HTF HD-DVD Review: Black Xmas

Studio: Dimension FilmsYear: 2006US Rating: UnratedFilm Length: 95 minutesAspect Ratio: 2.35:1Video Resolution/Codec: 1080p/MPEG4AVC Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Plus, 5.1 Dolby TrueHDSubtitles: Optional English and Spanish subtitles




A young boy, Billy Lenz, unwanted and neglected by his mother is witness to a horrible murder and is kept locked away in the attic for years, abused and mistreated, until one night he escapes his attic prison and slaughters his family. The home of the notorious ‘spree killer’, long after the bloody walls and floors had gathered dust and myth, has become a Sorority house where, under the blanket of a snowy Christmas season, a group of sorority girls find themselves trapped by the weather and at the mercy of a killer.
One by one, these girls that cover the broad spectrum of college girl characters from extremely prissy to only mildly prissy are terrorized and slaughtered.

Director Glen Morgan and Producer James Wong, well known for their years of service to the X-Files and Millennium television series, have created another horror flick that plays more like a tongue in cheek, black humor nod to the horror genre rather than an active ‘badge wearing’ member. Most recently, with Final Destination 1 and 3, they imbued the genre with a clever sense of ominous foreboding, building tension carefully with unique and sometimes ludicrous scenes of death stalking the characters. There was a certain freedom in that premise that allowed genuine creativity in the gruesome death scenes. Creativity that helped elevate what has increasingly become a rather lackluster genre of late.

But the confines of the ‘Black Christmas’ tale, a remake of a 1974 flick notorious for its ‘killer making calls in the house’ slasher flick gimmick, seem to restrict Morgan and Wong from weaving elaborate tension filled moments that do as much to give the audience a giggle as they do chills and frights.
A remake this may be, but Glen Morgan crafted an entirely new script for this update, that moved the focus from the threatening phone calls aspect, to the creepy back-story of the killer. That approach works, as a plot for plot remake would have rung hollow and uninspired.

There is still a dark sense of humor to the film, albeit coming from the juxtaposition of gruesome slaying against familiar and jolly holiday tunes. But that is a conceit accomplished all too well from the aforementioned Millennium and The X-Files (remember the episode, Home?). The use of tight angles and pronounced perspectives in many scenes lends to the sense of being watched, an effect the director comments on in the special features, giving Black Xmas an interesting look and atmosphere. The lighting can also be thanked for that, bathing most of the scenes in the traditional red and green Christmas colors but managing to drain all the festivity from them. The look of the film is a real plus.

The characters are all adequate and a couple of Morgan/Wong alumni show up to lend their talents, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead from Final Destination 3 and the lovely Kristin Cloke, who also appeared in this director/producer duo’s short-lived Space: Above & Beyond. Andrea Martin (SC-TV), who played Phyllis Carlson in the original, can also be found, this time as the Sorority Den Mother Ms. MacHenry.
As for the rest of the cast, they are relatively indistinguishable from each other, but you will find Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s younger sister Michelle Trachtenberg, last seen in Grudge 2, Katie Cassidy of When A Stranger Calls fame and Party of Five’s Lacey Chabert, whose demise is one of the more accomplished and weird in the film.

Some of the focus on gore in this unrated version (running 10 minutes longer than the theatrical version) is a little contrived, but the flashback sequences about the creation of this monster are well done and end up being more interesting than the killing spree we witness in present day.



Black Xmas is presented on HD-DVD in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. There is some mild grain noticeable, particularly in the scenes before the lights mysteriously go out in the house, but not terribly distracting. What I like here is the great looking colors, dark and shadowy scenes look crisp and clean, black levels are faithfully produced and flesh tones look good. The image is a little soft, which is a shame. A sharper image would have really upped the great look of the colors. A reasonably good looking image that lends a helping hand to the atmosphere of this slasher flick.


Presented with both a 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus and 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track, the creaks and howling wind inherent to the story echo through the surrounds with great effect. Bass levels are solid, giving the creepy banging in the attic that happens through the film an extra sense of depth. Speech is clean and absent of problems. There were one or two moments in the film that I felt could have used a little more imagination in the surrounds, but for the most part, it's a good solid audio performance.



The special features are MPEG2 with 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus surround sound.

3 Alternate Endings –
- #1: This version slows the pace a little and robs the final moments of the quiet atmosphere afforded by the ending used and I believe is intended to be a more haunting close. It doesn’t work.

- #2: Also dilutes some of the atmosphere from the ending used, but, despite feeling a little unfinished, works rather well at creating a good amount of tension.

- #3: Weakest of the alternate endings, this one is short and silly.

Deleted Scenes (4:07) – 7 deleted, extended or alternate versions of scenes. Nothing noteworthy in this batch, mostly padding around existing scenes that doesn’t add to the tension, fun, thrills or chills.


What Have You Done? – The Remaking of Black Christmas (28:03) – Pulling together his ‘Power Tap’ scenes from the film along with ‘in-character’ interview clips, this fake infomercial is good for a chuckle or two.


May All Your Christmases Be Black: A Filmmaker’s Journey (26:34) – One of the better featurettes I have seen recently, with Director/Screenwriter Glen Morgan offering intriguing introspection into his failed film Willard and the unfortunate necessity in so many films to make studio directed compromises to help fill theater seats. There are also interviews with cast members and crew that all shed light on the process of brining this film to the big screen. It’s worth your time.



Black Xmas isn’t a bad film. It comes with pretty good picture quality and a good audio presentation, and manages to avoid the folly of vacuous slasher nonsense, or worse, that of a tepid and useless horror remake.
Glen Morgan and James Wong have produced finer work and have crafted better characters and more thrilling scenes than what we find in Black Xmas, but they continue to establish themselves as solid filmmakers in this genre and I look forward to what they have up their sleeve next.

One special note, the very talented composer Shirley Walker, longtime collaborator with Morgan & Wong, providing superb scores for the Final Destination movies as well as the great theme for Space: Above & Beyond, passed away in November of last year and will be missed.

Buy it if you loved it, rent it if you're not sure, and avoid it if you're a purist when it comes to remakes.



Neil Middlemiss
Kernersville, NC

Re: HTF HD-DVD Review: Black Xmas

FYI - The High Def station INHD (now called MOJO I think) is showing the original Black Christmas in 1080i for those that are interested. I checked it out this weekend, and while the quality of the print used was poor, it wasn't a bad film!