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QUICK TAKE:
Horror: A sadistic killer torments a bunch of sorority girls over Christmas break.
PLOT:
It's Christmas break at the Delta Alpha Kappa house and a number of sorority sisters have decided to stay there with their house mother Ms. Mac (ANDREA MARTIN). Among them is Kelli (KATIE CASSIDY) who's dating townie Kyle (OLIVER HUDSON), while Lauren (CRYSTAL LOWE) views everything Christmas related as just pagan rituals. That's unlike the more straitlaced Heather (MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD) who doesn't think their organization should be giving a ceremonial annual holiday gift to Billy Lenz (ROBERT MANN), a criminally insane convict who killed his mean mother and step-father years ago due to the way they treated him.
While his sister and daughter (thanks to a previous incestuous encounter) Agnes (DEAN FRISS) hasn't been seen for years, the rest of the sorority girls -- including Dana (LACEY CHABERT), Melissa (MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG) and the nerdy Eve (KATHLEEN KOLE) -- become a bit unnerved when Kyle informs them that Billy's family once owned the house in which the girls now live.
Unbeknownst to them or one of the girls' older sisters, Leigh (KRISTEN CLOKE), who's arrived to pick her up from school, Billy has managed to escape from the asylum. When they start disappearing one by one, the young women try to figure out what to do to survive the newly reinvigorated homicidal spree that strikes them and their sorority house.
OUR TAKE: 1 out of 10
While the original film from 1975 (starring Margot Kidder, John Saxon and Keir Dullea) obviously inspired the similarly holiday themed "Halloween" (and countless bogeyman films after that), the 2006 version of "Black Christmas" inspired me to leave the theater.
Of course, duty called, so I didn't head out. But I certainly wanted to, especially since writer/director Glen Morgan (of "X-Files" and the "Final Destination" films fame) doesn't deliver the thrills, chills, or black comedy in anything resembling a compelling fashion with this boring and flat offering.
I have no problem with counter programming (a horror flick being released on Christmas Day), as long as there's some quality involved, but this one does nothing more than follow the rote, slasher flick playbook with none of the imagination, flair or giddy thrills that it might have had with a little (okay, a lot) more effort. More to come soon…
Reviewed December 25, 2006 / Posted December 25, 2006
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