Black Christmas (2006)

User Rating:

4.3/10   

Director:

Glen Morgan

Writers (WGA):

Glen Morgan (screenplay)
Roy Moore (1974 screenplay)

Release Date:

25 December 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

This holiday season, the slay ride begins.

Plot:

An escaped maniac returns to his childhood home on Christmas Eve, which is now a sorority house, and begins to murder the sorority sisters one by one.

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | House | Attic | Sorority | Christmas Eve

Cast

Katie Cassidy	...	Kelli Presley
Michelle Trachtenberg	...	Melissa
Kristen Cloke	...	Leigh Colvin
Mary Elizabeth Winstead	...	Heather Fitzgerald
Lacey Chabert	...	Dana
Andrea Martin	...	Barbara 'Ms. Mac' MacHenry
Crystal Lowe	...	Lauren Hannon
Oliver Hudson	...	Kyle Autry
Karin Konoval	...	Billy's Mother
Dean Friss	...	Agnes - 16 & 22 Years
Robert Mann	...	Billy Lenz - 20 & 35 Years
Jessica Harmon	...	Megan Helms
Leela Savasta	...	Clair Crosby
Kathleen Kole	...	Eve Agnew
Cainan Wiebe	...	Billy Lenz - 5 & 12 Years

Also Known As:

Black X-Mas (USA) (promotional abbreviation)
Noël noir (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong horror violence and gore, sexuality, nudity and language.

Runtime:

84 min | 94 min (unrated version)

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

UK:15 | Ireland:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:18A (British Columbia/Manitoba) | USA:R (certificate #42313) | Germany:18 (unrated version) | Portugal:M/18 | Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | Italy:VM14 | Singapore:R21 | Peru:18 | Argentina:18 | Chile:18 | Netherlands:16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:MA (Cable TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Dimension Films

Trivia:

Glen Morgan didn't specifically have any male actors considered for the role of Kyle in the movie. Instead, during auditions, his 14-year-old daughter (stepdaughter of Glen's actress wife Kristen Cloke, who also has a role in the movie), picked out Oliver Hudson shouting out "That one!"

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): After the first phone call from Billy, one of the girls suggests dialing *69 to find out who it was, at which point, Melissa states "that will just call him back". This is incorrect. *69 simply reveals the phone number of the last caller, but it does not call them back.

Quotes:

Kelli Presely: They're not your family... and your brother's not here
Agnes: No... MY DADDY IS!
[Her brother *and* father bursts through the floorboards behind them]

Movie Connections:

References Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Final Waltz

An Incredibly Flawed Remake of the Bob Clark Classic

Many years ago, a killer named Billy Lenz killed his family in a spree killing. Since then, his house has been converted into a sorority house. And this Christmas, Billy wants to be home with his family to celebrate.

Let me say a few nice things before I start venting. First, I have to say I must have been a very good boy this year because I can't recall such an attractive cast in recent past. Three of my all-time favorite young ladies show up here: Michelle Trachtenberg ("Eurotrip"), Lacey Chabert ("Pleasure Drivers"), and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (numerous recent horror films, including "Final Destination 3"). It was quite the visual feast!

I also enjoyed the inclusion of Andrea Martin as Ms. MacHenry, the house mother. Martin was one of the college girls from the original film and I think it's important to pay some sort of tribute like this (as well as the use of "Clark Sanitarium"). She was a good pick, better than Margot Kidder.

And the use of incest and cannibalism is always a plus (both of which were absent in the original)... and the gore was decent (though not great) with the constant eye-gouging thanks to a glass unicorn. I do love unicorns, as my embroidered unicorn pillow might suggest.

But let's start the ripping: Glen Morgan was the wrong guy to direct this. He brought along cast members from his prior films (again, such as "Final Destination 3") which was fine, but seemed to put very little thought into any of this. And his films have more of a teenager quality to them, making even the gore, incest and cannibalism seem very youth-oriented, if that makes any sense. He could have really stepped it up a dozen notches.

The girls get little or no personalities. I don't think I learned half of their names and had difficulty keeping them straight. Maybe reduce the number by one or two so we could at least see them for ten minutes? On the flip side, the film focused almost entirely on Billy Lenz, providing his entire backstory. The original never touched on this at all, which made him creepier and more mysterious. Here, there's nothing strange about him (besides the yellow skin, which plays no importance). Obviously, Morgan never learned the secret of good horror: don't show the killer.

Furthermore, they wasted the character of Kyle (who was named Peter in the original). Here, he is briefly thought by the girls to be the killer, but the audience knows the whole time that he's not. In the original, you never know whether or not Peter is the killer (in fact, many people who watched all the way to the end still aren't sure). If Kyle isn't a red herring, and his only purpose is to bring up some sex tape which was not important to the story, then what the hell was he doing in the movie at all?

Other great elements were toned down: the police station scenes, the drunk girl (who now passes out right away). And a shower scene was added, but no nudity, making it almost a complete waste of time.

I'll stop before I start frothing at the mouth. Because, seriously, I was let down pretty badly. If you need a fix of girls getting strangled with a plastic bag and stabbed in the eye (and that's really all you'll see), check this out. Otherwise, you'll find plenty of better slashers out there every week on the straight-to-video shelf. And, of course, you simple cannot beat the original "Black Christmas", one of the best horror films ever made.