The remake of Bob Clark’s 1974 holiday classic makes it way onto DVD thanks to Genius Entertainment. Director Glen Morgan is still smarting after the failure of Willard so I’ll try to be gentle to him.
Ho, Ho, Ho. It’s Christmas time again and the campus is bare and all throughout the frat and sorority houses not a creature is found, not even a mouse. Well, that’s not exactly true but the gals of Delta Alpha Kappa are down to a few stragglers. “I’ll be home for Christmas” is the mantra of another former-occupant of the sorority house – Billy Lenz (Robert Mann) is in a mental asylum across town.
Billy (aka the Yellow Kid) is given a back story that is both disturbing and silly
Seems our buddy Billy was locked in the attic by his wack-job of a mother (Karin Konoval) because of his yellow tinged skin and he also witnessed the murder of his father by her and her boyfriend. This series of events along with some incest, matricide, and cannibalism with Christmas cookie cutters led to his current incarceration. However, this Christmas finds Billy, thanks to a sharpened candy cane, going over hill and dale to return to his home for Christmas.
His home is now occupied by the Deltas and Lauren (Crystal Lowe), Clair (Leela Savasta), Kelli (Katie Cassidy), Megan (Jessica Harmon), Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg), Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Dana (Lacey Chabert), house mother Mrs. Mac (Andrea Martin, who had a role in the original), Clair’s older sister Leigh (Kristen Cloke) and Kelli’s boyfriend Kyle (Oliver Hudson) don’t know that they’re about to have an unexpected guest for Christmas dinner – and that they’re the dinner.
Ah, the pitfalls of remaking a classic of the genre. You’d think that Glen Morgan and James Wong would know better after the box office failure of Willard (which I happened to like actually). I don’t know that I’d call the original Willard a classic exactly, but you’d definitely say that about the original Black Christmas. Such a remake is bound to come short in the eyes of fans of the original. The updated Black Christmas is no exception.
Morgan saddles Billy with a silly (yellow skin?) and grotesque (incest, matricide by cookie cutter, and cannibalism) back story. It’s been many moons since I’ve seen the original but I recall that Billy was a presence that was never really shown on screen for too long and that the ending featured the only really good look we got of him as an eye staring menacingly through the crack in a door – extremely effective.
This new back story seems done for the sake of the shock value of the nastiness involved and unfortunately it sacrifices the character development of the girls of Delta Alpha Kappa. They seem interchangeable - even though some stuff is done with Kelli, Kyle, and a secret. None of the girls earned my interest and therefore I really didn’t care when each of them met a stocking full of death.
O, holy night - Andrea Martin is the house mom and was in the original
All that being said, the film is your standard slash and dash, killer is in the house type horror outing and in that sense it is watchable. I think that those that worship the original will spew vitriol all over this outing and Morgan should’ve expected that and if he didn’t want to go into the dumps again (he was depressed for three months after the failure of Willard – again which I happened to like), he might’ve tried an original contribution and not trying to remake a classic. Sorry Glen.
Black Christmas is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. An unrated fullscreen release is available separately. I don’t know what the differences are, not having seen the R-rated theatrical version, but I suspect that it’s in the gore department.
Special features are a bloody stocking full of treats for the fans of this film. Let’s look at what we find under the tree, shall we? First up is 7 minutes of deleted scenes and 12 minutes worth of footage covering 3 alternate endings. “What Have You Done?: the remaking of Black Christmas” featurette might have a double meaning that the filmmakers might’ve thought about before calling it that. Anyhow, it runs 28 minutes and features interviews with writer/director Glen Morgan, executive producer/director of the original Bob Clark, webmaster Dan Duffin in (of www.itsmebilly.com ), producer James Wong, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Crystal Lowe, Karin Konoval, Robert Mann, Lacy Chabert, Katie Cassidy, sound recordist Patrick Ramsay, production coordinator Jennifer Metcalf, Andrea Martin, script supervisor Helga Ungurait, Michelle Trachtenberg, production designer Mark Freeborn, director of photography Rob McLachlan, grip Paul Chorney, and Mrs. Glen Morgan – Kristen Cloke.
Next is the 26 minute “May All Your Christmases be Black: A Filmmaker’s Journey” which adds interviews with actor/first assistant cameraman Dean Friss, camera operator Mike Wrinch, costume designer Greg Mah, and makeup artist Joann Fowler.
The gals of Delta Alpha Kappa have an unwelcome Christmas visitor
Glen Morgan tries to remake a classic and finds himself coming up short. Although it might make an evening’s entertainment, it is derivative of other slasher flicks. You might want to take a look out of interest in what they’ve done with Black Christmas, but you’ll probably return to the original.
Black Christmas (Unrated) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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