Directed by Glen Morgan
Starring Michelle Trachtenburg, Lacy Chabert, Katie Cassidy, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kristen Cloke, and Andrea Martin.

Ah Christmas time! There's lights on all the houses, lots of cookies, friendship and joy, but usually no horror films for those of us who could use a break from all this good cheer. Enter the dynamic duo, Glen Morgan and James Wong. Previously these guys gave us some creepy X-Files episodes and the Final Destination films and now they've decided to take on Christmas. For the uninitiated Black Christmas is a remake of the proto-horror film by the same name that was originally in theaters in 1974. While the original was a low-gore, high suspense drama about sorority sisters being knocked off over the course of a couple days at Christmas the remake is a balls to the wall slasher flick for the holidays that takes the originals premise and expands on it quite a bit.

The story opens on a group of sorority sisters who for various reason are staying at their sorority for Christmas. Meanwhile a mass murdering lunatic who lived in the same house the sorority is in is escaping the asylum he's been imprisoned in so he can go home for Christmas. With the premise set up the killer can now start picking off the young ladies one by one for the duration of the movie. Where the original 74' film was a very subtle horror film that inspired such great slasher films as Halloween but this 2006 variation feels it has to pull the stops and deliver a high energy slasher film with blood splattering the screen every 10 minutes or so. The result is a movie that is a fun, gory & entertaining horror film that will drive away some of the holiday boredom.

The storyline really is nothing new but Morgan and Wong have expanded on the originals killer and gave him a much richer back story about abuse at the hands of a very disturbed mother. While the original was a great suspenseful movie that left a lot to your imagination this remake is simply made for fun. The characters aren’t as fleshed out as the ones in the original and the subplot now involves a sex tape rather than an abortion. However with all the changes this was still a story that kept my interest and didn’t slow down too often.

Going in to this movie I really had low expectations. The reviews I’d read beforehand from other major Horror film news sites called it a mess of a movie that was dull and boring. The rumors have abounded regarding the troubled production of the film however with all of that I still watched a pretty well polished horror film that gorehounds will love as well as those who just want a scary movie for Christmas.

With all that said it does have some problems here or there including a couple of jumpy editing moments and a CGI effect that just looked terrible. The ending of the movie follows the classic “is the killer dead or not?” formula that seems a bit much after all that’s already happened but it still managed to satisfy the audience I saw it with. While its certainly not going to be hailed as a horror masterpiece it certainly isn’t the bad movie that everyone has made it out to be so if you looking for something scary for Christmas then go see this one.

3 out of 5 axes