BLACK CHRISTMAS
US, 2006, 84 minutes, Colour.
Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Kristen Cloke, Crystal Lowe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Andrea Martin.
Directed by Glenn Morgan.
Black Christmas was originally a horror thriller of 1974, directed by Bob Clark who made a range of films from the Porky series to serious films like Tribute and Murder by Decree. He acts as an executive producer of this remake, more than thirty years on.
It is a routine adaptation of the rather sensationalist original. But, there has been a proliferation of this kind of film since those days and this one is fairly routine. A group of sorority students are in peril on Christmas Eve and are gradually dispatched. Audiences learn early in the piece who is responsible so there is no mystery. In fact, there are a series of flashbacks visualising the crisis in the home that has later become the sorority house. A bizarre and cruel mother has been responsible for the repression of her son who killed her and eventually escapes from a mental institution.
Glen Morgan directed the remake of another 70s thriller, Willard, and was a writer of such films as Final Destination 3. His wife, Kristen Cloke, appears as the sister of one of the victims and the male lead, a rather unsympathetic ladies’ man, is played by Goldie Hawn’s son, Oliver Hudson.
Yo Ho Horror!
1. A slasher film? Routine? The Christmas context? The victims in peril? The mad killers?
2. The Christmas settings, winter, snow, Christmas Eve? The action taking place over the one night? The insertion of the flashbacks filling out the background? The sorority house, the house in the past, the institution? The atmospheric score? The use of Christmas songs? Of the Nutcracker Suite?
3. The title and its irony? The role of Santa Claus? Christmas decorations? Gifts?
4. The focus on the young women, Kelli and her relationship with Kyle? Going into the house and her sense of sisterhood? The fact that she was the survivor? Her behaviour, attitudes? The other girls? Interchangeable? The various killings? The pursuit throughout the house? The girl trying to fix the lights? The visiting girl? Their personalities? Interactions? In their rooms, with Mrs Mac? The gifts, the discussions? The phone calls, the mobile phones and the messages? The build-up of terror? Mrs Mac and the girl in the car, death, Mrs Mac and the irony of her killed by the ice? The hospital, Kelli, Lee and her survival? Her being murdered? Kelli pursued, saved?
5. Mrs Mac, the sorority, her stories about the house? The irony of the gift for William Lenz and the memory of the killings? Her good humour, fears, with the girls?
6. Kyle, with Kelli, with the other girls, the video? His return to the house? Suspicions? His helping, finally being killed?
7. The background story of the Lenz family? The characters filling in the details? Lenz in prison, the Santa Claus gifts, his escape? The story of his sister? The mother, her disdain of William, the yellow baby, his father caring for him? The time passing, the mother and her drinking, the gift from the father? His being killed by the mother and her lover? William and his being confined to the attic? His growing up there, isolation? His mother and the sexual encounter? His growing up, the birth of his sister, her being odd, playing with the dolls? His murdering his mother, the lover? The cannibalism? The Christmas gifts? The police arresting him?
8. The killings, William and his sister? Agnes and her size, appearance? The final appearance in the hospital? Her death?
9. The popular ingredients of the slasher movie? Peril? Madness? The gradual elimination of the characters? This film as better than others or average?
