1 out of 5

Director: Glen Morgan

Im normally supportive of not comparing remakes with the originals, but Black Christmas tests the waters by setting up the initial shots the same way before going… completely off track. Black Christmas is predictable modern horror fare: teenage girls get picked off one by one by an unkillable killer with a crazy background. The kills are pretty good, its just that it happens too easily – part of the success of the original was waiting for the kills, and it making sense when they werent discovered. I understand amping it up for a new generation, but it gets a bit ridiculous. And thats the problem: is it a tribute or an actual movie? They keep many elements the same, to the extent that you feel its a tribute. But the plot is obviously rewritten to modernize it (the whole phone aspect of the original wouldnt fly now) and they attempted to give the killer an entire backstory. Which is respectable, but the execution just draws it all into question. Frankly, it wasnt horrible, just silly, and without any emotion behind it. It was two-star average horror fare, but unfortunately the killer-never-dies feeling got just too ridiculous and unfair for me to stand by it toward the end, dragging it down to one star.