Black Christmas 2006 was a Canadian American slasher film. It was a horror film. It tells the story of a group of sorority sisters who were murdered by a maniac who escaped from prison. The movie keeps you on the edge of your seat in every scene. Let’s see everything about the movie Black Christmas 2006!
1. General FAQs of Black Christmas Movie
Regarding the Black Christmas movies, many people have many queries. Let’s see the general FAQs of the Black Christmas movie:
1.1 Was it a Remake?
The original movie of Black Christmas was released in 1974. The movie released in 2006 was a remake of that but with an improvised story. The violence in this film was much more than in the original version.
1.2 Was There Any Third Movie?
Another movie was made under the same title and released in 2019. It was the second remake of the Black Christmas movie. The 2006 movie was an improvised version of the original. In contrast, the 2019 movie went into a different storyline.
1.3 Do the Directors of the Three Movies are the Same?
The three Black Christmas movies have three different directors. The original film was directed by Bob Clark, the 2006 remake was by Glen Morgan and the last one was by Sophia Takal.
1.4 Which was the Best?
Different people have different opinions about all three Black Christmas movies. For some the classical original film is the best one but for others, it’s the 2006 remake movie. What is yours? Let’s see about the Black Christmas 2006 movie story and find yours!
Fan of horror movies?
Check out: The Top 10 Great 1973 Horror Movies to Binge-Watch
2. Story of the Black Christmas 2006 Movie
Black Xmas 2006 was a slasher film that was listed as one of the best horror films of that year. The story revolves around how the sorority girls were murdered by a serial killer.
William Edward Billy Lenz was born in 1970 with heavy jaundice. His mother, Constance Lenz, and his father, Franklin Lenz hated each other. His mother hated his father so much, every time she saw Billy Lenz, she was reminded of his father. So, she hated Billy and constantly abused him.
On Christmas Eve, 1975, there was a Christmas tree in their house but no celebration. Billy’s mother Constance and her lover killed Billy’s father Frank by covering his face with plastic bags and stabbing him brutally with an axe-like object.
They buried his body in the crawlspace of the house. Billy Lenz witnessed all this and was terrified. To silence Billy, they locked him up in the attic.
Constance wanted a baby but as years passed it didn’t happen as her boyfriend is impotent. So, she went to the attic and rapes Billy (who was only twelve years at that time) to conceive a baby, which no mother in the world would ever do. After nine months, she gave birth to her daughter, Agnes.
Her boyfriend thought he was the father of Agnes Lenz and Billy’s mother didn’t tell him the truth that Billy is the father. In 1991, on Christmas day, Billy escaped from the attic and attacked Agnes. Billy disfigured her by brutally gouging out her right eye. After hearing her scream, Constance and her boyfriend rushed to that place.
Then, Billy kills his mother’s boyfriend by putting a knife in his eye and strangling his mother with Christmas lights in a brutal manner. Billy’s mother was dead. After that police came into the house and found him eating cookies made from his mother’s flesh.
Well, who would do that? Eating their mother’s flesh? They sent Billy to a mental asylum, and the eight-year-old Agnes Lenz was saved and taken safely to an orphanage.
Every year at Christmas, Billy tries to escape from the mental asylum many times but fails. Fifteen years after the incident, on Christmas Eve Billy escaped from the prison and went to his house which was now turned into a sorority house for Delta Alpha Kappa at Clement University.
In that Delta Alpha Kappa, sorority house, sorority girls Kelli Presley, Megan Helms, Melissa Kitt, Clair Crosby Kathleen Kole, Dana Mathis, Heather Fitzgerald, Lauren Hannon, and also their housemother Mrs. Mac were there. The Christmas decorations were done; Christmas lights, Christmas tree, and gifts.
As it was Christmas Eve, in the sorority house, the sorority sisters were all talking about presents and many things. Megan was clueless as she found a sex tape of her and Kelli’s boyfriend. Clair Crosby was writing a letter to her sister but then suddenly her face was covered by a plastic bag and someone attacked her. Then she was murdered.
Then, Megan Helms begins to hear some noises. So, she went to the attic to see what that was. It was quiet for a moment and suddenly she found herself struggling for life as someone strangled her. Her effort was useless and soon she was dead.
The other sorority sisters in the living room started to get threatening calls. Everyone panicked. They found Kyle, who is Kelli’s boyfriend in Meghan’s room. He told them about Billy’s story of how he killed his family. They asked why he would do that, and he replied ‘Billy thought that’s how their family shows love’.
Their threatening calls were so terrifying and the voice told: “I am coming home for Christmas” (As the sorority house was his former home). The last call came from Megan’s cell. So, they went to find her in her room, instead, all they found was Kyle.
Heather was told she had to go home for Christmas but she didn’t leave. She received a gift of a glass unicorn from Eve Agnew, a retiree. Leigh Colvin, half-sister of Kathleen Kole (Clair) soon arrived, searching for her sister. She found a present under the Christmas tree which was from Billy.
Everyone was a little bit confused and terrified because they never saw that gift under the Christmas tree. They opened it and it was a baby doll. All were astonished and didn’t know what to do. The paper that wrapped the gift was from December 26, 1991, which was the same wrapped paper as Eve’s present to Heather.
As Eve lived in Billy’s room, maybe she was obsessed with him, So one of them went to check her room to see if she had any of that old newspaper. Meanwhile, Kelli and her boyfriend were in Megan’s room hoping to find something related to Megan Helms.
There, Kelli found the sex tape of her boyfriend and Megan and was terrified. After that, they kicked Kyle out of the house. The power in their house went off. Every house in the street has power, except theirs.
Dana went to see what was wrong but encountered a figure in the crawlspace and was killed by it. Lauren, who was drinking too much, started to puke. Then she took a bath and went to bed. In Eve’s closet, some old newspapers and two eyeballs were found.
Later, they received a call from Dana, screaming “HELP! HELP!”. They started looking for Dana & went outside and found Eve’s car there. They thought Eve Agnew left, so they went to see if she was inside the car. When they opened her car, her head was rolled out. Everyone freaked out. Then only they found out Billy is here.
Kelli was calling 911 non-stop reporting there was a murder and three persons were missing. They can’t reach here quickly due to the winter storm. Mrs Mac told everyone to pack and leave the house and get to the police station as soon as possible. But not everyone agreed to that.
Kelli suggested staying together inside the house whilst Heather and Mrs Mac flee. Melissa, Lauren, Kelli, and Leigh decided to stay.
Due to so much snow, the car didn’t start. After it started, Mrs Mac went out of the car and cleared the snow on the front glass but Heather who was inside the car was killed. After witnessing that, Mrs Mac moved backwards fast, she encountered a falling icicle and died.
As the car had no movement Kelli and Leigh went downwards to check on them. They found a lot of blood there and screamed. Melissa, who was in the room, heard the scream and came out of the room terrified.
Before she came down, her face was covered by someone. Somehow she managed to escape and try to leave that place but she was murdered by that serial killer.
Lauren who was sleeping in her room found something behind her bedsheet. She was terrified and tried to attack whatever it was. But she failed. Someone attacked her and killed her. When Kelli and Leigh return upstairs they find Lauren’s eyeless corpse.
Kyle Autry returned to the house. Three of them went to the attic to see if Clair was there. There Kyle was murdered. Kelli and Leigh tried to prevent it but they couldn’t. Leigh also saw the corpse of Clair with her face covered with a plastic bag, she was terrified.
The serial killer turned out to be two persons – Billy and his daughter & sister – Agnes Lenz. Agnes appears as a surprise to Kelli and Leigh. She lit a candle and said, “Everyone should be home for Christmas”. Kelli and Leigh tried to escape but only Leigh was able to go down. Kelli was stuck.
Leigh helped her and both of them escaped the house while the house was on fire with Billy and Agnes left burned in it. They were admitted to a hospital. Billy, who was partially burned in the fire, killed the morgue assistant in the hospital.
Kelli was taken to have an X-ray. Leigh found a girl like Kelli in a room and went near her to check if she was okay but it turned out to be Agnas. She kills Leigh.
Kelli was locked in the X-ray room where the door was broken. She was screaming for help and even pressed the emergency button. But no response. Suddenly she sees Agnes appears through the ceiling.
Kelli was shocked and took a defibrillator to attack Agnas with that. She pressed that on Agnes’ face and kill Agnes. Then she tried to open the door. Billy Lenz enters through the terrace.
She escaped the room before he reached her. Billy followed her outside the room. She attacked him with a walking stick and tried to run. But Billy somehow managed to get up and chases Kelli then attacked her with the same stick.
After Kelli pushes Billy, she manages to move but hits a medical attendant who had all the surgical equipment in the tray. Billy took one of the knives and chases Kelli and attacked her with it. She tried to kill her with it.
Kelli pushes Billy successfully off the rail while fighting him. Billy ended up on the top of a sharp tip of a Christmas tree and ended up dead.
2.1 The Cast of the Movie
The Christmas 2006 movie had an amazing cast. Let’s see those cast:
- Kelli Presley by Katie Cassidy
- Melissa Kitt by Michelle Trachtenberg
- Heather Lee Fitzgerald by Mary Elizabeth Winstead
- Dana Mathis by Lacey Chabert
- Leigh Colvin by Kristen Cloke
- Barbara MacHenry by Andrea Martin
- Lauren Hannon by Crystal Lowe
- Kyle Autry by Oliver Hudson
- Constance Lenz by Karin Konoval
- Frank Lenz by Peter Wilds
- Beauregard Rice (Step-Father) by Howard Siegel
- Agnes Lenz by Dean Friss
- Young Agnes by Christina Crivici
- Billy Lenz by Robert Mann
- Young Billy by Cainan Wiebe
- Megan Helms by Jessica Harmon
- Clair Crosby by Leela Savasta
- Eve Agnew by Kathleen Kole
- Kelli’s Mother by Anne Marie DeLuise
2.2 Production and Writing
Glen Morgan, the director of the movie Black Christmas 2006 was also a fan of the original slasher film. Dimension Films approached him to do a remake of the Black Christmas 1974. He wanted to take this movie to a different level as the original itself was an amazing one.
Glen Morgan made some changes to the story and the characters. In the original, Mrs Mac was shown as a jolly person. But in the Black Xmas movie, Andrea Martin( who played the role of Mrs Mac) portrayed a strict character.
Glen Morgan wrote the screenplay with a few changes and improvements from the original film. He also received some input from Bob Clark who was the director of the original film. Bob gave his blessing to Morgan as it’s still Black Christmas exploring some subplots which were not in the original.
2.3 Was Black Christmas 2006 Based on a True Story?
Even though it was a remake of the original Black Xmas movie, it has a different story. The subplot added here was Billy’s sister Agnes as a secondary killer. Glen Morgan mentioned in an interview that the inclusion of the secondary killer was because of the Dimension Films executive’s urge.
Morgan wrote Billy’s character as the inspiration for the life of a real-life serial killer Edmund Kemper who was locked in the basement when he was a child by his mother and murdered his mother later.
2.4 Issues Faced During the Release
Dimension Film’s distributor decided to release the film on Christmas Day 2006 as their former film Wolf Creek was released on Christmas 2005 and it was a huge success. So, they wanted to release this movie also on Christmas.
But many people were not happy with this decision. As it is a holiday season, a horror film was not welcome. Liberty Council and Operation and several other groups called the film ‘insensitive’ and ‘offensive’.
Even a column in L.A. Weekly mentioned the decision to release this film on Christmas was not right as who would want to see a gory film on December 25?
Dimension Films in a press statement defended their timing of release by saying “Releasing horror films during this period was a tradition“. One film historian said mass murder and mass suicide also happen on American Christmas mentioning an incident that happened in Christmas 2005.
2.5 Box Office
In North America, the film earned about 16.3 Million dollars and 21.5 Million dollars worldwide. During the first few days it earned about 3.3 Million dollars from 1,278 theaters and by January 1, 2007, it gained an additional 4.9 Million dollars expanding to 1,554 theaters.
It remained in US theatres until February 2007 and earned 1,563 dollars in the February weekend 9-11 from 4 theatres, after which its theatrical run was concluded.
2.6 Rating
Due to the goriness and horror of the film, it was rated R. Children below 17 should see the movie accompanied by an adult. The run time of the film Black Xmas is one hour and thirty minutes.
2.7 Where to Watch This Film?
In 2007, on April 15 Genius Products released the movie on HD DVD and DVD in America. It had an ‘unrated’ cut of the film which ran two minutes extra than theatrical cuts. It has 29,436,34 dollar DVD sales.
The Blu-ray of the film has not been released in the United States yet. In 2007 in Germany, a region-free Blu-ray was released which contains both theatrical and unrated cuts of the movie. In 2008, in Canada, a short print Region A Blu-ray theatrical cut of the movie was released.
You can watch this film by paying the needed amount on Amazon, Apple Tv, Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft, Redbox, and DirectTV. And you can watch this film for free on Kanopy, Pluto TV, Freevee, and also on Redbox.
2.8 What’s the Review of the Film?
Well, the public review of the film was not positive. The IMDb rating of the film was 4.6 and the Rotten Tomatoes score was 14%. Black Christmas pumps out more aggressiveness and gory. Even though it was a remake movie of the original slasher film of 1974, this film has no visual flair or humour. Also, it has zero creativity.
Many people thought that the remake was an example of how to screw up a modern film remake. Many newspaper columns wrote their opinion about the film. One said that the movie is too predictable. And another mentioned that the movie would be forgotten easily because of its poor story. Some called it a “gratuitous remake”.
The story didn’t satisfy the admirers of the original film. The acting of the actors was appreciated, especially the roles of Kelli (by Katie Cassidy), Melissa (by Michelle Trachtenberg), Heather (by Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Dana (by Lacey Chabert), Billy (by Robert Mann) and Lauren(by Crystal Lowe).
Some good reviews also came for the film by Radio Films and Bloody Disgusting, giving three stars out of five. And some others also appreciated the direction and focus of the film. In the 2007 Scream Awards, for the Scream Queen category, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was nominated.
The film received all kinds of opinions. Some people criticized it and some liked it. We all have the same eyes but we see things differently. To know the exact review of the film, make sure to see the film yourself!
