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Black Christmas (2006)

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233 comments in total

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53 out of 89 people found the following comment useful :-
enjoy, but don't take seriously!, 18 December 2006

Author: kevin_crighton (kevincrighton@btinternet.com) from Scotland

Earlier this year, I tore the re-make of When A Stranger Calls apart, and said at the time, that if Hollywood won't bother making new horror movies, but instead simply re-make old or foreign ones, then just stop. I stand by that.

However...

Black Christmas actually surprised me. First, it was actually a lot more brutal and violent than I was expecting, considering it's 15 rating (UK). The other, was the way it re-worked the original.

The original, which I haven't seen for awhile was as much a whodunit as anything else. Here we're spared that. We know pretty much from the start who is killing here.

What the makers have done, is simply turn the story into a stalk and slash movie, which as I said is quite brutal in areas. For me a movie of this type stands or falls not on the killer or how they kill, but on the potential victims in the story. If you care about them, then you feel bad they are killed. If you don't, then give me an axe, I'll do it myself!! Black Christmas does enough to make you care about each character, by making each one a little different, but yet, having enough in character to make you believe they could get along normally. So when the killing starts, you do care about them, and begin to wonder who, or how many will make it to the end alive.

The death scenes are well set up and done, which isn't surprising considering the makers also did Final Destination 1 & 3. If I have a problem with them is that the film is maybe a little over-edited so at times, you aren't sure if certain characters have been killed or not.

This movie has been getting a critical mauling in certain areas. But I found on watching it, that it's fun, enjoyable, with a black(!) sense of humour, some very nice looking actresses in it!, and for it's (admittedly short) running time very entertaining. And when I go to see a movie like this, that's what I want.

Enjoyable late-night fun.

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39 out of 63 people found the following comment useful :-
What an insult to the original!, 16 December 2006
Author: (Rent_Angel) from London, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Let me just say that the original Black Christmas (1974) has always been my favorite horror film. It is an amazing piece of work all around and it has deservedly become a cult classic among horror aficionados. I knew that there would be no hope for this remake. It's absolutely offensive.

The acting is horrendous. Katie Cassidy (who lacks talent completely, unlike her famous relatives, including Oscar-winner Shirley Jones of Elmer Gantry [1960] and The Music Man [1962] fame) is horrible. Two bad films in the same year, the remake of When a Stranger Calls (2006) being her first. The others are just cookie-cutter characters and they bring nothing to elevate the picture. The only good thing about this film is Andrea Martin, who played Phyllis in the original, making an appearance in a recreation of Mrs. MacHenry, the housemother, played so wonderfully by Marian Waldman.

The original and its acting were great. Olivia Hussey as Jessica was fantastic, and this helped cement her fame, having made waves by playing Juliet in Romeo & Juliet (1968). Margot Kidder played Barb, the hilarious drunk, and to think that this wonderful performance came at the BEGINNING of her celebrated career, with such parts as Lois Lane in the Superman series (1978-1987) alongside Christopher Reeve, the maniacal killer in Brian DePalma's Sisters (1973) and Kathy Lutz in The Amityville Horror (1979). Another cast member of the original was Keir Dullea, who played Dave Bowman of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). You will notice that all of those actors were quite established and knew how to make a film worthwhile. This film is just atrocious. Changing the names of all the characters will not help it.

Neither will adding a back-story to Billy, I'm afraid. In the original, what made Billy so frightening was the fact that we didn't know anything about him. He was killing because he was just CRAZY—he didn't NEED a motive! The fact that someone is stalking you just because they feel like it is much more unsettling than to know WHY they're doing it.

The adding of so much blood, gore and violence is irrelevant as well. The original didn't need all of that. There was hardly any blood, gore, violence, or sexual content at all and it still made for a great film. Please. Some of the scenes in this film are absolutely comical! I swear; it's bordering between an idiotic gore-fest and a parody.

One final point—in the original, you actually CARE about the characters. All of their portrayals made you want to reach out and pluck them from their situation, particularly Hussey's and Kidder's performances.

Go pop the original into your DVD player—this is definitely not worth the time.

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15 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Should have been called Silent Night, Deadly Night 6, 7 April 2007

Author: sgtking from United States

After finally seeing the original for the first time and after seeing the trailer for this film I was more than a little excited to see it. Even the negative reviews couldn't keep me from seeing it on the big screen. To my dismay the film was not all that great. Even on it's own merits it was just an OK popcorn horror movie, but nothing more. Everyone knows about the re-shoots, and so naturally I hoped for a Director's Cut DVD so that we could all see the film that Glen Morgan intended to make. Sadly that hasn't happened, yet, but we did get an Un-rated version and after seeing it my opinion has changed...a little.

Pros: Moves at a decent pace most of the time. The kills are abundant, intense, and gory. The acting is quite good, especially when considering what little the actors had to work with. Some twisted humor. The film looks polished and most of it is shrouded in darkness, giving the film a spooky feeling. An interesting back-story. An exciting climax. The sight of carnage with Christmas decorations and music in the background should warm the hearts of horror fans everywhere. The filmmakers do a good job of not making this a xerox copy of the original.

Cons: Lacks good scares and suspense. Also lacks character development and some of the characters are unlikeable. Pace drags in a few spots. There are signs of re-shooting. Though the back-story is interesting it's also not necessary and makes the killer less scary. Some plot holes.

Final thoughts: This remake of the beloved 1974 film has more in common with the 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' series than the original. That's not to say it isn't a fun watch, but it's in a completely different league than the original. That film is subtle, suspenseful, and has depth, whereas this remake is tacky, gory, and brainless. Not that I don't like that, but this is supposed to be a remake of classic! To be fair, word has it that the producers called for re-shoots and more editing, which may explain some of the film's faults. Overall, a good popcorn movie, but nothing more.

My rating: 3/5

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12 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
By slasher standards, this was pretty average and forgettable, 16 January 2007

Author: christian123

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In "Black Christmas" a sorority house is terrorized by a killer who makes frightening telephone calls before murdering the sorority sisters during the Christmas break.

Black Christmas is a bland slasher film with very few scares. The original was a mediocre horror film with a decent screenplay. It's a little overrated but at least it developed the story and characters instead of just rushing into the murders. That's what this remake does. It's pretty much a disturbing bloodbath from beginning to end with very few memorable scenes. The frantic pace does keep things interesting and it never gets dull. However, watching so many vacant characters die before you get a chance to remember their names does not equal quality. At best, this could be a minor guilty pleasure although I really have no desire to see it again.

Glen Morgan did a great job with Final Destination and Willard. Here, he's just lazy and he follows a typical path for slasher movies. As mentioned above, he does an okay job with the pace and I have to give him credit for a few cool death scenes but that's it. The writing was awful and it really brought the overall quality down. The dialog was silly and just laughable. All of the dramatic scenes fell flat because of the unnatural dialog. The way the writers handled the background of the killers was pathetic and the last fifteen minutes were horrible. It wasn't suspenseful at all, just unintentionally funny. The killers looked like rejected stunt doubles for White Chicks.

Usually, I can ignore awful acting in slasher movies since it's not suppose to be the main attraction. In Black Christmas, the acting was too bad to ignore. Kate Cassidy was just awful as Kelli. She seemed to be reading her lines and it was obvious that she was just acting. Kristen Cloke gave the worst performance out of everyone. All of those botox injections are really taking a toll on her and she struggled to show emotion. Clearly, she got the job because she is married to the director or is that just a coincidence? Michelle Trachtenberg was just bland as was Crystal Lowe and Oliver Hudson. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was fine in Bobby but she was just horrible here. She was completely unconvincing and just laughable. Lacey Chabert was disappointing average and she didn't get a lot of screen time. Andrea Martin gave the best performance although that's not much of an accomplishment. Overall, Black Christmas may prove to be a decent rental just don't have high expectations and expect something trashy. Rating 5/10

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29 out of 50 people found the following comment useful :-
It won't win awards but great fun anyway., 16 December 2006

Author: Sky_Rider from United Kingdom

There's been a lot of negativity about this film, I never saw the original but i did think this film looked interesting after watching the trailer.

Basically, this film is pure fun, it won't win any awards but it is enjoyable. It isn't scary but the over the top kills and gore make this film enjoyable to watch with friends.

The acting is pretty good and the film tries it's best to establish each character before the main bloodshed begins. I'd say my favourite characters were Melissa and Lauren, I like Melissa because of her loyalty and i liked Lauren because she had cracking lines.

One of the bad things about this film is the slightly repetitive kills, OKAY! we get you like eyeballs!!!!! but i won't go to much detail here. One of the things the film did well was making you grow somewhat attached to the characters (apart from Kelli, she was just bland).

Overall I'd say, go to this film if you like slasher films but don't go expecting a masterpiece. But for what it is, i thought it was a blast to watch, especially with a group of friends.

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29 out of 51 people found the following comment useful :-
So it's not the original...but there's plenty of fun to be had here!, 5 January 2007

Author: NateF88 from IL

I know I will get heat for having enjoyed Black Christmas 2006. Hell, I can't really even call this a "good" movie. It is severely flawed in many ways, and it's not even closely comparable to the original. Monster holes are present in the story line. The cinematography at times is choppy, dark, and grainy. And, most of all, there is ZERO suspense. How can a movie with such negativity possibly get a 7 out of 10?Well, technical goofs aside, there is a lot of fun to be had here!

It has a completely different atmosphere and tone than the original had, as well as a completely different approach at it's villain. For one, the violence and murders in the 2006 version are much gorier and more over the top! Okay, so the original's approach at implied violence worked much better, but I appreciated the filmmaker's aiming for something different! I had a lot of fun watching Billy maim and dismember all of the sorority girls and their boyfriends! The kills were absolutely crazy! A lot of blood splashing!

Unfortunately, the characters here, unlike in 1974, are purely 2-dimensional and unforgivably stupid. However, the performances were very well done, and there were some truly witty lines of dialogue! One thing this film reaped was dark humor! Much appreciated! I especially LOVED the performance done by Billy's mother! She was the best actress in the film and unfortunately had the least screen time.

Also different from the original is the fact that Billy is identified and his origin is revealed. Again, this completely takes away the suspense and mystery of the killer like the original's had. BUT, the flashback scenes were very well done! It really got to you and was disturbing to say the least. It also did a very good job of portraying a morbid family. Well done on that part!

Again, as I said before, there is NO suspense here! The violence and scares are pretty much laughable, but that's why this film is fun! It's so bad and flawed that it's a riot and a good time! My advice: Think of it as a completely different film. In no way does this hurt the original. The 1974 version still exists. The 2006 version will go nowhere, but it will always remain a fun little piece of cheese to watch whenever anyone wants to have a good time.

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Yet another VERY disappointing "Re-make", 5 May 2007

Author: alanmora from United States

I had very high expectations for this film. I thought that this might be the one "Re-make" that is the exception because of the involvement of the original film maker, Bob Clark, serving as assistant producer. BOY was I wrong!!! There are some exceptional murder sequences in this flick but that is not enough. Once again, as is the case in so many "Re-makes" the storyline has been almost completely changed! The producers do not seem to realize the elements that made the original film scary in the first place which are now missing! Such as the fact that, in the original you were never quite sure who the killer was and they never revealed it. Now not only do they reveal it, but they add an entire background that is so laughably unbelievable that it dilutes the film's ability to frighten the viewer. The over-the-top gore sequences alone do not make for a frightening movie and the "twist" ending is quite laughable! What they add to the ending of this movie is utterly ridiculous and absolutely unnecessary! Aside from exceptional gore effects, the only other saving grace is the presence of Andrea Martin from the original film as Mrs. Mack but they should have really tried harder to make the characters from the original more like those in the original...and the phone calls, a crucial element to the terrifying experience of the original, are absolutely laughable! Skip this one and watch the original.

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Disappointing remake - see the original, 16 December 2006

Author: i-dunning from Chester, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It was not a bad idea to attempt a remake of Black Christmas. The original, with all its scurrying around in a pre-historic telephone exchange, was ripe for updating. The new version, however, brings the technology up to date and keeps the creepy chocolate box setting, but loses just about everything else that was decent about the original. The storyline for the first film was slow, but successfully built up suspense as Billy picked off each of the girls one by one, while the police gradually tracked down his whereabouts. In the remake, the police are irrelevant - they can't help because there's too much snow - and so the whole thing after the first twenty minutes is focused on establishing a dreary line-up of red herrings while Billy, or whoever it is, quickly takes out each of the girls. One of the genuinely creepy things about the original was the way Billy's identity and motivation were never explained. Who was he? What was his connection to the house. Who is Agnes who he keeps groaning on about? The end of the film left the audience unsettled as Billy remained undetected and we still didn't know anything about him. For the new film the writers make the mistake of going all out to tell us everything and more about Billy and his uninteresting backstory. The flashbacks take us away from the tense situation in the house and are ultimately only confusing. Given their screwed up childhood, shouldn't we feel sorry for Billy and Agnes? Yes - but no, they want to eat your eyeballs.

It's not only Billy and Agnes who are one dimensional. None of the girls is given anything more than the most obvious of personality traits. Most of them even look the same, so except for the blonde "final girl," I couldn't tell you anything about what distinguishes each of them from one another. Again, this is in stark contrast with the original film in which the main characters are interesting and memorable. Margot Kidder in particular was striking as the loudmouth proto-feminist who drinks too much and suffers a memorable asthma attack. And then Olivia Hussey brought real credibility as well as a strange kind of Virgin Mary sexuality to the central role. Remarkably her arguments with her boyfriend focused on her wanting to have an abortion while he wanted to get married and start a family. Unthinkable in modern Hollywood - so this has to be turned into arguments about her boyfriend cheating on her with one of the girls. Depressingly unimaginative.

The endings of the two films are again worth comparing. The original ends with a striking but subtle twist. The ringing of the phone as the camera slowly zooms away from the attic window provided a genuinely "black" ending, signifying the death of everyone in the house even as we see a policeman guarding the front door. The new film has the predictable - "s/he's not really dead - look behind you" - moment. And then it all just ends, as if the film-makers knew that by this time no one in the audience would really care anyway.

For a movie that sends you to bed over Christmas locking your doors and shivering at the creaky sounds coming from upstairs, settle down with some sherry and mince pies with the DVD of the original Black Christmas.

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12 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Wow. Are you kidding me??, 22 January 2007

Author: HoRRoR_luvaR from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Wow. Not worth the 7 dollars I paid to watch.

I walked into the theater, and wow! December 26, and nobody there except for me. I sat down and started watching the previews. That's when the people started arriving.

Can you believe that a mother went into the theaters with her (seemed to be) 3 year-old? I thought to myself, "If this kid starts crying in the middle of the movie I have been waiting so long to see, I am going to go crazy." But by the first 25 minutes of the movie, I was the one who was about to cry.

I love most actresses who performed in this movie. But they seemed one of those unknown actresses who are hyper to be acting in a movie exhibited all over the country. They were just plain dumb.

The killers, wow! Glen Morgan tried to create such a fascinating, and disturbing back-story for Agnes and Billy, that made me want to leave the theater at the scene when his mom has sex with him, and nine months later, has a child. Yet, I felt like I had to sit there, and watch the movie sink even more in this clearly-fake-snow crap.

The deaths were incredibly stupid, and the blood looked so fake (as well as the snow, if I haven't mentioned!). He tried to make this remake of a classic into another silly-just-want-money flicks such as Final Destination, which most people love. Yet, there is a slight difference of these two movies. Final Destination is made for people to have a wild laugh at how surprisingly (should I say?) smart situations the writer puts the characters in to DIE. This movie is about two demented killers, psychopaths. Go watch this movie if you want to see most deaths off-screen (Ha?), and girls getting killed by icicles, umbrellas, ice skates, Christmas trees, blah blah...

And what was up with Billy's sudden obsession with the eyes? Jesus! I love scary movies, but this one looked like a comedy without any funny moments, except for the quote "Excuse me, But I love your coat!" at a moment where... ah, I'll let you watch the movie.

The movie is rated R strong horror violence and gore, sexuality, nudity and language. This should be a PG-13 child flick! Go watch the Bob Clark directed classic from 1975. You'll be much better off with that.

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20 out of 35 people found the following comment useful :-
Scooby Doo has more compelling believable story lines, 8 February 2007

Author: (lee.wilson@gmail.com) from United Kingdom

I am a fan of all sorts of horror films including stalker / slasher type movies and this is perhaps the worst modern example of one of these I have ever sat through. None of the characters are likable so you do not care if they are murdered, in fact there is so little character development that they are all interchangeable. Despite some reasonable gore there is so little tension that it drags on for what seems like hours.

In the end it simply does not work because of so many unbelievable situations. They are stalked around a sorority house that is miles from anywhere (are you not supposed to share these to live NEAR a campus ?). Even when dead bodies start to pile up they still go off into the dark on their own to check out noises !!! Every situation is ridiculous, how the killer fools the guard at the asylum for example. No one would ever act in the way the guard does and this theme follows the whole film through.

You do wonder how the inept script was ever green lighted. One to avoid, even for fans of the genre.

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