Black Christmas (2006) Movie Poster Image

Black Christmas (2006)

age 18+
(i)

 

Dreary slasher remake is worse than fruitcake.
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  • Review Date: April 2, 2007
  • Rated: R
  • Genre: Horror
  • Release Year: 2006
  • Running Time: 84 minutes

What parents need to know

Positive messages

The serial killer is bad; his alcoholic mother abuses him (sexually and physically) and murders his VIetnam veteran father; Billy's sister is also his daughter; sorority girls make dumb choices, and one by one are killed by demented/evil Billy.

Violence

Repeated stabbings, smothering with plastic bags, splattering blood everywhere; Billy repeatedly pulls out and eats his victims' eyeballs; Billy makes "cookies" of his mother's flesh (with Christmas cutters), then bakes and eats them, with blood everywhere; weapons include knives, a garden hook, ice picks, a sharpened candy cane, a glass unicorn firgure, a barbecue fork, a fireplace poker, a defilibrator, Christmas lights (strangling), and a Christmas tree (impaling); decapitated head rolls out of an opened car door; Christmas tree decorated with eyeballs and decapitated heads.

Sex

Girl who kisses boyfriend is doomed; sorority house mother holds up lingerie she's received as a gift; porn footage on computer screen shows sexual movement (male over female's back), but no explicit body parts; sexual parts named ("ball sac"); reference to sitting on "Santa's lap" serial killer's sexual motivation is discussed; girl in shower seen from back and side (outline of breast, bottom visible) -- as killer's eye watches her. Billy's mother has sex with his stepfather, who falls asleep drunk; she then approaches Billy and drops her robe (viewers see her back and assume she has sex with her son, as his daughter is born nine months later).

Language

Frequent use of "f--k" (30+); repeated use of "s--t" (15-ish); also several uses of "damn."

Consumerism
Not applicable
Drinking, drugs, & smoking

Billy's mother smokes cigarettes frequently; she's drinking and drunk in almost every scene she's in.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this holiday-themed horror remake isn't for kids. Although most of the grisly violence is implied rather than explicit, there's no shortage of spattering blood and jump scenes. Sorority house sisters are murdered one by one with weapons including knives, Christmas lights, a pointy Christmas ornament, and a glass unicorn figurine. The film also includes scenes of implied incest, online porn, vomiting, decapitation, bloody slicks on the floor, the consumption of human flesh cooked into Christmas cookie shapes, and human eyeballs being ripped out and eaten. Characters also smoke cigarettes, drink wine, and use lots of foul language (at least 30 "f--ks").

What's the story?

It's Christmas Eve, and sorority sisters Kelli (Katie Cassidy), Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Dana (Lacey Chabert), and Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg) are pondering their upcoming holiday on campus. House mother Mrs. Mac (Andrea Martin) regales her charges with the story of the house's previous inhabitant, Billy Lenz (Robert Mann). Flashbacks illustrate his terrible life: Jaundiced as a child and reviled by his chain-smoking, alcoholic mother, he ends up killing his family and is incarcerated in a sanitarium. When Billy escapes, he returns to his old home and creates bloody heck -- he's especially fond of decapitating and de-eyeballing his victims, then eating their flesh and corneas.

Is it any good?

QUALITY

Gruesome and bleak, Black Christmas is a particularly uninspired slasher film remake. Except for the addition of flashbacks and back story (which end up detracting from the scares rather than enhancing them), the story is essentially the same as Bob Clark's 1974 original. But Glen Morgan's not-so-new version is slow-moving, unsurprising, and very, very bloody.

The formula, treated so carelessly, is tiresome: Each girl reveals early on a rudimentary reason why she might "deserve" her upcoming abuse and Billy's story is one we've heard too many times before: Bad mom makes bad son. In addition, the gore is rendered with slurpy sound effects and jarring close-ups in lieu of characterization.

Families can talk about...

  • Families can talk about why the movie, like many modern horror flicks, gives its psycho killer a terrible childhood (the original version doesn't touch on that). How is Billy's mother blamed for her son's subsequent bad behavior? Is what he does less wrong because of how he grew up? Why is it so important to have a specific cause to blame for his behavior?

Movie details

Theatrical release date:December 25, 2006
DVD release date:April 3, 2007
Cast:Andrea Martin, Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg
Director:Glen Morgan
Studio:MGM/UA
Genre:Horror
Run time:84 minutes
MPAA rating:R
MPAA explanation:strong horror violence and gore, sexuality, nudity and language.

This review of Black Christmas (2006) was written by

Cynthia Fuchs
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are conducted by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

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Teen, 17 years old Written bymovie_fanatic_411 April 9, 2008
not rated for age

Black Christmas: Unrated

Every catagory in the rating would have to be a big issue because this movie has everything in it. I also saw the Unrated version, and i dont know what is in the rated version.
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Parent Written byHannibalPhil April 25, 2013
age 18+

Watch the original!

The Original 1973 version was way better than this!
What other families should know
Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
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Adult Written bywonder dove September 14, 2012
age 18+

Just bad!!!!

Wow, this was a pretty dumb movie! For a huge horror lover like myself, this absolutely flopped. Total let down. It's not scary, very boring, cheesy and just poorly done. Characters are extremely unlikable, some of the acting seemed like comedy. The music was silly, just overall a very blah movie!! The original Black Christmas is amazing!!! I only actually watched it recently this year and was amazed at how great it was, very scary too (unfortunately it is not on CommonSense site)! Check that one out instead on IMDB!
What other families should know
Too much violence
Too much swearing
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