Monday, July 2, 2007

Black Christmas

AKA:
Black X-Mas (USA) (promotional abbreviation)

Written by:
Glen Morgan
Roy Moore ´

Directed by:
Glen Morgan

Made in:
Canada & USA in 2006

Actors:
Katie Cassidy ... Kelli Presley
Michelle Trachtenberg ... Melissa Kitt
Mary Elizabeth Winstead ... Heather Fitzgerald
Lacey Chabert ... Dana Mathis
Kristen Cloke ... Leigh Colvin
Andrea Martin ... Ms. MacHenry
Crystal Lowe ... Lauren Hannon
Oliver Hudson ... Kyle
Jessica Harmon ... Megan Helms
Leela Savasta ... Clair Crosby
Kathleen Kole ... Eve Agnew
Karin Konoval ... Billy's Mother
Robert Mann ... Billy Lenz - Age 20/35
Dean Friss ... Agnes Lenz - Age 16/22
Cainan Wiebe ... Billy - Age 5/12

Plot:
A remake of the 1974 horror movie Black Christmas. The movie tells the story about Billy, a young boy who was abused by his mother as a child. While his mother was cheating on Billy's father, she eventually killed his father and kept Billy in the attic - for good, while she was with her lover and starting a "new" family. As Billy's mother fell pregnant with a daughter and treated her with love, which Billy had never experienced with his mother, Billy came out of the attic after years and brutally murdered his mother and her lover. Cut to present day, a group of eight sorority sisters consisting of Kelli (Katie Cassidy), Dana (Lacey Chabert), Lauren (Crystal Lowe), Megan (Jessica Harmon), Claire (Leela Savasta), Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Megan (Jessica Harmon) and Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg) and their house mother (Andrea Martin),who now live in Billy's childhood home, find themselves being harassed by threatening and intimidating mystery phone-calls during Christmas Break and as one of the girls goes missing, the girls begin being murdered one by one by no other than Billy... IMDB

Review:
No! No! No! No! No! No!

Bad, bad movie. Very bad.

Silly, stupid, a bad excuse to ruin a perfectly wonderful plot.

The original is a classic, a must-see. This horrible junk should not have been allowed! The plot is slow and dragging, missing some of the best points from the original film (the stupid cop, the missing girl). The special effects were bad (true eyeball size??!!).

The running time is only 1 hour 10 minutes - that doesn't even count as a movie.

The actresses are silly, stupid, and it is impossible to take them seriously. I would not have a problem of a remake of this movie (unlike most many other movies) - but do it well! It has potential to be adapted into now-time movie that could be a good horror/thriller/suspenseful film.

This movie is silly and I got tired of watching it after about 3 minutes. We have the whole history of the killer which is completely left out of the original for a very good reason. Imagination! Not everything needs to be completely explained and clarified within the sitting time.

Just pass this one up.


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