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Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Lacey Chabert ... see more see more... , Kristen Cloke , Andrea Martin , Robert Mann , Crystal Lowe , Jessica Harmon , Leela Savasta , Kathleen Kole , Karin Konoval , Peter Wilds , Howard Siegel , Dean Friss , Cainan Wiebe , Aaron Pearl , Christina Crivici , Peter New , Michael D. Adamthwaite , Christian Sloan , Ronald Selmour , Alycia Purrott , Evan Adams , Jerry Wasserman , Derek McIver , Anne Marie De Luise , Greg Kean , Jody Racicot , Kent Kubena

A few innocent women experience a nightmare before Christmas in this bloody thriller. Billy Lenz, a severely maladjusted child, finally snaps under years of brutal treatment by his family, killing and... read more read more... eating them in an explosion of violence on Christmas Eve. For years, the Lenz house stands vacant, but in time it's purchased and renovated as the new home for a college sorority. A few days before Christmas, a handful of sorority sisters -- Dana (Lacey Chabert), Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg), Kelli (Katie Cassidy), and Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) -- are enjoying a quiet evening with their house mother, Barbara MacHenry (Andrea Martin), exchanging gifts and swapping stories before heading home for holiday break. While Barbara remembers the story of Billy's crimes, the atmosphere is peaceful until the young women receive the first in a series of disturbing telephone calls. Before long, they learn that Billy has escaped after years in a mental institution, and has come back to the house where he grew up to once again spill blood for the Christmas season. Black Christmas is a remake of the 1974 horror film of the same name by director Bob Clark, who later made a less-threatening film about the Yuletide season, A Christmas Story; Andrea Martin, who plays the house mother, also appeared in the 1974 film as one of the sorority girls. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Flixster Users

43% liked it

135,631 ratings

Critics

14% liked it

56 critics

DVD Release Date: April 3, 2007

Stats: 8,430 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (8,430)


  • March 28, 2012
    Unnecessary remake of the classic groundbreaking horror film of the same name, Black Christmas is a dull film that has everything you'd expect from a bad remake, bad acting, bad directing, predictable story and a poor cast. The original was a classic film that did not need to be ... read moreremade. This film is not very entertaining, and relies on old ideas to create its horror. The end result is a film that simply doesn't work. As with nearly all remakes, Black Christmas is dull and is a disappointing film. There's nothing of interest that would make this film worth watching. The film lacks any depth to really make this one really stand out. The film navigates through constant mediocrity and overall ends up being an awful waste of time. Usually studios constantly remake horror classics such as Prom Night, The Hitcher Friday the 13th to name a few. Only a small handful were decent at best. But the Black Christmas remake suffers from a pointless story with bad acting that really tries too hard to entertain the viewer. Good horror films should be effortless in building the terror. However with this one, this is predictable and really bland with nothing new. As a slasher film, this remake doesn't do any that would make you expect the traditional good elements of what makes a slasher film so special. This remake is bland and predictable and is yet another remake that doesn't work because previously explored ideas that are just not intriguing. This should be avoided.
  • June 16, 2011
    Classless remake of the brilliant original featuring a bunch of stuck-up, foul-mouthed sorority sisters who you really don't mind seeing get brutally eye-gouged by the maniacal Billy Lenz and his sister/daughter Agnes. It's fast-paced and fairly unpredictable as far as who lives ... read moreand dies, but it lags a long way behind the original and other modern slashers too. Works well as an alternate Christmas movie for the miserable bastards that don't enjoy the fun and cheer of the holiday season. ;-)
  • fb733768972
    February 5, 2010
    fb733768972
    One of the most wasted time movie experiences ever! The end was the worst way to end a movie I have ever seen! I recommend it to people who like laughing g at horror movies!
  • December 19, 2009
    A tiny bit disturbing!
  • December 10, 2009
    A dull and dismal film. Despite it's Christmas setting, it doesn't even try and capture some form of Christmas spirit. None of the characters learn anything about themselves or Christmas, which makes the deaths particularly uninvolved. Talent such as Chabert and Winstead are simp... read morely wasted in thankless victim roles. The film also manages to completely suck any life out of, what could have been, an interesting twist, by giving us all the clues and answers very early on. As a horror, slasher, thriller or Christmas movie, it just sucks.
  • July 18, 2009
    The best part of this flick is it looks good and the effects really work well. The story is basically the usual thing and to be honest is does work but very predictable. The backstory of the killer and his upbringing is good and shows us how it all happened and the possible outco... read moreme is good because yr not actually sure which girl will survive. Speaking of the girls, they are all lovely and you dont want any of em to die haha its not really scary, kinda 'Scream' style scary but not bad, better than most.
  • December 16, 2008
    Not as bad as everyone claims it to be. Fun, mindless crazy-violent slasher. Just for the record I'm not a fan of the original so that might have something to do with it too.
  • November 29, 2008
    Some fun stuff, but in the end it's just a slasher movie. I always enjoy a good jaundiced character, however.
  • November 28, 2008
    This is a very dumb movie about very pretty, very dumb girls who die in very dumb ways. Imagine the recent remake of Prom Night, except that it's set during Christmas at a sorority house. And it's somehow worse.

    Most of it makes no sense. It's really just a seri... read morees of jump moments and gross stuff, with a ridiculous backstory behind it all. With this many pretty faces, Black Xmas could have been a 2 1/2 star movie from T&A alone. Alas, even that opportunity is missed. Is this what the slasher genre has fallen to?
  • June 18, 2008
    You would think that the producers of this film may be on there way to something after producing the mediocre Final Destination. Well, they are on there way back to square one. Cliched horror flick!

    The story is completely rubbish and it goes nowhere quickly. Everythi

    ... read moreng you'd expect from a horror movie you get in this film. Dark setting. Stupid characters. Gory deaths. Crazy psycho killer. If this is your recipe for a great movie then you are in luck. I don't know how I even managed to get all the way through this. After the one hour mark there was no real reason for me to continue watching this film, if you catch my drift. Yet, I did. Just when you think it is over, like every other horror movie, it somehow manages to drag itself to about the 85 minute mark. 85 minutes too long, in my opinion. It may have been longer with stuff after the credits, but I wouldn't know.

    I don't know what to say about the acting, except for the fact that it is everything you'd expect from a film like this. The beautiful women just need to look good and know how to scream. If it wasn't for Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Lacey Chabert, AND Michelle Trachtenberg this film would have gotten a half star.

    If you like gore, then this is probably the only reason to watch this film, if not for the girls. Eyes deluxe!

    Only watch this if you like no story and women getting slaughtered. Even then, I won't recommend it to you.

Critic Reviews


Gregory Kirschling
January 3, 2007
Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly

It's old-school stupid. Full Review

Jim Ridley
January 3, 2007
Jim Ridley, Village Voice

Black Christmas lacks the timing and visual wit to make its splattery EC Comics gags either genuinely scary or funny. Full Review

Michael Rechtshaffen
January 2, 2007
Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter

As yuletide counterprogramming goes, here's one smelly lump of coal.

Peter Howell
December 29, 2006
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Creativity is a stranger to this sick excuse for entertainment, which pounds a ridiculous back story into a butchered rehash that includes incest, cannibalism, eyeball gouging and impossibly dumb plot... Full Review

J. R. Jones
December 29, 2006
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

It also exchanges the police subplot that gave the earlier film its steady pace for a lot of pointless backstory about the mother-fixated stalker. Full Review

Randy Cordova
December 28, 2006
Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic

This movie serves up a bland, interchangeable mix of victims. Because the sitting ducks don't display any personality, it's hard to get worked up about their fate. Full Review

Joe Leydon
December 28, 2006
Joe Leydon, Variety

Even by the notoriously low standards of sadistic slasher pics, this remake is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, relying heavily on such gruesome spectacles as the baking (and consuming) of Christmas ... Full Review

Peter Hartlaub
December 28, 2006
Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

Connoisseurs of trashy moviemaking are left with a bland slasher film, filled with a bad guy who lacks menace, a script that lacks humor and several hot young characters who have the nerve to go throu... Full Review

Jeannette Catsoulis
December 27, 2006
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

Glen Morgan's disastrous remake smothers terror beneath a blanket of unnecessary information, revealing too much and teasing too little.

Elizabeth Weitzman
December 27, 2006
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

Where the first film was a seminal forerunner of early stalker classics like Halloween, this version feels as stale as old gingerbread. Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Black Christmas Trivia


  • What word is missing from each of these movies? - "A ______ Story" - "________ Vacation" - "________ In Connecticut" - "Black _________"  Answer »
  • What word is missing from each of these movies? - "A ______ Story" - "________ Vacation" - "________ In Connecticut" - "Black _________"  Answer »
  • In what movie does character billy escape outof a mental hospital on christmas eve and go to his childhood home (where he grew up) and kill everyone?  Answer »
  • What movie most directly influenced John Carpenter's classic slasher flick, HALLOWEEN?  Answer »

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