Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-24 23:27:19

All Is Calm All Is Bright Who Is In My House Tonight?

I'm having a hard time understanding all the negative reviews coming from this title. Its a slasher movie people and its a Post Modern Safe one at that. Ever since Scream brought back the slasher craze, it seems that audiences want the same template which is make it fun, make it gory, but just try and make the gory parts a little cartoony so no one thinks its real. Basically every movie made by Dimension Films before House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects proved that the over 21 set craves "a bit of the ole ultraviolence". Black Xmas falls into this category.We have a group of sorority sisters who find themselves snowed in over the Christmas holiday. As it turns out, their house's mascot happens to be a boy named Billy who butchered his family in that very same house several years before the College bought the property. (Great idea for a mascot, ladies. Maniacs are so in the now right now.)Soon, they begin receiving obscene phone calls by a man calling himself Billy and before you know it, the girls begin disappearing one by one until only one or two are left to uncover the final piece of the mystery.I really had a lot of fun with this movie. Billy's backstory was certainly twisted and taboo when it comes to Billy's sexual relations with his own mother and the lineage of Agnes' birth. I even felt really bad for him having witness the murder of his dad whome apparently was the only one who loved him despite being married to that ugly hag version of Lady Macbeth. And the girls were likeable enough as well as sexy enough for me to root for some of their survival. The cast includes Katie Cassidy ("Supernatural"), Michelle Tractenberg ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Lacey Chabert (Mean Girls), Mary Elizabeth Winestead (Final Destination 3), and Oliver Hudson ("The Rules of Engagment"). The kills were a little over-the-top but graphic enough to keep me interested; one girl gets the back of her head and scalp taken off via an iceskate. And best of all they all look young enough to still be in school whereas in the original the girls all looked way to old with the exception of sexy Olivia Hussy whom I guess only took the role to slum it between Zefferelli period flicks. And the little twist in the end was a nice little added surprise.All in all, its not a bad movie. There are certainly a lot worse ones than this one around (Planet Terror anyone?). Give it a shot but maybe turn the phone off for safe measure.

2012-05-24 12:44:59

Bleak Christmas

Let me first start off by saying I have NOT seen the orginal version of this film. I knew this film was a remake and I had heard of the 1974 Black Christmas and knew what it about, and bought this movie without even seeing it first. So this review isn't going to compare it with the original, but I'm reviewing just by what this movie had to offer, which I must say, wasn't much! First off, the whole basic backstory of the killer is dumb. I won't go into detail, I'll let other reviewers tackle that, but it is quite stupid, even for a horror film. Not only is the backstory dumb, but its broken up into the film as a series of flashbacks, that just slow what pace the movie had, down to a crawl. Next, all the characters are forgettable and unimportant. I watched the film no more than an hour or so ago, and I couldn't give you no more than 2 character names in the film. I just found myself not caring who lived, who died, whatever. Quite frankly, I was kinda bored. Now, on to the death scenes, some were ok, while others were infact, lame. Getting stabbed in the neck with a candycane? Uh, ok. A falling icicle that falls and goes through someone's head? What was the icicle made out of, steel? And, sorry to spoil it for ya if you havent seen the movie, but the ending death scene of Billy in the hospital when he falls on a big Christmas tree and the star on the tree impales him, AND without the tree falling?!! What the hell? Was the star made of Ginsu knives and the tree planted in cement? Hey, I know, its a slasher horror film. Its gonna have some dumb stuff happen. There's gonna be bad acting, there's gonna be a bad plot. But my point is that this was a remake. So unless the orginal was this bad, which I highly doubt, this movie should have been way better. Which brings me to my next point..when will Hollywood learn to write some ORIGINAL stuff, rather than just remaking every movie known to man, which don't even need being remade in the first place. Basically, if its done right the first time, then LEAVE IT ALONE!!!

Wayne Malin 2012-05-16 06:57:46

A travesty

A bunch of sorority sisters (among them Michelle Trachtenberg and LaceyChabert) are trapped in the sorority house on Christmas Eve when amassive snowstorm hits. What they don't know that a former inhabitantof the house Billy (Dean Friss) has escaped from the insane asylum andis going home for Christmas...Boy--what a disaster! As a remake of the superb 1974 film it's a slapin the face to all its fans. The original had likable, believablecharacters--ALL the characters in this one are just loud and mean...youWANT them dead! The original had no sex or violence. This one has atotally unnecessary shower scene AND an online sex bit (which serves nopurpose to the plot--it's just there to show sex). The violence (andblood) was minimal in the original. This one piles on the gore shovingit in the audiences faces. The original killer (Billy) had no reasonfor killing the girls making it even creepier. Here they give Billy aREAL sick back story involving incest and child abuse! And Agnes popsup too.Even if you don't compare it to the original it's still a mess. Theacting is terrible across the board especially by Andrea Martin (theonly returnee from the original). Also Oliver Hudson pops up as aboyfriend of one of the girls--but he's only there to get killed. Theplot makes NO sense by the end (I'm STILL not sure who the killerswere) and the editing is so fast and frantic you can't tell what'sgoing on. Also the explicit gore isn't scary just disgusting and,again--you could care less about these characters.When I left the theatre most people were in the lobby laughing! Theythought it was so bad it was funny. Many said they expected a horrorfilm not a comedy.A sick, boring, mindless film. An insult to horror fans everywhere. A 1all the way.

stiff5 2012-05-15 22:41:46

Fun!!

Black Christmas is a really fun movie with good gore and hilarious darkcomedy. Don't get me wrong, Black Christmas is a terrible film, buttake it is a fun film. Not scary, but at points, tense and suspenseful.Don't expect the original because it's far from it. I like that to someextent because it makes it its own movie and thats really unique. Ofcourse, being different, doesn't change it in all good ways. Manyscenes could've been very intense but were let down because of thesudden comedy. If you do compare the original to this, i do think youwill not like this movie. The original is scary, at points, and fans ofthe original WILL be expecting this to meet up to its standards. Don'tcompare it. The remake is its own movie and is meant to be fun andentertaining. It succeeds in that. If you are a fan of horror and arewanting to watch a fun, entertaining film, then you will enjoy this.Black Christmas is fun, gory, suspenseful, over the top, andentertaining. Enjoy!

C.R. Ciler 2012-05-13 19:03:28

Better than the original and I'm a fan of the original

the first real disturbing disgusting dark memorable horror movie thisyear hands down. go see this movie if ur a horror fan great deathscenes that you actually fully see.it makes it even eerier that its setduring Christmas time.when there's happy and joy and whatnot.surprisingly good mood movie.surprisingly good acting too fromMichelle tractenberg,Lacey char bet,and Katie cassidy.DO NOT LET ANYKID SEE THIS MOVIE IN ALL SERIOUSNESS.very graphic anddisturbing...very!!! i haven't seen a movie this disturbing sincehostel. I'm surprised that the mpaa let this get by with an R ratingthis is borderline nc17.I'm definitely buying this when its out on DVDcuz i luv horror movies and I'm picky about them so believe me when isay this is a movie worth watching.

Pumpkin_Man 2012-05-13 12:34:42

An Awesome Remake!!!

I love the remake of Black Christmas, for a couple of reasons. (1) Ittakes place on Christmas. (2) It's a slasher. (3) I saw this before Isaw the original. I actually love this more than the original. I lovethe plot, it reminds me so much of my all-time favorite movie,HALLOWEEN! I love all the actresses, because they are all extremelyhot! Some sorority sisters are snowed in on Christmas Eve at theirhouse, and it happens to be the home of the psychotic killer, BillyLenz. Their house mother, Miss Mac, who was in the original, tells themabout what happened to Billy. I love when they show the flashbacks toBilly's abusive childhood, and how his mother raped him and kept him inthe attic. They have a daughter named Agnes, and on one Christmas Eve,Billy finally took his revenge and killed his mother/lover's boyfriend,and killed her. It's awesome that he made Christmas cookies out of herskin. I also love the scenes at the asylum where Billy is kept inpresent day, but escapes and goes back home. Billy and Agnes have aChristmas slaughter and start killing the girls at their home. I alsolove that they took one of the girls' heads and made it the star on topof the Christmas tree. If you love remakes, horror, incest,cannibalism, and Christmas, you'll love BLACK Christmas!!!

seawalker 2012-05-08 13:24:06

Gory, nasty, exploitative fun

I have never seen the original "Black Christmas", so I have no idea ifthe remake compares favourably to the original or not, but I did enjoyit for what it is. Gory, nasty, exploitative fun.It is stupid beyond belief ("The killer's in the attic - let's go andhave a look!") and the plotting is lazy (the electricity is cut to thehouse and a girl still manages to have a power shower - nice arse shot,though, which I suppose was the whole point of the sequence), but thegirls are pretty and bouncy and director Glen Morgan has fun pointingout lots of lovely sharp objects before they are plunged in nubile,female flesh. (By the way, a guy also gets killed nastily. Equality,and all that.) There is also a whole thing about eyes...It's very short (84 minutes) so you won't waste too much of your lifeif you go to see it. It's not a classic, because it has all been donebefore, but it filled an afternoon.

2012-05-08 09:44:26

I liked this one better........

I have treated this movie as one of my Christmas horror favorites. Just recently watched the original, and it was......ok......but after seeing this one, I just liked this one better. If people thought this one was slow, then DO NOT watch the original, I thought it was slow. Not really sure how people thought this movie was slow.All the characters are somewhat likable, no one really gives a "bad" performance with the main cast. All of them, eyerolling, wisecracking, screaming, it was great to watch it all unfold. It was like watching "Sorority Row" at Xmas. Plenty of boo scares in rapid succession. And definitely a great ending. I love those endings where you truly think its over, and poof, you have 15 more good minutes of the movie. I won't sway you either way on this but definitely do yourself a favor and give this one a watch sometime. I have seen many many more remakes that totally sucked worse than this one.

2012-05-05 13:49:08

good movie

i never seen the original but this one was pretty good it had alot of good gore and some great killing scenes

Brett Davidson 2012-05-05 06:19:53

Black X-Mas: Entertaining

The movie tells the over the top story about a kid who grows upwitnessing his fathers murder and being locked in an attic by hismother. He comes down on Christmas Eve and kills his mother andstepfather. 15 years later, the house is a sorority house and he's backto kill the intruders.The original is a masterpiece, where as this is a mess. The charactersare bad, the suspsense is bad, there are no pop up scares even.However, it is entertaining to watch due to its campyness. But forpeople who like straightforward horror, don't see this.4/10

2012-05-04 05:24:50

We've Seen It All Before - BETTER !!

The original "Black Christmas" from the 70's was an absolute classic movie - this new version is terrible , the acting , script , storyline , characters , scenes - all reminiscent of a bunch of bad B movies all rolled into one . Not recommended !!

witchcraftpentagrams 2012-05-03 09:13:02

Christmas Lights Death?

Hmm. i enjoyed this movie a lot but i was a bit upset when i didn't seeanything with "Christmas lights". In the movie trailer it shows a womanfirst being dragged over a ledge by Christmas lights and then beingpulled towards the Christmas lights collector and that wasn't in themovie and also on the same trailer a girl is shown rubbing the groundperhaps looking for something and then finds a frozen body and itbursts its way out of the ice and reaches up. Both of these things werenot in the film which made me extremely upset and the front cover showsa person entangled in Christmas lights too. if anybody knows where ican see this can they please send me a message. this film was very goodand i cannot really decide between this one and the original one. thisone reminded me of the remake of house of wax in a way. very good and isuggest you see it if you can take violent eyeball scenes.

christian123 2012-05-02 06:45:55

By slasher standards, this was pretty average and forgettable

In "Black Christmas" a sorority house is terrorized by a killer whomakes frightening telephone calls before murdering the sorority sistersduring the Christmas break.Black Christmas is a bland slasher film with very few scares. Theoriginal was a mediocre horror film with a decent screenplay. It's alittle overrated but at least it developed the story and charactersinstead of just rushing into the murders. That's what this remake does.It's pretty much a disturbing bloodbath from beginning to end with veryfew memorable scenes. The frantic pace does keep things interesting andit never gets dull. However, watching so many vacant characters diebefore you get a chance to remember their names does not equal quality.At best, this could be a minor guilty pleasure although I really haveno desire to see it again.Glen Morgan did a great job with Final Destination and Willard. Here,he's just lazy and he follows a typical path for slasher movies. Asmentioned above, he does an okay job with the pace and I have to givehim credit for a few cool death scenes but that's it. The writing wasawful and it really brought the overall quality down. The dialog wassilly and just laughable. All of the dramatic scenes fell flat becauseof the unnatural dialog. The way the writers handled the background ofthe killers was pathetic and the last fifteen minutes were horrible. Itwasn't suspenseful at all, just unintentionally funny. The killerslooked like rejected stunt doubles for White Chicks.Usually, I can ignore awful acting in slasher movies since it's notsuppose to be the main attraction. In Black Christmas, the acting wastoo bad to ignore. Kate Cassidy was just awful as Kelli. She seemed tobe reading her lines and it was obvious that she was just acting.Kristen Cloke gave the worst performance out of everyone. All of thosebotox injections are really taking a toll on her and she struggled toshow emotion. Clearly, she got the job because she is married to thedirector or is that just a coincidence? Michelle Trachtenberg was justbland as was Crystal Lowe and Oliver Hudson. Mary Elizabeth Winsteadwas fine in Bobby but she was just horrible here. She was completelyunconvincing and just laughable. Lacey Chabert was disappointingaverage and she didn't get a lot of screen time. Andrea Martin gave thebest performance although that's not much of an accomplishment.Overall, Black Christmas may prove to be a decent rental just don'thave high expectations and expect something trashy. Rating 5/10

Robert_Hearth 2012-05-01 23:53:10

"I'd Like To Bury The Hatchet With My Sister…Right In Her Head!" --- Dana (Lacey Chabert)

"Black Christmas" (2006) Directed By: Glen Morgan Starring: Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary ElizabethWinstead, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, Andrea Martin, Crystal Lowe, &Kyle Hudson MPAA Rating: "R" (for strong horror violence and gore, sexuality,nudity and language) In 1974, a low-budget horror film named "Black Christmas" cameand…well, in all honesty, it was completely ignored. In fact, it hasnever really had the recognition it deserves, except from the mosthardcore horror fans. People remember "Halloween", "Friday the 13th",and "A Nightmare on Elm Street"…but hardly anyone remembers "BlackChristmas" even though it practically invented the slasher genre. Ihave always been a huge fan of the classic and I recently got my"Special Edition" DVD…for a Christmas present, ironically enough. Andhow did I decide to spend the day after Christmas, you ask? Well,watching the remake in a crowded theater, of course. I didn't expectanything from this movie. After all, it was a remake and, on top ofthat, it had several reported re-shoots (something that often meansgreedy studio execs decided to ignore the filmmakers' original wishes).However, I knew that, if nothing else, this movie had an ample cast anda wonderful director behind it. So, did this remake completely blow meaway like the original…or was it frozen in its tracks? If you have ever seen the original movie, then you know the plot forthis. A group of sorority sisters, including Kelli (Cassidy) andMelissa (Trachtenberg), and their house mother, Ms. Mac (Martin), areall celebrating the Christmas season, when a series of increasinglythreatening phone calls ruins the party. They soon discover that abrutal and terrifying killer has come home for Christmas and is killingthem off one by one. In the original, the killer is never identified.His motives are never even mentioned and he is never really seen,except when masked in shadows. This remake doesn't want to hide who thekiller is or why he or she desires to kill the girls. We are given allsorts of flashbacks and everything about the killer's past is revealed.While most fans of the original detest this fact and feel that this isjust another example of how cinema is being dumbed down for audiences,I don't necessarily mind. This movie reminds me of horror films fromthe eighties. It gives us a killer and his motives…and then a cast ofvictims for him to kill. Like those, this movie isn't scary and itisn't particularly intelligent, but it is fun and entertainingenough…not to mention, perfectly gruesome and violent.The gore in this movie is ratcheted up a lot in comparison to theoriginal. In fact, this movie is a slap in the face to all of the otherPG-13 horror films released lately and has some actual brevity. "BlackChristmas" (2006) features some of the bloodiest and most violentdeaths to be showcased in a horror movie this year. Gore-hounds willhave a very merry Christmas, as they get everything from eyeballs beingpulled out, severed heads, various amputations, impalings, stabbings,and more blood splatters to count. In an age when PG-13 horror filmshave been dominating cinemas, I am glad to see a movie with a hardcoreR-rating. Though not as shocking as such films as "The Hills Have Eyes"(2006), "Hostel", and "Haute Tension", for a movie aimed predominatelyat teen audiences, it seems as though filmmakers have finally realizedthat teenagers can handle a little bit of blood in horror movies. Manypeople in my theater were squealing in revulsion and I suspect that,for general audiences, this is quite shocking.When "Black Christmas" (2006) ended, I realized that it paled incomparison to the original and replaced any tension and suspense withblood and gore, but that it was still a competent enough slasher flick.Simple and entertaining, "Black Christmas" (2006) is reminiscent ofsuch eighties slasher flicks as "Terror Train", "Prom Night", and themany "Friday the 13th" sequels. Do not expect to see this at theAcademy Awards, but, as far as modern slasher flicks go, you could doworse. "Black Christmas" (2006) is a fun, entertaining,darkly-humorous, bloody, gruesome, and violent slasher flick thatsports decent performances, some stylish direction from Glen Morgan,and a lightning-quick pace. My biggest problem is that the ending is alittle too drawn out and I feel that everything should have beenbrought to a close within the sorority house rather than taking it to anearby hospital. On top of that, there was a little unnecessarymelodrama right at the beginning that didn't mean a hill of beans bythe end. But, overall, "Black Christmas" (2006) will be finding a placeon my shelf right next to its predecessor…if only for the entertainmentfactor (and, really, that's all there is…but that is enough).Final Thought: "Black Christmas" (2006) doesn't revolutionize the genreas its predecessor did, but it's a fun and immensely entertainingmovie.Overall Rating: 7/10 (B+)

coastalcarolina 2012-04-28 14:34:00

Worst movie this year.

This is definitely THE worst movie I have seen for 2005, and the worstmovie I have seen in a long time. It is a serial killer flick with noredeeming qualities, low quality, low budget, bad acting, and justhorrible.Some friend tried to compare this movie to Hostel.This movie and Hostel should not even be in the same sentence together,nor the same league.If you must see it, please save for rental. It looks like they mightwant to turn this into a "Halloween" wanna be with sequels...that justmakes me shudder.Awful, just awful.

vampirehunterD11 2012-04-27 22:32:09

Scarily fake, and an insult to the cult classic 1974 version...(spoilers)

OK...First off the acting made me want to vomit more than the"disturbing" murder scenes. All of the actresses are no-names for themost part, and it just goes to show where they all belong, in movieslike these. It was absolutely terrible, the way they outlined thescript/storyline was just pitiful. They try to make it so shocking tofind out how sick in the head Billy is, but that just ruined it withthe bad acting and the total fake-ness of all the eye gouging and allof that non-sense. The whole bag over the head was just lame because itlasted less than a second before a stake goes through the head.Everything in the movie was completely fake and I'm actually reallyupset that Dimension allowed to remake this movie into complete uttergarbage. I watched this with a friend who is quite scared of horrorfilms and he even laughed the whole time. All of the scenes thatcontained death in them looked like a poorly made Japanese 90's filmdeath or something...worse. (In this case, worse..) I love horrormovies, and I tolerate a lot of them and even back them up in somecases, but this was just pure trash and I can't believe anyone who wasapart of this nonsense could find any pride in it whatsoever. There aresome movies where you must ask, what were they thinking? The soundtrackwas horrendous, Billy's yellow skin was just silliness all around andthe daughter looked unbelievably fake and just stupid. That one scenewhere she goes "Forever!", like come on! What the hell!? How can you dothis to Black Christmas! It was just...the epitome of cheesy anddownright bad. Please don't ever see this movie, and if you do becauseyou want to see the re-make of one of your favorite horror movies likeI did, be prepared to laugh and be humiliated at the fact that youwasted 4 bucks on this rental. I'm sure BlockBuster will be laughingtheir asses off at whoever has to return this. It is a sin that itstill lays upon my kitchen counter, such trash should be in the garbagewhere it belongs!

springsunnywinter 2012-04-26 16:56:29

All blood, gore & violence but no story

A completely rubbish stupid film with no story and all gore andviolence. Me and my friends went into the cinemas to see this filmbecause it is the same creators of the Final Destination series butunfortunately it was a big, big disappointment. One of the worst filmsI've ever seen the movie was so sick, disgusting and depressing it hadpopping eye balls out, killing your own family members, taking bits outof them and eating it. Worst of all in one of the scenes of thekiller's flashback his mother was pregnant and had a girl but thegirl's father was also her brother so basically he had sex with his mumhow disgusting can you get? There is already far too much sex in themedia but that is totally out of order. Overall such films should notbe made and anyone who has given this movie a 2/10 or more must bejoking. If I see this film on DVD for free on the shelf right in frontof me I would not take it I swear! It is supposed to be a remake of a70s Black Christmas I've not seen it and I'm glad I didn't and nowadaysfilmmakers are running out of ideas so they are just continually makingremakes e.g. King Kong, The Hills Have Eyes & When a Stranger Calls.You can never run out of ideas they all just need to work harder. Butwatching this film is like you are a kid on Christmas Eve given the badnews that Santa Clause is dead. People are already losing theirChristmas spirit and this movie was even more discouraging, itcertainly turned everyone Christmas into black.

dbborroughs 2012-04-25 21:30:46

Best of the 1970's remakes released in 2006 and a fine movie to boot

Hands down the winner in the "lets remake a 1970's horror filmsweepstakes" that ran all 2006. The plot has a group of sororitysisters terrorized by a mad man at Christmas time. Ghoulish, gross,grotesque and nasty in all the right ways this is one of the bestattempts at remaking an old horror film. If the movie suffers its inthe casting of the girls who are fine in their performances, but whonever over come the clichés they are playing. I didn't much care forthem, which is ashame since the film has some really good horror grossout scenes. Not for the squeamish or those grossed out by eyeballs.Worth a look for horror fans on video and cable.

IPreferEvidence 2012-04-22 06:02:05

A positive surprise

Not even nearly as bad as people have let me know. I'd definitely saythis is one of the better slasher remakes along with Halloween and TheTexas Chainsaw Massacre although there were several things I didn'tlike. The original Black Christmas was just so good that its hard to topbeing extremely creepy and atmospheric and also with the original TexasChainsaw Massacre the first slasher film.The remake makes numerous changes to the story but I don't want tospoil anything so I'll leave that for you to find out (basically theyjust wanted to expand on the story of the original) its just agorier,more straight forward less eerie version of the original and italso makes it exclusively clear who the killer is which is a real shamesince one of the original film's great innovations was to make it atotal mystery that never gets solved (although I understand they had todo something different from the original). Also the killer "Billy"looks retarded. He's supposed to have some rare disease or somethingthat makes his skin yellow and that just looks silly. The remake doesn't have the same charm and class as the original but itdoes try to capture some of that and also re-create the eerieatmosphere. It was pretty fun but I wouldn't really recommend it unlessyou're a hardcore fan of the original Black Christmas like I am.

2012-04-21 21:24:27

Four-And-A-Half Stars For One Of The Most Consistently Underrated Horror Movies Ever

This review is from: Black X-Mas (Unrated) (DVD) The remake of "Black Christmas" has got to be among the most consistently underappreciated slasher movies ever made, maybe among the most consistently underaappreciated of all movies. Managing to hit both the bases of being both 'disturbing and tremendously creepy' and 'fun and sexy with dashes of humor', "Black Christmas" takes horror slasher backwards in that it's non-supernatural, with a potent but not apparantly-indestructible villain. It's a route not a lot of its recent peers have taken, with most of the pack trying (and sometimes even succeeding) to follow the path of series like "Nightmare On Elm Street" and "Friday The 13th", which have utilized virtually unstoppable, inhuman, central figures, and often a large dose of additional otherworldly elements, in being great. (Well, not Every chapter was great, but an awful lot of them were...) With a simple premise that starts to twist and branch out some in the second half, the movie features a group of sorority sisters and their chaperone stormstayed in their campus dormhouse during the Christmas holidays. The same building that was once the site of a massacre where Billy Lentz killed his abusive mother and stepfather, and maimed his defenceless little sister. Billy is, at the film's beginning, now locked up in a psych ward, but it probably would have been harder to make this into a great horror movie had he Stayed securely locked up in a place of mental healing... Fans will know a lot of what comes next. Actually, a lot of it would have been harder to predict had there not been spoilers as to the movie's third act all over the place before it even got released. For those who fortunately haven't heard, I won't spoil the twists by revealing them here, but focus on some general observations. First off, even if you've seen a thousand horror movies, this one can be jarring. The violence is swift and gruesome, and often hits characters you really want to make it out unscathed. All the horror violence, all the creepy going-ons, and all the disturbing thematic elements (including the origins of Billy and his sister), taking place amidst the gently twinkling Christmas lights, the classic holiday songs on the radio, and a generally pleasant setting, makes for a really twisted and freaky feel to things. I liked the cast of characters they put together for this (the female contingent, incidentally, being played by perhaps the best-looking ensemble of actresses ever to appear in a single movie, including mega-hottie Mary Elizabeth Winstead from "Final Destination 3" and "The Ring Two"). I liked the angle with the woman who came looking for her estranged younger sister and a scheduled Christmas reunion, and the bond that developed between her and the girl at the dorm who's never had siblings. I liked, loved actually, almost the whole thing...except for some glaring details that stand out and keep "Black Christmas" from getting the five-star rating that I really want to give it. First of all, there's a major problem with the snow. In several shots it doesn't even look real, which juts out like a sore thumb when compared to the overall high production values you're seeing it against. And the storm is supposed to be this big whopper that's snowed everything in, that's knocking down big trees across the roads so vehicles can't get around, etc. Yet when you see outside the windows a couple of times, and even in a couple of the outdoor scenes, all you've got is a nice hearty downfall of snow, but not the blizzard of the century. These lapses should have hurt the movie more than they did (would it really have been that hard to add in a nice, howling wind to the outdoor scenes?) but overall it's so good it earns a few moments where you have to suspend disbelief. Also, during the flashback scenes, although they were very freaky, a case could be made that portions of the earlier flashbacks came off slightly campy. It doesn't feel right to be spending so much time, though, on the few flaws when as a complete package you've got one of the finest movies of 2006. This is ten times as good as its reputation makes it out to be, and among the best recent picks for horror fans. Four-and-a-half stars with regret that it couldn't be more; and highly recommended. Fans of this may also want to check out "Valentine", "Cutting Class", and "Cry_Wolf".