Black Christmas (2006) may be my favorite movie with that title, but the 2019 version is so different from the original and the first remake that I would not even consider it part of the franchise. Many consider it the worst of the franchise, and I get it. It is a more traditional horror movie than the other two and leans heavily on the gross out factor, but I have to give this movie credit for various reasons.
If you watch the original then Black Christmas (2006) soon thereafter, it feels as if the filmmaker, Glen Morgan in his second and last feature film to date, watched it, loved it and decided to make a movie that answered the questions never addressed in the original. Someone can argue that it was not necessary to answer those questions, and by answering those questions, it becomes more tropey and loses the mystery, unresolved fear factor. While I agree, I did not mind because this movie felt like three different movies were shot, and even though each of those movies are so over the top, I think that it is part of the charm. While it is not meta like Scream, it does feel as if there is an unspoken challenge to see how many branches of the horror tree it can hit. The way that the narrative is constructed with those three different movies kept me interested instead of bored as I waited for the next victim to get killed. Sometimes something can be so bad that it is good again, and I feel like the filmmaker was having fun. I do not get why Tim Burton gets accolades for doing the same thing in his own distinctive style, but Morgan was shut down and either was not permitted or chose not to further develop his style because it feels as if Burton and Morgan are very similar in the way that they take societal markers of aberration and linger on it, but Burton does it with love in a dramatic setting and Morgan is like most of us and sees it as horror.
Also Morgan took the killer calling from inside the house trope and updated it to fit a twenty-first century setting. It was no longer the point of the story, but it added to the tension of Black Christmas (2006) when you realized in a more deliberate fashion that each call symbolized another victim killed. I also liked that this film also spiritually felt like a deliberate sequel to the original in its casting and getting into the sorority house’s history. The first film felt as if the killer chose the house because it was full of women to kill. This film manages to take out the sexualization of women through murder and make it about how men are victims of how their environment grooms them to express their sexuality, which wreaks havoc on the lives of the women that they encounter. Being a victim never excuses the wrong inflicted on other women, but it helps inform the viewer that there is something fundamentally broken in all the relationships that predates the actual relationship and trying to navigate out of it through furtive action at best or by unexamined compulsion to replicate it at worst is never a solution. I do not think that the movie depicts one healthy heterosexual relationship in the film.
Black Christmas (2006) also won me over by emphasizing the sororal relationships as a family versus the failure of a traditional family. While the most recent remake was going for the vague concept of sisterhood and solidarity, this film felt as if they meant sister as in the close, deep bonds between friends that can surpass blood bonds. Also it tied in nicely with the killer’s distorted view of family and the creepy tagline, “She’s my family now.”
Black Christmas (2006) also cared about socioeconomic issues. Even the nicest woman in the sorority can be cut down with the comment “rich bitch.” It was a popular eighties trope to develop the tension between the people who actually live in the college town and those who temporarily pay to live there. The murders initially and viscerally feel like the response to this gentrification in an effort to reclaim, a literal eat the rich. I do not think that anyone wants these women to die, but the cavalier way that they treat a town tragedy would be seen as disrespectful and horrifying and would plausibly cultivate resentment.
Out of the three films, Black Christmas (2006) decisively wins at utilizing the seasonal theme consistently whenever something violent happens: Santa’s bag, Christmas lights, trees, etc. As a former fundamentalist, I also appreciated how a character listed how pagan Christmas really is. Apparently this movie was protested because it was a horror film released on Christmas day so it is a nice built in response to the haters.
Black Christmas (2006) also felt like a nicely balanced cast. There are more older women in this film, and they have a more consistent presence in the film. When Kristen Cloke is introduced, the film suddenly focused in a way that it had not before, and I am not entirely certain why. She was definitely given the star treatment, and it was worth it. I am so psyched that Andrea Martin was cast as the housemother. She was the real Santa and knew exactly which presents were under the tree, which added to the tension. Also everyone’s favorite Arrowverse actor, Katie Cassidy, plays a sorority girl, and she delivers her usual excellent performance, but I have to say that she gets better with time. Mary Elizabeth Winstead of 10 Cloverfield Lane, may not have a memorable character, but it was nice to see her. It took a little while to get a sense of each soror’s personality, sometimes when it was too late, which is one way that the movie could have improved, but the cast was solid. I now retroactively get a Scream Queens casting choice (I’m so slow).
Black Christmas (2006) had flaws. I am not sure if I appreciate the casting choice of the killer. Once that person is fully seen on screen, I was completely taken out of the film, and that actor should not take it personally. It is not a criticism of his skills, but just the choice of who to cast as the killer. Also I think that the movie feels as if it has two endings. I would have ended it earlier though I did appreciate the last on screen death; however it felt like a hastily constructed, tacked on end—the fourth movie, a homage to Halloween II, and it did not work for me. It was at this point in the film that the horror feels as if we are veering into the supernatural, and it felt too late in the film to plausibly explain why we were still doing this.
I really enjoyed Black Christmas (2006), and I’m sorry that Morgan felt like a failure after making two solid movies (probably because they were remakes of beloved films). I do not know why people who make worse films are given infinite opportunities, but Morgan chose or had to run back to television. Y’all broke his heart, and he was a good guy. Morgan, if you ever go back to the big screen, I will pay for a ticket. I’m sorry that I did not know about your movies because I would have supported you.