Black Christmas (2006 film)

2006 film by Glen Morgan

Black X Mas (also known and pronounced as Black Christmas) is a 2006 Christmas slasher film written and directed by Glen Morgan and starring Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, Crystal Lowe and Andrea Martin. The film takes place several days before Christmas and tells the story of a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered in their house during a winter storm. It is a loose remake and reimagining of the 1974 film of the same name. A co production of Canada and the United States, the film was produced by Morgan and James Wong through their production company Hard Eight Pictures, along with 2929 Productions, Adelstein Parouse Productions and Hoban Segal Productions. It is the second film in the Black Christmas series. Director Glen Morgan signed on to write and direct the film after the release of his 2003 remake of Willard. Shooting took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2005. The film was co distributed by Dimension Films and Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). According to Morgan, he and Wong had numerous disputes with Dimension executives Bob and Harvey Weinstein regarding the tone of the script as well as the film's conclusion, which resulted in numerous re writes and re shoots. In December 2006, upon anticipation of its release, the film garnered criticism from religious groups due to its depiction of graphic content in a holiday setting, as well as the distributor's decision to release the film on Christmas Day in the United States. The film opened in the United Kingdom on December 15, and premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California on December 19. Despite backlash from some religious organizations, Black Christmas was released in the United States on December 25. The film grossed $21.5 million worldwide on a budget of $9 million, $30.1 million in home sales and received negative reviews from critics, who took issue with the screenplay and excessive violence. This is the final film to be composed by Shirley Walker before her death on November 30, 2006, a month before the film's release, as well as the final film made with the involvement of Bob Clark before his death on April 4, 2007. A second remake of Black Christmas, produced by Blumhouse Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures, was released in 2019.

Billy Lenz is born in 1970, with severe jaundice due to a liver disease, and is constantly abused by his mother, Constance. Five years later, Constance and her lover murder Billy's father Frank on Christmas Eve and bury the body in the house's crawlspace. Billy witnesses their scheme so they lock him in the attic. In 1982, Constance rapes Billy to conceive another child, since her boyfriend is impotent, and gives birth to their daughter, Agnes. On Christmas Day 1991, Billy escapes from the attic and disfigures eight year old Agnes by gouging out her eye. He then brutally murders his mother and her lover. He is caught by police eating cookies made out of his mother's flesh and is sent to a mental asylum, while Agnes is taken to a local orphanage. Fifteen years later, Billy escapes from his cell on Christmas Eve and heads to his former home, now a sorority house for Delta Alpha Kappa at Clement University in New Hampshire. At the house, Clair Crosby, one of the sorority girls, is murdered in her bedroom by an unknown figure. Meanwhile, Megan Helms begins to hear noises and goes up to the attic to investigate. Upon finding Clair's corpse, Megan is attacked and killed by the same assailant. In the living room, the other sorority sisters, Kelli Presley, Melissa Kitt, Heather Fitzgerald, Dana Mathis, and Lauren Hannon, along with their housemother Mrs. Mac, receive a threatening call from the killer. Clair's half sister Leigh Colvin soon arrives, searching for her. Kelli's boyfriend Kyle Autry arrives as well but is kicked out when Kelli discovers Megan's sex video with him. When the power goes out, Dana goes to the main breaker under the house but encounters the figure in the crawlspace and is killed. When they realize Dana's ambush by the figure, the remaining sorority sisters and Leigh go outside to find her, only to find their fellow sister Eve Agnew killed in her car. With the police unable to arrive in time due to a snowstorm, Kelli, Melissa, and Leigh decide to stay inside the house while Heather and Mrs. Mac flee. In the car, Heather is murdered, and Mrs. Mac is impaled by a falling icicle. While Kelli and Leigh descend to the garage to investigate, Melissa is attacked and killed by the assailant. Kelli and Leigh return upstairs and find Lauren's eyeless corpse. Kyle returns to the house, and the three go to investigate the attic; while ascending the ladder, Kyle is dragged into the attic to his death by the assailant, who is revealed to be Agnes, now an adult. As Billy enters the attic, Kelli and Agnes struggle, leading the two of them into the empty space between the walls of the house. As the killers converge toward Kelli, Leigh helps her escape before they start a fire, leaving Billy and Agnes to burn to death. Later, as Kelli and Leigh recover at the hospital, Billy, who is partially burned, kills the morgue assistant. While Kelli goes for an X ray, Agnes emerges in her hospital room and kills Leigh. When Kelli returns to her room, Agnes appears through the ceiling and attacks her, but Kelli uses a defibrillator to kill Agnes. Moments later, Billy enters through the ceiling and chases Kelli to the stairwell. They briefly fight, ending with Kelli pushing Billy off the railing where he is subsequently impaled on the tip of a Christmas tree, killing him.

After his debut feature, Willard (2003)—a remake of an earlier 1971 film—failed to perform well at the box office, Morgan was approached by Dimension Films to write and direct a remake of Black Christmas (1974). Star Crystal Lowe noted Morgan's admiration and aim to "take the film to a different level", while "respecting the fact that [the original] was a great movie to begin with". Andrea Martin, who had played the role of Phyllis in the 1974 film, was cast as the sorority housemother, Mrs. Mac. The European cut, which is four minutes shorter than the North American cut,

After the production in Vancouver concluded, Bob and Harvey Weinstein oversaw the shooting of additional footage in Los Angeles intended only for promotional materials. According to Morgan, he was contacted by the Weinsteins, who wanted to "pick up some shots for TV spots", to which he agreed. Among the footage shot was Lacey Chabert being dragged through the snow; footage of a woman falling from the roof, where there is a "weird lawnmower electric [Christmas] light thing"; an unidentified woman (played by Jillian Murray) and additional shots of Trachtenberg in a hallway holding a shotgun while Billy levitates above her on the ceiling. This footage, which was never incorporated into the film, did appear in the official theatrical trailer as well as television spots. The Weinstein Company (parent of the film's production company and co distributor, Dimension Films) chose to give the film in a wide theatrical release on Christmas Day 2006. Distributor Dimension Films had reportedly chosen to release the film on Christmas Day based upon the box office success of Wolf Creek, released in the United States by Dimension on Christmas 2005. The film was released earlier in the United Kingdom, however, premiering on December 15. In the United States, the film was not screened for critics.

The film drew backlash from Christian groups because of the studio's decision to release the film on Christmas Day. Several groups, including Liberty Counsel and Operation "Just Say Merry Christmas", called the film "offensive", "ill founded", and "insensitive". L. A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke also questioned the filmmakers' decision to release the film on Christmas, writing for Deadline: "And the entertainment industry wonders why it continues to have a huge PR problem as promoters of garbage? Showbiz marketing calls this counter programming. Still, I don't understand: just how many disturbed human beings does The Weinstein Company and MGM think actually want to go see a gory movie on December 25th?" Dimension Films defended the timing in a press statement: "There is a long tradition of releasing horror movies during the holiday season as counter programing to the more regular yuletide fare". Film historian Michael Gurnow, of The Horror Review, countered Liberty Counsel's complaint, writing, "such crimes occur throughout the year, including [at] Christmas", and cited both a mass murder and murder–suicide that occurred on Christmas Day 2005 in Virginia.

Black Christmas grossed a total of $16.3 million in North America and $21.5 million worldwide. The film remained in U. S. theaters until February 2007, earning $1,563 for the weekend of February 9–11 (from a total of 4 theaters) before concluding its theatrical run. On Metacritic, the film was given an average rating of 22 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". The film has been characterized by film scholars and critics as an example of a contemporary slasher film. Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote of the film: "With a peephole riddled set and a flashback heavy screenplay, Black Christmas smothers terror beneath a blanket of unnecessary information, revealing too much and teasing too little. And despite some nifty camerawork—a shot of an asylum inmate gobbling Christmas dinner cuts seamlessly to a couple snogging in a car—the movie is a dismal Christmas card to its predecessor". The Guardians Peter Bradshaw, however, found the backstory "ingenious", but concluded: "For the first 20 minutes or so, Black Christmas has some smart ideas and gags: then it all just gets predictable". Sam Adams of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Like an ugly tie or a pair of slipper socks, Black Christmas is destined to be forgotten the instant it's unwrapped, gathering dust until the season rolls around again". Jim Ridley of The Village Voice wrote: "The product itself isn't so much afterthought as afterbirth—a bloody mess to be dumped discreetly". When compared to the original, Desson Thomson of The Washington Post calls it "a drab, unimaginative remake. [ ] The remake neither pays perceptive tribute to the original nor updates it in anything but hackneyed form". Joe Leydon of Variety goes on to say, "[ ] there can be no argument regarding the scant merits of its slapdash, soporifically routine remake, suitable only for the least discriminating of gore hounds". Jason Anderson of The Globe and Mail wrote: "Lazy, perfunctory and free of tension, the new version will satisfy neither the admirers of the original nor anyone looking for a gory respite from seasonal good cheer", while Michael Rechtshaffen of Reuters wrote: "There are a couple clever touches here and there, including one sequence in which the end of a candy cane has been carefully licked into a highly lethal weapon, but for the most part the accompanying histrionics feel more regressive than retro". Thompson also praised the acting of several of the lead performers, in particular Cassidy, Trachtenberg, Winstead, Chabert, and Lowe. The Radio Times also gave the film a favorable review, giving the film three stars out of five and calling the film a "cheeky but no less brutal remake". For her performance, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was nominated for a Scream Queen award at the 2007 Scream Awards. In a retrospective by Fangoria, Ken Hanley said the film "benefits from solid and focused direction" and "wears its cringeworthy elements as a badge of honor". Film scholar Jessica Robinson also praised the film's depiction of its female characters: "The sorority sisters in Black Christmas are set up to be ideal females. They all have long hair, they are concerned with how they look, and they sit on the couch and file their nails. However, unlike stereotypical females, they also drink, cuss, and talk badly about their families".

Black Christmas was released on DVD and HD DVD in the United States on April 15, 2007, by Genius Products. The DVD release, which was made available in widescreen and fullscreen versions, features an "unrated" cut of the film that runs 2 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. The film has not yet received a Blu ray release in the United States, but in 2007, the film received a region free Blu ray release in Germany that contained both the North American theatrical and unrated cuts of the film. In 2008 it received a short print Region A Blu ray release in Canada, which contained the 90 minute R rated North American theatrical cut of the film. In 2022, another Blu ray release containing the North American theatrical and unrated cuts, as well as the European cut of the film (which features different and more violent kills as well as some alternate scenes and an alternate ending), was released in Germany. The film grossed a total of $30.1 million in DVD sales.