Cheap Black Christmas (Unrated Widescreen Edition) (DVD) (Glen Morgan) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Black Christmas (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

Dumb and pointless yet watchable somehow
If you're an aspiring screenwriter, it always helps to just watch one movie a whole bunch of times and make your own with some of your own twists to differentiate it and people won't call you a ripoff. That seems to be the in thing to do now since there have been so many remakes, or as they're called "re-imaginings" that you wonder what was the point in making it. Normally I would excuse such films but not in the case of the Black Christmas remake. Written and directed by Glen Morgan and produced by James Wong, it's hard to believe this film is brought to us by the guys who did some amazing episodes on the X-Files. <
> <
>It's Christmas time and a sorority is celebrating the night before they all go off with their families. Around this time, a murderer named Billy Lenz escapes from prison and he's heading to the sorority. Stricken with a liver disease that gives him yellowish skin, he has a weird fixation for eyeballs and he has it in mind to ruin the girls' night. <
> <
>Like a lot of recent horror films, there's a tendency to have the horror come through gore shots and if the phrase "weird fixation for eyeballs" doesn't give an idea for what you'll see then look elsewhere. Granted, there is a deleted scene included that's even more extreme yet at the same time, it's still quite gory and after awhile it wears thin. There's almost a sadistic quality in seeing girls not only suffocating through bags over their heads but to ALSO have one repeatedly stabbed is excessive and robs what's already a traumatic event. Another problem is giving the killer a backstory. Just like Leatherface, we can't just simply have characters face real evil and menace, it has to be people who have been screwed over by life and are lashing out. What was scary (when you didn't think about the cheesy stuff) was the fact people are being harassed by a kind of supernatural presence or evil personified and here it just makes everything seem ridiculous. <
> <
>If you're a guy, one good thing about the film is the amount of ladies on hand. From Buffy's Michelle Trachtenberg to Lacey Chabert (Party of Five) to Mary Elizabeth Winstead (of Final Destination 3), it's hard to watch cute ladies getting diced. Of course it doesn't help they all tend to play the same type which is sarcastic, spoiled rich-chick. We get Andrea Martin as well from the original but still, it's disappointing that they don't do much before each girl is ceremoniously offed. <
> <
>Is it worth a watch? Hard to say since only a rare few actually like it but it's hard to like something that's just so bad in the first place and convincing yourself there's some merit in here will take awhile.

---

Pleasantly predictable
Bob Clark's Black Christmas was a clever little horror film that came out of Canada and spawned the slasher genre including, most notably John Carpenter's Halloween. Unfortunately, Clark's film isn't as celebrated or nearly as widely known as Carpenter's but they are both enjoying the remake treatment as of late with the creative team behind the Final Destination films reworking Black Christmas for a whole new generation. <
> <
>Glen Morgan adopts a garish red colour scheme in keeping with the holidays and this includes using blinking Christmas lights for atmospheric lighting. He also effectively uses the setting - a howling snowstorm - to keep the girls confined to the house while also providing a contrasting colour scheme of cool blue and white to the warm red of the interiors. Like Final Destination, this is a beautifully shot movie, even more so with the use of vibrant colours and creative camera angles. In a perverse twist, Morgan also uses a selection of holiday songs and classical Christmas music during some of the numerous murders in a tongue-in-cheek fashion but devoid of hip irony. <
> <
>If you've seen a slasher film from the 1980s then you pretty much know what's going to happen next but that hardly ruins the experience. There is almost something comforting about how it stringently adheres to formula. Black Christmas is a refreshing, old school slasher film that doesn't resort to the same kind of oh-so clever, self-reflexivity of the Scream films and instead remains faithful to the tried and true conventions of the genre including the seemingly indestructible killer motivated by a disturbing family past, and the last girl who must confront him. This is a great looking film that isn't overly ambitious but is very entertaining and a fitting tribute to the original cult classic. <
> <
>There are four deleted scenes, an extended scene and two alternate scenes. The excised footage establishes more atmosphere and shows more give-and-take between the girls as they try to figure out why their sisters have gone missing. There are also a couple of alternate death scenes for two of the characters. <
> <
>Also included are three alternate endings with one that leaves the fate of the surviving characters on a much more ambiguous note; another spells things out a little more while providing a red herring; and the last one leaves things much more open-ended. <
> <
>"What Have They Done?: The Remaking of Black Christmas" takes a look at how this film was made. This excellent featurette takes us through the production design and has each of the principal actors talk about their characters. There is actually some detail and information instead of the usual extended trailer vibe. <
> <
>"May All Your Christmases Be Black: A Filmmaker's Journey" is a candid look at the key crew members. Director Glen Morgan speaks frankly about how the commercial failure of Willard affected him and how he feared that he wouldn't be allowed to direct another film.

---

Blood-Red Christmas!
Put your brain on 'low hum' and enjoy this extremely gory take on the '70's classic! Very reminiscent of early 80's slasher pics (especially the 'Friday the 13th' films), this is a brainless, trashy, and especially FUN movie which exploits (to very good, atmospheric effect) all the trappings of Christmas to tell the tale of little Billy and his very, very sick family. <
>This is by no means a great film, or even a particluarly good one, but again if you're looking for a fast-paced, never boring, bloody good "slay ride," you've found the right picture! Just don't expect anything like the original or you will be sorely disappointed... <
>A guilty pleasure if there ever was one, and definitely recommended for gore hounds!