Black Christmas

"This Christmas, prepare for the ultimate slay ride."

Click Here To Read My Review of the Film (25 December 2006)

Plot Outline and Additional Information

The Black Christmas remake begins on a stormy Christmas Eve at the Alpha Kappa sorority house, where a group of sorority sisters are celebrating, being snowed into the house. Among them are Kelli (Katie Cassidy), Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg), Lauren (Crystal Lowe), Dana (Lacey Chabert), Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Megan (Jessica Harmon), Eve (Kathleen Kole), and the housemother, Mrs. Mac (Andrea Martin).

Meanwhile, while the girls are at the sorority, a man named Billy Lenz (Robert Mann), is spending his Christmas in a mental institution. As we are told through a series of flashbacks, Billy used to live in the house as a child, where he suffered a troubled childhood with his drunken mother (Karin Konoval) and her mean boyfriend. Billy had a liver disorder that caused him to have a yellowish tint to his skin, and his coldhearted mother never cared for the child. After seeing his father be murdered by his mom's lover, Billy was locked away in the attic, in fear that he would tell their secret. One night, his mother creeped into the attic, and the two ultimately had sex, resulting in a child nine months later, a baby girl named Agnes. Poor Billy was ignored even then, and was still kept locked away in the attic, a family's dirty little secret. Agnes began to grow up, while Billy remained isolated upstairs. Then, one Christmas Eve, Billy emerged from the attic, and in a violent rage, killed his family, and went as far as making Christmas cookies out of his mother's flesh.

Now, on this Christmas Eve, Billy escapes from the mental institution, and decides to come back home for the holidays. While the sorority is celebrating, they begin to recieve some very bizarre phone calls. They check the caller ID, but the calls are apparently coming from cell phones who belong to other girls whom they already believed to have left to go home. A woman named Leigh (Kristen Cloke) arrives at the house in search of her sister, Clare (Leela Savasta) who was supposed to meet her for a ride back home, but never showed up. The strange calls continue throughout the evening, and then the bodies start to pile up around the sorority house as more and more of them vanish. The girls realize that Billy is watching them, and what ensues is a bloody battle to save their lives. This holiday season, the slay ride begins.

The Black Christmas remake hit theaters on December 25, 2006 in the United States, by MGM/Dimension Films, and opened on December 15, 2006 in the United Kingdom, by Pathe Films.

The DVD release of the film will be released on April 3, 2007, in both the original R-rated theatrical cut, and an unrated extended cut (which runs 5 minutes longer). Bonus materials are said to consist of: Three alternate endings, Seven deleted scenes, "What Have You Done?": The Remaking of BLACK CHRISTMAS featurette, "May All Your Christmases Be Black": A Filmmaker’s Journey featurette, and theatrical trailers. You can now pre-order the movie from amazon.com here.

Black Christmas (2006) News Article:
"Dimension Films' Black Christmas Offends Religious Groups", 15 December 2006

Movie studio Dimension Films has remade a cult hit from 1974 about a group of female students being terrorized by a killer during Christmas and is releasing the film, Black Christmas, on December 25 -- tagging it as the "ultimate slay ride." But religious groups have condemned the timing of the release of the R-rated slasher movie as tasteless and offensive, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"To have a movie that emphasizes murder and mayhem at Christmas, a time of celebration and joy around the world seems to be ill founded," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, an organization dedicated to upholding religious freedom and traditional family values.

Jennifer Giroux, who co-founded Operation Just Say Merry Christmas as a way to reclaim the season for Christians, said it was abominable to release this film on Christmas Day. "The use of religious music -- 'Silent Night' -- and the nativity set on the front porch in one scene are insensitive to Christians," Giroux said after watching the trailer online. "It's not enough to ignore and omit Christmas, but now it has to be offended, insulted and desecrated. Our most sacred holiday, actually a holy day, is being assaulted."

The Hollywood Reporter says that Dimension Films is not being swayed. In a statement, the company said, "There is a long tradition of releasing horror movies during the holiday season as counter-programming to the more regular yuletide fare. Black Christmas is a remake of a classic 1974 horror movie with a big cult following."

Multimedia (Photographs, Trailers, Etc.)

View dozens more photos on this webpage.

Theatrical Trailer
Windows Media / Apple Quicktime

My Two Cents...

I was skeptical about a remake of this beloved cult classic, but I ended up loving the re-imagining of it after all. I saw the film on opening day here in the US, and I can say it was easily one the best horror remakes I've ever seen. It wasn't trying to be too faithful to the original film, it mostly took the original film and tweaked the story, and of course is much, much gorier. While the original film is far better and a classic on it's own, this was a fun slasher-movie romp. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Click here to read my full review for the film.

:::: This page last updated March 25, 2007 ::::

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