Review of Black Christmas (2006) by Emilia B — 27 Jun 2009

Taking a film as understated, disturbing and flatout scary as Bob Clark's Black Christmas and turning it into a conventional, tactless slasher film with more focus made towards kills than chills, Glen Morgan's Black Christmas is as disposable and forgettable as the modern slasher gets but that's not to say it's utterly without merit.

The cast is filled with the more modestly talented end of the beautiful, young woman spectrum of Hollywood and they all do their parts well (despite being no Margot Kidder) and the kills ARE some of the more inventive and violent fare you find in most slashers outside of the Friday the 13th series.

The problem lies in the plot and, more importantly, the killer. Even leaving the excellent original out of the equation, this movie makes a dog's dinner out of a rather basic plot. An escaped madman turns up at a sorority house at Christmas and starts picking off the lovely ladies. That's enough to carry a horror movie, but this movie complicates matters with a plot twist involving a sister/daughter (played by a man, no less). This is a problem divorced from the original because it's just plain dumb, but when compared to the original it comes off even worse. The original killer was a mystery, we are never given a story for him, we're not even given a real name. His insane babbling is filled with clues to what could be his backstory, but that is for the viewer to decide, and as a result that uncertainty and mystery adds a greater sense of unease.

The original Black Christmas is scary movie, but this movie is only worth watching for a few neat kills. If that's all you want from a movie, then there are better places to go. If you catch it on TV then by all means, have at it, but don't go out of your way for this one.