motivating absolutely. We are pissing them off" and she explains the strange things that have been happening since yesterday: "Gelson is cornering me. I am getting super chummy messages God knows who. Helena has disappeared, and now the whole world knows that Brian Huntley ...". At that moment Kris and Marty interrupt her and Marty asks her "Are you getting strange messages?", Riley affirms it and Marty says that to her too.
Kris asks Riley "What did Gelson say to you?", Marty says to Kris "Kris, you too?", Kris says "Yes. You pass them. They are pringaos with testicles about to explode. Has he threatened you?", Riley says "No. But he has made it clear to me that he wants you to withdraw the petition", Kris replies "He believes that he can threaten us and that we will forget about it" and refuses to drop the petition against Gelson, Marty tries to calm the situation, Kris says "If we have only just started!", Riley protests saying" You are not listening to me!".
The fight becomes more serious: Riley says "Helena would not have disappeared if I had gone home and you had not forced me to sing your song", Kris asks "My song? Like my song? We did it for you!", Riley yells "I wouldn't have sung it if you hadn't made me ... You're so, you're so heartbreaking! You never stop, right? Always gasping", Kris yelling, replies" I don't stop because they don't stop!", Riley, yells "But we don't all want to be like you! Some of us settle for ...", Kris yells" With disappearing!", making Riley and the others go silent. Nate says he agrees with the boys and then Marty kicks him out of the frat. Then, Kris and Marty receive a message saying they will bow down to him and beg for mercy. Kris responds with contempt and then the three are attacked by a murderer with a bow and arrows, one of those arrows wounds Marty.
Riley screams "¡Run!" and she, Kris, and Marty are hiding in the attic. Riley says "I knew Elena was dead. I knew it. I sensed it", Kris tells Riley "No, we don't know. We just know we have to get out of here", Riley says "We can't", Marty asks "Who was that guy? ", Kris says" Anyone, a DK, Geelson "and asks," Are we staying here to make a list of guys who want to kill us or do we go out and ask for help "while he bandages Marty's leg wound with a scarf. Marty says she can't go on but Kris encourages her not to give up and asks Riley if she has her phone. Riley says "My cell phone ... is down", Kris says that hers is also down and tells Riley that they need a cell phone to call the police and warn the other girls not to come to her house. Riley says "Okay, okay, okay", takes a cane, breaks it, and uses the sharpest piece as a weapon. Riley walks out of the attic door with the cane to find her cell phone to ask for help while Kris stays to treat Marty's wound.
She walks down the stairs to the floor below, being careful because the floorboards are made of wood, and stepping on them could alert the killer to her position. Upon reaching the floor below, Riley stands still and looks around to see if she can locate the killer until a room light goes out. Riley runs to hide in another room, the killer leaves the room with the light off and goes to the room where Riley is not. She listens and uses the assassin's footsteps as a sign that he is moving away from his hiding place. A while later, Riley does not hear the assassin's footsteps so he begins to look for a mobile for the fraternity. Upon reaching the hall of the fraternity, Riley hears a door opening and closing and again hears footsteps so he is going to hide behind a sofa in the living room. Riley, increasingly scared, hears by the steps that someone approaches her but it is only Nate, who has returned to apologize and sees Riley hidden, she tells him to shut up and whispers: "There is someone in the house. I need your cell phone", Nate asks where his girlfriend is and Riley whispers: "Martyrs is injured and needs a doctor. So give me your cell phone" but Nate refuses, drops his car keys by mistake, and orders, shouting, the murderer who comes out of his hiding place but he kills him with an arrow. The masked killer enters the living room, Riley orders him: "Stay away from me" but the killer disarms her, grabs her by the hair, puts her against a wall, and grabs her by the neck. The killer cuts Riley on her cheek and before he can kill her a Santa Claus doll distracts him Riley tries to grab the ax that Nate took before he died but the killer trips him and holds her to the ground Riley manages to grab Nate's car keys, looks for the sharpest key, and stabs the killer in the neck with it, just as Kris and Marty show up. Kris pushes the killer's lifeless body off Riley and she and Marty help her up and the three of them hug each other for comfort. Kris says to Riley: "Easy. You're fine. We're here", Riley, crying over what happened, asks them: "Where is Jesse" but Kris shakes her head, understanding that Jesse is dead. Riley goes to tell Marty about Nate's death but she sees his body and cries over the death of her boyfriend. Riley approaches the murderer's corpse and goes to remove his mask but all three hear footsteps and see another masked murderer enter the living room.
Riley, seeing him, says: "Don't screw me", Kris and Marty look at him scared and Riley yells: "Run!", Marty grabs Nate's cell phone and Kris grabs Marty, and the three run towards the door but the killer it blocks their exit. Marty breaks free from Kris and proclaims that he has called the police while approaching the murderer with an ax to kill him and avenge Nate's death, despite Riley and Kris's pleas for him to return to them. Marty yells at her friends: "Run!" and she tries to stab the killer with the ax but he grabs her and stabs her with a knife. Riley and Marty run away and the killer chases them. With his last strength, Marty grabs the killer's leg. to give her friend time until the killer kicks her free. Riley and Kris arrive in the kitchen, Kris picks up a knife and she and Riley hide behind a cabinet. The girls hear the killer enter the kitchen and approach her hiding place but eventually, she turns and walks out of the kitchen. Hearing the door close, Kris whispers to Riley, "Entrance. Run to the door. As fast as you can", Riley responds: "Okay". Kris leans out to see if it is safe and squats out of hiding as he approaches the kitchen door he gets up but the murderer, who had not left the kitchen but had climbed on a piece of furniture so that they would not hear him, he grabs it and hits Kris's face against the furniture and begins to strangle her but Riley takes a knife and stabs the murderer in the back, who because of the pain He lets go of Kris, and she takes the opportunity to stab him in the head with her knife, killing him. Riley turns on the light and the two see that what splashed them when they stabbed the second killer is not blood but a slimy black substance. Riley asks: "¿Why isn't it blood?" the two crouch down to the killer's corpse and Riley removes the mask and she identifies him as a rookie who swore allegiance to DKO in the ritual she saw last night. Kris said: "Riley, we have to go to the police. I'm going to get Nate's keys. Wait for me at the door. Okay?" and ran for the keys. In the kitchen, Riley realizes that the black substance that the killer has on his forehead is the one that came out of the founder's bust and that she and Kris are covered with her.
She hides so that the killer would not see her. Nate returns to apologize and sees Riley hiding, she explains the situation and asks for his cell phone but when Nate refuses and orders the murderer to come out of hiding, he is killed by an arrow. Then the killer appears and grabs Riley, but a Santa Claus doll distracts him Riley tries to grab a hammer but the killer holds her to the ground she manages to grab Nate's car keys and stabs him in the neck, just when Kris and Marty show up, who tell him that Jesse is dead and Riley tells them that Nate is dead too. When Riley is going to remove the mask, another killer appears and the girls run but the killer blocks the door. Marty tries to avenge Nate, but she is killed, although she holds the killer's leg to give Riley and Kris time. They find themselves and after a while, it seems that the killer is gone, Kris comes out of hiding but the killer attacks her, but they both kill him and Riley removes the mask after being scared because they are covered in a black viscous substance instead of blood and identifies him as a DKO rookie he saw in the ritual. While Kris goes to look for the keys, Riley realizes that the black substance is the same one that came out of Calvin Hawthorne's bust when she hears Kris attacked by a third killer, but Riley takes him away from her and the couple enters and escapes in Nate's car before the third killer can kill them.
While in the car, Riley theorizes that Hawthorne, who was known to dabble in black magic, is responsible for the murders through his bust and the black goo. Kris says "That's it, nothing is going to happen to us. Nothing is going to happen to us", Riley says "Oh God", Kris asks "Who the hell was those?", Riley says "Here is something very strange happening", Kris hysterically says "Weird? Fuck off. A lot of guys tried to kill us". Riley has been thinking about all the weird things that have happened to them these days besides the attack tonight and explaining to Kris what may be going on. Riley says "No, I said I already saw that guy, the night of the performance. The Dekes were doing a ritual with the new ones", Kris says "It's a frat. The rookies swear allegiance." Riley continues explaining to her supposition: "But it was different. They were doing something with a black goo coming out of the bust of the founder. I don't know ... it looked like black magic or sorcery or anything like that", Kris asks Riley "Are you telling me that you think the DKOs were possessing the new ones with some kind of supernatural rookie ritual?". Riley reminds him of the guy that they had killed "You've seen the face of that. You've seen the blood. I don't know what it was, but they had done something to him. He wasn't human" and explains to Kris why it may be true: "Think about it. They take the bust to the founder's fraternity. Brian Huntley appears to meet the new members and suddenly we begin to receive all messages from a Calvin Hawthorne account. Lindsay disappears. Helena disappears. Marty and Jesse are dead. In the end, everything is related with DKO".
Riley demands that they go to the fraternity to fight, enter the room where they were doing the ceremony, and destroy the bust to end the black magic, but Kris refuses and says that they will go to the police. Riley asks her what he plans to tell them and reminds him that they have killed three people who are possessed or not dead in his house right now. Kris says they did it in self-defense. Riley asks her if she's sure the cops will believe them and reminds her that they did not believe her when she told them what Brian had done to her and that even she doesn't believe her. Riley makes Kris stop the car and she goes alone to the frat, after telling Kris "I thought you were a fighter". Along the way, Riley meets Landon and asks for his help to enter the fraternity.
At the DKO house, Landon distracts the frat brothers but they subject him to the ritual, while Riley arrives at the ceremony room, she hears Helena screaming and goes to help her, Riley finds her tied but alive and begins to untie it. But a DKO member appears behind Riley and knocks her unconscious.
Riley awakens to find herself tied up. She confronts Gelson, Brian, and the other frat boys and asks them "What have you done to Landon?". Gelson explained that after Kris forced the relocation of the bust, they discovered Hawthorne's plan to keep the rebellious women at bay: In his last years of life, Hawthorne realized the threat of women and using his knowledge of magic black, I leave instructions to use the black substance to create an army of men who will destroy the rebellious women since the sticky substance allows the spirit of Hawthorne to possess the members who swear allegiance to the fraternity and send them to assassinate women who step out of line.
Gelson reveals that Helena has been secretly working with the fraternity. She tells Riley that she was doing it for the women and that she stole items from her sisters that allowed the possessed members to locate the girls they were to kill. Riley remembers the list she saw when she was helping Gelson pack up his things in the morning. She now understands that that list represented the girls who were going to be killed. Riley also remembers that Franny lost her menstrual cup and seeing it on the table, deduces that Franny is dead. She also sees the comb she gave Helena before the performance and all the objects that they couldn't find in the morning. She understands why the killers are going for them.
Riley says to Helena "How could you do this to your frat sisters?!". She repeats that she does it for women. Riley, furious, tells her that she is a traitor.
Brian and Helena force her to choose when a possessed member approaches her, but the member goes after Helena and kills her, breaking her neck, although she is willing to be a "good woman" for the fraternity. Brian orders her to decide. Riley looks at her comb for a moment and says that she'll bow down and she'll be good, but Brian doesn't believe her and when he's distracted, she grabs her comb and attacks Brian, saying "You took everything from me and one day she will tell everyone what you have done and everyone will believe her!", but he grabs her and sends her towards the possessed member, who strangles her. But before she can kill Riley, Kris kills him by throwing an arrow at him and she and the surviving sisters from Kris and Riley's sorority enter and fight the frat. Riley goes straight to Brian but he holds her to the ground. Riley remembers what Brian did to her and seeing Kris and the other girls fight with such determination, Riley returns to being the fighter she once was, she gets rid of Brian, dominates and defeats him by hitting his head against a step, and goes to the Hawthorne's bust and lifts it, although Gelson begs him not to destroy it, saying that the women will break if she destroys it, but Riley says "We will never break" and destroys the bust. That causes the possessed limbs to lose their strength.
Kris sets Gelson on fire, and Landon breaks free from the spell and helps Riley defeat Brian. As the fire spreads, Riley also apologizes to Kris: "Forgive me. You were right. I should have fought from the beginning". Kris tells her: "Now is not the time for "I already told you" but I already told you" as they walk out of the burning room. Riley, Kris, and Landon lock the frat brothers inside so that the fire burns them to death, the latter also apologizes to Riley but she tells him that this is not a good time for that. The women and Landon escape from the frat house. As the group watches the frat house burn, Riley watches with newfound bravery.
Gallely[]
