Black Christmas (2006)

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.

Director:

Glen Morgan

Writers:

Glen Morgan (screenplay), Roy Moore

Stars:

Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Katie Cassidy	...	Kelli Presley
Michelle Trachtenberg	...	Melissa
Mary Elizabeth Winstead	...	Heather Fitzgerald
Lacey Chabert	...	Dana
Kristen Cloke	...	Leigh Colvin
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

Storyline

In the 70's, the boy Billy is born with yellow skin due to a lever disease and his dysfunctional mother rejects him. Later he witnesses his mother and her lover killing his beloved father and burying him in the basement of their house, and he is locked in the attic alone along his childhood. When he is a teenager, he is sexually abused by his mother and she has a baby girl called Agnes. During Christmas, the deranged Billy escapes from his imprisonment, kills his mother and stepfather and blinds one eye of Agnes. He is declared insane and his sister is sent to an orphanage. In the present days, Billy escapes from the Clark Sanatorium to spend Christmas with his family. Meanwhile, his former house is the Delta Alpha Kappa sorority house in the campus of the Clement University, and the housemother and the sisters Kelli Presley, Dana, Lauren Hannon, Megan, Heather, Megan Helms, Melissa and Eve Agnew are preparing the house for Christmas party in a stormy night while Clair Crosby is in ...

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Plot Keywords:

christmas | house | attic | sorority | sorority house | 

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Taglines:

2 Killer

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [uk] Official site [us]

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Black X-Mas

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$3,307,602 (USA) (22 December 2006)

Gross:

$16,235,293 (USA) (9 February 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dimension Films, 2929 Productions, Adelstein-Parouse Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min 94 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg) dies when part of her head is cut off by an ice skate. Trachtenberg had just portrayed an ice skater one year earlier in the movie Ice Princess.

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Goofs

When Billy stabs his stepfather in the eye, the blade comes out of the back of his head with the eye facing pupil-out, although that could not happen if the blade went through his eye.

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Quotes

[from trailer]
Dana Mathis: Can't we just get on with this thing?
Ms. Barbara MacHenry: We have to open Billy's present first!
Heather: I'm really not okay with this. Buying a present for a serial killer?
Ms. Barbara MacHenry: Billy lived here.
[all but Heather laugh]

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Crazy Credits

The final credits include the message "Goodbye, Shirley," in tribute to composer Shirley Walker, a frequent collaborator with director Glen Morgan. Walker passed away in November 2006, before "Black Christmas"' release.

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Connections

Referenced in Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Arabian Dance"
(from The Nutcracker)
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (as Pyotr Tchaikovsky)
Courtesy of DeWolfe Music Ltd.
By Arrangement with RipTide Music, Inc.

User Reviews

enjoy, but don't take seriously!

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.