by: ahf
Posted on 11.09.09 in All Horror Films > Screenshots
Release Date: 2006

Ah, the holiday season is upon us and what better way to celebrate then making some cocoa, curling up on the couch with the one you love, dimming the lights and watching a slasher flick. Black Christmas aka Black X-Mas gave me nostalgic tingles all over. I’m a huge fan of the 1974 original starring Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder. Even Andrea Martin of SCTV fame was in the original and co-stars in this remake as the ever optimistic sorority house frau. The original Black Christmas was a gem of slasher horror made at a time when the genre was about to loose all momentum. So to see a remake gave me a new kind of tingle. A tingle of expectation. I am not a huge remake fan. So many have been made and seemed pointless. Any one see Psycho? Point and case. I digress.

We open…like so many slasher flicks, on an insane asylum. Some one gets stabbed in the eye, someone escapes. Nice and dark and creepy….it involves a candy cane, but I don’t wanna spoil too much. We cut too…Christmas Eve in a Sorority house with the left over roomies getting ready to head out and celebrate, but a demanding and cheery house mom won’t let the Christmas spirit die. The Sorority Sisters are made up of such girl candy as Lacey Chabert (Mean Girls, Party of Five), Michelle Trachtenburg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Grindhouse), Katie Cassidy (Supernatural) to name a few of the more recognizable starlets.

Time for Secret Santa, but, there’s a missing roommate, and a surprise new gift under the tree. The house mother tells the tale of the secret past of the house which most of the girls dismiss as urban legend. Throw in heart throb bad boy Kyle played by Oliver Hudson (Dawson’s Creek) who isn’t supposed to be there and let the blood bath begin.

A few bodies and red herrings later…The missing girls real sister Liegh played by Kristen Cloke (Willard, Final Destination) shows up to add to the possibility of a new killer or maybe just a hot MILF for the older fan base to caress with their eyes and not feel too guilty because she’s of age. Leigh is a breath of fresh ass kicking air and from moment one is taking no one’s shit. She’s the very opposite of the dumbass blonde that runs into the dark cellar alone when she hears an odd noise. I confess, she’s my favorite character in the whole movie, when she first appeared in the film I thought for a moment it was Janice Dickenson, which would have given the movie an even larger camp status…but, after a few seconds I realized the woman playing Leigh was a really great actress and could no way be that crazy big lipped model lady.

From here on out it’s a full assault on the inhabitants of the house. With some really awesome death scenes and great scares. I’m not gonna tell you exactly how it ends, but, some of the girls are allergic to sharp objects embedded in their flesh. The best, end all be all, 5 star scene of the movie is our killer using cookie cutters on his mother’s back, cooking the pieces of skin, and then dipping them in milk before he eats them. YAY!!!!

Directed and Re-Written by Glen Morgan (Final Destination, Willard) in such a way that there’s a certain bitchy glamour to all of our would be victims and a dastardly holiday feel in the sorority house that makes you feel at home…before you are strangled with a plastic bag. The production value of this film is so solid that the jokey atmosphere is absolutely taken as absurd reality. The tempo of the plot is firm without leaving you a moment to get bored and wonder when it may be over. In closing Black Christmas has become a holiday favorite, at least of mine. If you’re in the mood for an unrelenting cut’em up babe fest pick this up ASAP and no matter what the box says…definitely “Open Before X-Mas.”

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* Acting – 4
* Blood – 5
* Violence – 5
* Partying – 3
* Language – 5
* Humor – 4
* Predictability – 3
* Girls – 5
* Gore – 4
* Sexuality – 4
* Torture – 3
* Overall – 4

• ★★★★★

  Acting:

• ★★★★★

  Blood:

• ★★★★★

  Violence:

• ★★★★★

  Partying:

• ★★★★★

  Language:

• ★★★★★

  Humor:

• ★★★★★

  Predictable:

• ★★★★★

  Girls:

• ★★★★★

  Gore:

• ★★★★★

  Sexuality:

• ★★★★★

  Torture:

• ★★★★★

  Overall:

this was just okay.