Black Christmas (1974) vs Black Christmas (2006)
This website is fully dedicated to the action genre. It’s something that is near and dear to each of the BPA writer’s hearts and I take great pleasure in knowing that we rarely stray from that plan. On occasion, we do journey into the realms of other genres and bring forth reviews/interviews from content firmly in the horror/sci-fi/thriller genres. It does happen. Each time I feel like we suffer a bit from the shame of stepping outside of our action identity but usually we do so knowing that it may serve another purpose. In this case, I’m reviewing two films that are most certainly in the horror genre. It’s a classic slasher movie that has inspired films for decades and decades and it also happens to be a CHRISTMAS MOVIE!! Oh yeah, and the early 2000’s remake….let’s see which one puts me more in the holiday spirit.
You can see right away that I didn’t review the newest remake which came out in 2019. I haven’t seen the film and while I won’t judge it solely on what I’ve seen on other sites, it appears to be a mess. So for the sake of answering all of those questions as to why I didn’t include it in this post, I haven’t seen it and by all it accounts it’s pure trash.
What is Black Christmas? Well, I’m glad you asked. The original film features a group of sorority sisters at their sorority house in the days leading up to Christmas. Pretty simple. Over the course of a couple of days, the sisters fall prey to a psycho killer hiding out in the attic of the house. It’s often considered one of the first slasher films and while I’m not sure I agree with that, it sure does make for a special film. The 2006 remake keeps the general idea of the film. It’s still a group of sorority sisters cooped up in the house while a psycho killer takes them out one at a time but this time it all happens over the course of one evening and we get quite a bit more backstory about the killer. It also ramps up the gore and killing from the original which was nice to see considering that 1974 film concentrated far more on the thrills than the kills.
Those Girls! If you’re going to have a sorority house full of girls to kill, you need to first find you some ladies worth slicing and dicing! Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, and Andrea Martin headline that first film while the 2006 version has Katie Cassidy, Lacey Chabert, Michelle Trachtenberg, and a returning Andrea Martin! The fact that the first film takes place over the course of a couple of days expands the way the characters are portrayed on screen. Olivia Hussey gets to be so much more of a woman with problems and relationships than Katie Cassidy or any of the other ladies we meet in the remake. They only get a few hours to live in the film and it’s just not enough to care about any of them.
The Killers! The original Black Christmas has some great and very creepy work from the killer. Just calling the ladies over the phone and getting all hot and bothered about how freaked out they were. When he finally struck, he was very much into asphyxiations. Probably another sexual thing. The remake brought back the old bag over the head trick with the girls but this time we learn so much more about our killer/killers that we even get some serious flashbacks. Billy Lenz had such a rough upbringing that I even felt sorry for him right up until the point where he started killing innocent people.
The Final Cut! I really did enjoy both versions of Black Christmas and I might even like the newest remake but if I’m being honest with myself I probably had more fun with the 2006 film. The girls don’t really get as much time to shine where the script is concerned but the upgraded killings and the time spent with Billy Lenz did it for me. If I only had time to watch one of them, it would be this one. Lucky for me, I had time for both.
