~

the original Black Christmas (1974) was directed by Bob Clark ( a christmas story ) and most likely served as the very first slasher film and detonated the genre. It was tense, errie, creepy and horrifying. and nearly bloodless. there was no explanation of who the killer was and everyone dies ( or so it is implied )and starred margo kidder, olivia hussey and andrea martin.

I sat and watched the 2006 remake even after be warned not to by several horror fan friends. the reviews were not very positive, either.

But, I'm sure you know by now I will NOT be told what to do, so i sat down friday night and watched it with pete.

the Remake plot n a nutshull, billy is born with a rare liver disease that turns his skin yellow. his mother rejects him. he later kills his parents and spends some quality time in the nuthouse.
the house where he grew up is now a sorority house and as you can guess, billy will be home for christmas.

I'll say it's faithful to the original in plot. loosely. Andrea martin returns as the house mother and various nubile girls run around as pscho fodder. some great gory kills and a mild twist ending that I figured out after 30 minutes. there's an extra hospitol scene that wasn't present in the first and the dvd had 3 alternate endings.

my one complaint is the the charachters are stupid. like crazy retarded stupid. and of course this always happens in horror movies but thwese people were just ridiculous. would you go under the porch late at night to flip the breaker? ALONE? when something weird is going on? would you get drunk and pass out with your door unlocked? would you go up into the attic when you know a killer is up there?

honestly, I expected to hate it and found it mildly ammusing. the killer creeps around in the walls and floor which is genuinely creepy. I was pleased that the killer had a back story this time, as well.

had this not been a remake of my favorite horror film of all time, I probably would have enjoyed it more.


3 out of 5 stars

my friends will disagree.