My Review of Black Christmas (2006)

 

Written And Directed by Glen Morgan

Billy: "She's my family now!"

Last week, I watched the original version of this movie from 1974 and last night, I watched the first remake/reboot from 2006. My expectations weren't exactly high but funnily enough, I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

Again, the villain would be Billy Lenz (Robert Mann/Cainan Wiebe) and once again, the setting would be a sorority house over the Christmas period, albeit with new protagonists. That in itself was a benefit to the movie as I think trying to do another version of Jess and company wouldn't have worked.

Our main Final Girl was the rather assertive and generally nice, Kelli Presley (Katie Cassidy). Instead of spending time with her boyfriend, Kyle Autry (Oliver Hudson), she wanted to spend it with her "sisters" and House Mother, Barbara MacHenry (Andrea Martin). Of course, Billy had other ideas.

With the girls being cooped up during a snow storm, we got to briefly know this batch of women. There was Melissa (Michelle Tratchenberg), Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Dana (Lacey Chabert), Clair (Leela Savasta) the rather oddball Eve (Kathleen Kole) and Megan (Jessica Harmon). They're not the most developed of characters but neither are that too awful as characters either. It's more middle ground with them overall.

Anyways, the body count rose throughout the movie with each of the girls (and Barbara) getting gruesomely killed off while Clair's half sister, Leigh (Kristen Cloke) also found herself in the mix while Billy's backstory involving his abusive mother, Constance (Karin Konoval) and younger sister, Agnes (Dean Friss/Christina Crivici) was also revealed in gruesome detail.

The twist involving Agnes was a nice enough departure from the original movie and the added backstory for Billy actually helped the movie a lot more than expected. The final few minutes though are reminiscent of another horror sequel that came out five years after this movie. If you know you know.

- A different ending that played homage to the original film was scrapped in favour of the one we ended up with. Andrea Martin was Phyllis in the 1974 movie.

- This was actually released on Christmas Day in the US but ten days earlier in the UK.

- Standout music: Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy by Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky and Carol Of The Bells by The Roger Wagner Chorale.

- Chronology: Billy was born in 1970, Agnes in 1979, Billy went mad and killed his mother in 1991 and the current Christmas was in 2006.

My expectations weren't high for this version of Black Christmas but I actually enjoyed this as much as the original. It changed enough to give it an identity of it's own in a good way while also retaining the essence of the original and expanding on the lore of Billy as a villain. 

Rating: 7 out of 10