Black Christmas [WS] [Unrated]

Director: Glen Morgan Glen Morgan

Overview

A few innocent women experience a nightmare before Christmas in this bloody thriller. Billy Lenz, a severely maladjusted child, finally snaps under years of brutal treatment by his family, killing and eating them in an explosion of violence on Christmas Eve. For years, the Lenz house stands vacant, but in time it's purchased and renovated as the new home for a college sorority. A few days before Christmas, a handful of sorority sisters -- Dana (Lacey Chabert), Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg), Kelli (Katie Cassidy), and Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) -- are enjoying a quiet evening with their house mother, Barbara MacHenry (Andrea Martin), exchanging gifts and swapping stories before heading home for holiday break. While Barbara remembers the story of Billy's crimes, the atmosphere is peaceful until the young women receive the first in a series of disturbing telephone calls. Before long, they learn that Billy has escaped after years in a mental institution, and has come back to the house where he grew up to once again spill blood for the Christmas season. Black Christmas is a remake of the 1974 horror film of the same name by director Bob Clark, who later made a less-threatening film about the Yuletide season, A Christmas Story; Andrea Martin, who plays the house mother, also appeared in the 1974 film as one of the sorority girls.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/01/2019
UPC:	0796019801089
Original Release:	2006
Rating:	NR
Source:	Weinstein Company
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:35:00
Sales rank:	34,228

Special Features

Closed Caption; What have you done?: The remaking of Black Christmas; May all you Christmases Be Black ; A filmmaker's journal; Deleted scenes; 3 alternate endings

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Katie Cassidy	Kelli Presley
Michelle Trachtenberg	Melissa Kitt
Kristen Cloke	Leigh Crosby Colvin
Crystal Lowe	Lauren Hanon
Lacey Chabert	Dana Mathis
Mary Elizabeth Winstead	Heather Lee
Oliver Hudson	Kyle
Andrea Martin	Ms. MacHenry
Jessica Harmon	Megan Helms
Leela Savasta	Clair Crosby
Kathleen Kole	Eve Agnew
Karin Konoval	Billy's Mother
Robert Mann	Billy Lenz (20 & 25 years old)
Cainan Wiebe	Billy Lenz (5 & 12 years old)
Christina Crivici	Agnes Lenz (8 years old)
Howard Siegel	Billy's Stepfather
Peter Wilds	Billy's Father
Ron Selmour	Security Guard
Michael Adamthwaite	Santa
Peter New	Sanitarium Orderly
Christian Sloan	Patient
Alycia Purrott	Candy Striper
Juan Riedinger	Morgue Attendant
Aaron Pearl	Bludworth
Peggy Logan	Nurse
Jill Teed	News Reporter
Peggy Jo Jacobs	Weathergirl
Jerry Wasserman	Medical Examiner
Derek McIver	Orderly
Evan Adams	Doctor
Jody Racicot	Attendant
Anne Marie Loder	Kelli's Mother
Greg Kean	Kelli's Father
Kent Kubena	Reindeer
Glen	Actor
Dean Friss	Agnes (16 & 22 Years)
Shirley Walker	Composer

Technical Credits

Glen Morgan

Roy Moore

Glen Morgan	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Marty Adelstein	Producer
Steven Hoban	Producer
Dawn Parouse	Producer
Victor Solnicki	Producer
James Wong	Producer
Marc Butan	Executive Producer,Producer
Scott Nemes	Executive Producer
Bob Clark	Executive Producer
Mark Cuban	Executive Producer
Noah Segal	Executive Producer
Todd Wagner	Executive Producer
Dawn Shindle	Casting
Wendy O'Brien	Casting
John Papsidera	Casting
Coreen Mays	Casting
Patrick Ramsey	Sound/Sound Designer
Tim Walston	Sound/Sound Designer
Roy Moore	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

In the time since the remake craze took over Hollywood, rarely has there been an example of such slapdash slasher sludge than 2006's revamp of Bob Clark's seminal shocker, Black Christmas. Shunning the stripped down simplicity of the original, this vapid redo dares to craft a new expansive plot where none was needed in the first place. Far-too-forgiving viewers might go along with the predictable proceedings all well and good, but when it comes down to it, someone needs to be held responsible for this hunk of junky cinema. Whether it was the widely rumored studio interference or writer/director Glen Morgan's wrong-headed approach to adapting the project, there's plenty of blame to go around when genre audiences are through with this one. For starters, the filmmakers have decided to follow rule one of the remake trend and ridiculously explain the killer's back-story, which couldn't be more of a mistake when one considers how random and mysterious the psychopath was is in the original. Secondly -- and yes, we're dealing with spoilers here -- there is not one, but two killers, which is every bit as silly and stupid of a plot scheme as they come. It's not as if Morgan hadn't watched the first film either -- proof comes in the form of the killer's M.O., a suffocating bag-over-the-head technique was chilling when used sparingly before, becomes tired even before the halfway point. Also in question is the remake's eyeball fixation, no doubt inspired by a brief, chilling shot in the original -- only here, the entire movie is doused with so many eyeball through holes in the floors, walls, and never mind the incessant eyeball gore, that it completely loses its power and just like the rest of the film, becomes an old hat trick real quick. Taken simply as a stupid slasher entry, the flick might actually age better with future audiences mocking the preposterous proceedings, though hopefully they'll have the still very effective first film to compare it to.