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:

Let the slay ride begin.

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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 [United Kingdom] Official site [United States]

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

Kristin Cavallari turned down the role of "Kelli" while Camilla Belle and Amber Tamblyn turned down the role of "Heather" due to scheduling conflicts. Belle was working on another film while Tamblyn was committed to The Grudge 2.

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Goofs

You can not see anyone's breath when they go outside, even though it is supposed to be really cold.

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Quotes

[after receiving a disturbing anonymous phone call]
Lauren Hanon: What do you know about dealing with anyone but your Nascar daddy?
Heather: I'm goin' home.
Lauren Hanon: Go on, run home to daddy!
Heather: At least my family wants me home.

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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

References Ice Princess (2005)

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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

"I'm not dreaming of a Black Christmas..."

Some movies are very confident in their ability to do many things right, thus ensuring an intriguing experience. A movie like "Black Christmas," however, is mostly confident in its ability to do many things wrong, yet still remain watchable on some bizarre level. Needless to say, it's an overhaul of the seminal 1974 slasher of the same name, in which a lonely sorority house is besieged by a killer making obscene phone-calls from the attic over the holidays. The 2006 version takes this premise and attempts to build a backstory around murderer Billy Lentz, who remained a shadowy specter throughout Bob Clark's film. I have to give writer-director Glen Morgan credit: while this bit of character development is wildly uneven (including giving Billy a sister-in-madness), it is consistent with the wildly inconsistent rest of the film. Morgan brought a strong sense of macabre humor and visual style (I dare call it "Burtonesuqe") to his exceptional remake of "Willard" (helped by Crispin Glover's delightfully wacky performance), but his stylistic leanings are simply the wrong match for a "Black Christmas" remake. There is not a single suspenseful scene to be found, and the violence is so exaggerated that it defuses any horrific effect (seriously, a killer who eats eyeballs?); additionally, the characters are so ill-defined that it's hard to keep track of who's who (had the number of girls been whittled down the point where they had actual personalities, we might have actually given a damn about them). And, for a slasher film coming in the wake of "Scream" and its kindred, "Black Christmas" just shows a general lack of common sense when an obvious threat is lurking (can you really feel sorry for a security guard who lingers in a maniac's room long enough to get knocked off?). But in an odd way, "Black Christmas" avoids the oblivion of crappy horror remakes due to Morgan's impassioned, assured sense of visual style–that being said, it's nowhere near as good as its predecessor.

4.5 out of 10