Black Christmas | |
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Directed by | Sophia Takal |
Screenplay by |
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Based on | Black Christmas by A. Roy Moore |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Mark Schwartzbard [1] |
Edited by |
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Music by |
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Production companies | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 92 minutes [2] |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Budget | $5 million [3] |
Box office | $18.5 million [4] [5] |
Black Christmas is a 2019 slasher film directed by Sophia Takal, and written by Takal and April Wolfe. [6] [7] Part of the Black Christmas series, it is the loose second remake of the 1974 Canadian film of the same name, after the 2006 film and follows a group of sorority sisters at Hawthorne College as they are preyed upon by an unknown stalker. The film stars Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O'Grady, Caleb Eberhardt and Cary Elwes. [8] [9]
Development of the project began in June 2019, when Jason Blum announced that he would produce the film through his studio Blumhouse Productions. Sophia Takal signed as director and co-writer with principal photography beginning soon after, lasting for 27 days in Otago.
Black Christmas was theatrically released in the United States on December 13, 2019, by Universal Pictures, coinciding with Friday the 13th. [10] [11] The film grossed $18 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. It received mixed reviews from critics. [12]
While walking home, Hawthorne College student Lindsay is killed by a masked individual. Riley Stone, a member of the Mu Kappa Epsilon sorority, struggles with PTSD after being raped by Delta Kappa Omicron fraternity president Brian Huntley. Meanwhile, her sorority sister Kris has angered the DKO fraternity and Professor Gelson following a petition from her requesting that university founder Calvin Hawthorne's bust be moved from the main building and another requesting Gelson be fired due to his refusal to teach books written by women.
Riley and Kris, along with their friends Marty, Jesse and Helena, arrive at the DKO fraternity for the talent show where Riley discovers new pledges for DKO engaging in a ritual around Hawthorne's bust. She saves a drunken Helena from being sexually assaulted by a DKO member and takes Helena's place in the talent show. Upon seeing Brian in the crowd, she performs a song with her sorority sisters condemning the rape culture at the fraternity. Later, Helena is abducted by Lindsay's attacker while Riley begins to bond with Landon, a kind-hearted frat boy. The girls start to receive threatening text messages from an account posing as Calvin Hawthorne, similar to what Lindsey had received before she was murdered. The next day, sorority sister Fran is attacked and killed by the masked assailant. While searching for Helena, Riley encounters Gelson and finds his list of the MKE girls. She reports the disappearances to campus police, but they refuse to help.
That night, Riley and Kris argue over Kris's posting of the performance in which Riley reveals at the end that Brian raped her. As Riley blames Kris for the threatening messages from DKO, Marty argues with her boyfriend Nate and demands that he leave. After Jesse is killed by the assailant, the girls are also attacked, leaving Marty injured. Kris discovers Jesse's body while Nate arrives to apologize and is also murdered. Riley kills the assailant, but the girls are attacked by two other individuals. Marty dies while Riley and Kris kill the attacker and identify him as a DKO pledge she saw at the ritual earlier.
The two escape in Nate's car and Riley theorizes that Hawthorne, who was known for practicing black magic, is responsible for the murders via his bust which emits black liquid. Kris suggests they go to the police, but Riley demands they go to the fraternity and the two separate. Riley enlists Landon to help her enter the fraternity. Kris discovers Lindsey's sorority sisters also being attacked by DKO and rescues them. At the DKO house, the frat brothers force Landon to become a pledge. Riley discovers Helena, who is tied up, before being knocked unconscious by a DKO member.
She awakens bound and is confronted by Gelson, Brian and other DKO members. Gelson reveals that after Kris forced the bust's relocation, they discovered Hawthorne's plan, involving a spell and the black liquid, to control women. The liquid allows the spirit of Hawthorne to possess the fraternity's pledges and send them out to murder women they deem unruly. Helena has been secretly working with the fraternity and stole items from her sisters that allowed the possessed pledges to locate their targets. Helena is murdered before Kris and other sorority sisters attack the fraternity. Riley overpowers Brian and smashes the Hawthorne bust. Kris sets Gelson on fire and the women and Landon escape, locking the frat brothers inside and leaving them to burn to death.
An international co-production film between the United States, New Zealand and Canada. In June 2019, Jason Blum was revealed to produce a remake of the 1974 film Black Christmas through his studio Blumhouse Productions, alongside Adam Hendricks from the studio Divide/Conquer and Ben Cosgrove. [13] In addition, Greg Gilreath and Zac Locke, also from Divide/Conquer, served as executive producers for the project. [14]
Also, in June, Sophia Takal was announced as the film's director, having previously worked with Blum on his Into the Dark series for Hulu, [15] while Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Brittany O'Grady, Lily Donoghue and Caleb Eberhardt were cast in the starring roles. [16] [17] Also that month, Cary Elwes was added to the cast. [18]
Director Takal worked extensively to make this vision of Black Christmas as feminist as she could, [lower-alpha 1] stating in an interview: "I wanted to make a movie where instead of feeling objectified or watched from a distance, the audience felt seen". [19] It is the first Black Christmas film in which Bob Clark was not involved in the production process, as Clark had died in 2007. [20] Bob Clark had produced as well as directed the original Black Christmas (1974) and had been an executive producer on the 2006 remake.
Unlike the previous two versions of Black Christmas, the remake was rated PG-13 by the MPAA, a rating Takal sought in hopes of making it accessible to new audiences, especially young women who were interested in horror and opening up discussions on major issues like sexual assault, [21] although she was ready to fully commit to utilizing the higher R rating if the ratings board would not grant the PG-13 rating. However, she would not use the PG-13 rating to water down the film's violence to a large degree, making it only slightly less violent than the original film. [22]
Production began in New Zealand on June 23, 2019. [23] [24] [25] Principal photography occurred for 27 days around Dunedin and Oamaru, with the University of Otago providing the setting. [26] Filming concluded on July 31. [27] [28]
In the United States and Canada, Black Christmas was theatrically released by Universal Pictures on December 13, 2019, coinciding with Friday the 13th. [29] The film was also released on digital on March 3, 2020, and on DVD and Blu-ray on March 17.
Black Christmas grossed $10.4 million in the United States and Canada and $8.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $18.5 million. [4]
Initially projected to gross $10–12 million from 2,100 theaters in its opening weekend, the film was released alongside Jumanji: The Next Level and Richard Jewell in the United States. [30] However, after making $1.4 million on its first day (including $230,000 from Thursday night previews), estimates for the film were lowered to $4.5 million. It ended up debuting to just $4.2 million, finishing fifth at the box office. [31] The film fell 57% to $1.8 million in its second weekend, finishing in tenth. [32]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 39% of 114 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Better than the 2006 remake yet not as sharp as the original, this Black Christmas stabs at timely feminist themes but mostly hits on familiar pulp". [33] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [34] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an "awful" average of 1.5 out of 5 stars, with 38% saying they would definitely recommend it. [31]
Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars, saying that it "mostly feels personal and urgent thanks to some atmospheric scare scenes and some sharp dialogue that reflect the world outside the movie theater in ways that most other studio-distributed horror films don't". [35]
David Fear of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of five stars, writing: "The best part about Takal and Wolfe's take on the material is that it's angry — righteously, deservedly, properly enraged about the crap that many people, but one gender in particular, have had to put up with for way, way too long". [36] Kimber Myers of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Fans of the original ... might not love writer-director Sophia Takal's take, but Black Christmas is a fun film that gets its kicks out of literally smashing the patriarchy". [37]
Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave it one out of five stars: "It's quick, cheap-looking and entirely devoid of suspense, atmosphere and dramatic tension, so inept at times that it makes 2006's questionable remake suddenly seem like a misremembered masterwork". [38] Ed Potton of The Times also gave it one out of five stars and wrote: "The final half-hour brings ludicrous supernatural developments, some astonishing leaps in deduction from Riley and the least dramatic unmasking in screen history". [39]
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Unfortunately, Takal's Black Christmas is far more ordinary, a blunt object in a fight demanding either sharp knives or explosives". [40] Rex Reed of The New York Observer gave it zero out of four stars: "Despite its desperate efforts to justify the homicides, there's nothing remotely innovative or even goofily satirical about it". [41]
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set slasher films apart from other horror subgenres, such as monster movies, splatter films, supernatural and psychological horror films.
Black Christmas is a 1974 Canadian slasher film produced and directed by Bob Clark, and written by Roy Moore. It stars Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon. The story follows a group of sorority sisters who receive threatening phone calls and are eventually stalked and murdered by a killer during the Christmas season.
Katherine Evelyn Anita Cassidy is an American actress. Following several minor television roles, she came to attention as a scream queen after starring in the horror films When a Stranger Calls (2006), as Kelli Presley in Black Christmas (2006) and as Ruby in the third season of the horror series Supernatural (2007–2008). Following a supporting role in the action film Taken (2008), Cassidy played leading roles in the slasher series Harper's Island (2009) and the remake of the drama series Melrose Place (2009–2010). She starred as Kris Fowles in the slasher film remake A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) and had a recurring role as Juliet Sharp during the fourth season of the teen drama Gossip Girl (2010–2012).
Black X-Mas is a 2006 slasher film written and directed by Glen Morgan, and starring Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, Crystal Lowe and Andrea Martin. The film takes place several days before Christmas and tells the story of a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered in their house during a winter storm. It is a loose remake and reimagining of the 1974 film of the same name. A co-production of Canada and the United States, the film was produced by Morgan and James Wong through their production company Hard Eight Pictures, along with 2929 Productions, Adelstein-Parouse Productions and Hoban Segal Productions. It is the second film in the Black Christmas series.
Imogen Gay Poots is an English actress. She played Tammy in the post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Weeks Later (2007), Linda Keith in the Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is by My Side (2013), Debbie Raymond in the Paul Raymond biopic The Look of Love (2013), and Julia Maddon in the American action film Need for Speed (2014). Also in 2014, she portrayed Jess Crichton in A Long Way Down, alongside Pierce Brosnan and Aaron Paul. She appeared as Isabella "Izzy" Patterson in Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way. In 2016, she starred as Kelly Ann in the Showtime series Roadies. In 2019, she co-starred with Jesse Eisenberg in the films Vivarium and The Art of Self-Defense. In 2020, she played Laura in The Father (2020). In 2022, she began playing the role of the mysterious Autumn in the Prime Video science fiction neo-Western series Outer Range.
Kelli Presley is a fictional character in the 2006 slasher film Black Christmas. The character, created by writer-director Glen Morgan and portrayed by actress Katie Cassidy, serves as a replacement to Jess from the original film.
Jason Ferus Blum is an American producer. He is founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, which has produced the horror franchises Paranormal Activity (2007–2021), Insidious (2010–2023), The Purge (2013–2021), and Halloween (2018–2022). Blum has also produced Sinister (2012), Oculus (2013), Whiplash (2014), The Gallows (2015), The Gift (2015), Hush (2016), Split (2016), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), Get Out (2017), Happy Death Day (2017), Upgrade (2018), Us (2019), The Invisible Man (2020), Freaky (2020), The Black Phone (2021), M3GAN (2022), Five Nights at Freddy's (2023), and Speak No Evil (2024).
Sophia Takal is an American actress, writer and director, perhaps best known for her work in independent features such as All the Light in the Sky, Supporting Characters and Gabi on the Roof in July. Filmmaker magazine named Takal one of the "25 New Faces of Film" in 2011. She directed and co-wrote the 2019 remake of the 1974 horror film Black Christmas.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a 2017 American adventure comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan from a screenplay by the writing teams of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, based on a story conceived by McKenna. The film is the third installment in the Jumanji film series and a stand-alone sequel to Jumanji (1995). It stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Rhys Darby and Bobby Cannavale. The story focuses on a group of teenagers who come across Jumanji, now transformed into a video game twenty-two years after the events of the 1995 film. They find themselves trapped inside the game as a set of adult avatars, seeking to complete a treacherous quest alongside another player who has been trapped since 1996.
Brittany Ann O'Grady is an American actress and singer. She is known for her leading roles in the Fox series Star (2016–2019), and the Apple TV+ series Little Voice (2020), as well as her role in the first season of the HBO anthology series The White Lotus (2021), and a lead role in the Amazon Prime series The Consultant (2023). She has also acted in the film Black Christmas (2019).
Happy Death Day is a 2017 American black comedy slasher film directed by Christopher Landon and written by Scott Lobdell. It stars Jessica Rothe and Israel Broussard. The film was produced by Jason Blum through his Blumhouse Productions banner. It follows college student Tree Gelbman, who is murdered on the night of her birthday but begins reliving the day repeatedly, at which point she sets out to find the killer and stop her death.
The Art of Self-Defense is a 2019 American martial arts black comedy film written and directed by Riley Stearns and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandro Nivola and Imogen Poots. It had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 10, 2019, and was released in the United States on July 12, 2019, by Bleecker Street.
Into the Dark is an American horror anthology television series produced for Hulu, with each stand-alone episodic installment based around a different holiday. The first season premiered on October 5, 2018, and consists of twelve feature-length episodes of television films. Into the Dark was renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 4, 2019, and also consists of twelve episodes.
Billy is a fictional character from the Black Christmas film series, first appearing in Black Christmas (1974) as a deranged murderer who taunts and kills a group of college students during the Christmas season. Created by Bob Clark and A. Roy Moore, the character was partly inspired by the urban legend "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs", as well as a series of real murders in Montreal during the 1943 holiday season.
Black Christmas is a Canadian-American horror film series that comprises three standalone slasher films, as well as a novelization. The original film has gained a large cult following and is credited as being one of the first slasher films, inspiring many others, including the critically acclaimed hit Halloween (1978). The series centers around a serial killer that stalks and murders a group of sorority sisters. The 1974 film follows the character of Jess Bradford as she and her sorority sisters begin receiving threatening phone calls from an unknown stalker. The 2006 film explores the background and motivation for the killer and his family. The 2019 film completely abandons the first two films' killer storyline, instead focusing on a new set of characters and killers.
Freaky is a 2020 American slasher comedy film directed by Christopher Landon, from a screenplay by Michael Kennedy and Landon, and starring Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton, Katie Finneran, Celeste O'Connor, and Alan Ruck. A twist on Freaky Friday, the film centers on a teenage girl who unintentionally switches bodies with a middle-aged male serial killer. Jason Blum serves as a producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner.
Aleyse Shannon is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Kris Waterson in the 2019 remake of Black Christmas, as Breanna Casey in Leverage: Redemption and as Jada Shields in 2018's Charmed reboot.
Lily Marie Donoghue is an American actress best known for her roles as Marty Coolidge in the Blumhouse horror film Black Christmas (2019), and Lisa Crowne in the Amazon Prime series Daisy Jones & the Six (2023).