Glen Morgan writes and directs this remake of the 1974 shocker. Billy Lenz(Robert Mann)had a traumatic Christmas that led to his placement in a prison for the criminally insane. About 15 years ago, Billy killed his family and his mother's boyfriend. Encarcerated, every year Billy claims he is going home for Christmas. This Christmas, guess what? His childhood home, site of his horrific murders, is now a sorority house. The holiday usually clears out the house, but this Christmas there is a half dozen girls and their house mother left to celebrate and exchange presents. Outside the is snow falling; and inside mysterious, threatening, obscene and intimidating phone calls begin. Calls from the cell phones of girls that are now missing from the house. Billy intends to expand the family; and you know what he likes to do to his family. Other cast members: Michelle Trachenberg, Lacey Chabert, Elizabeth Winstead, Katie Cassidy, Oliver Hudson and Andrea Martin.

Many years ago, a mistreated boy named Billy Lenz slaughtered his family in a one-house killing spree. Not surprisingly, this had him committed to an asylum. Since then, his house has been converted into a sorority house. And this Christmas, Billy wants to be home with his family to celebrate.

Let me say a few nice things before I start venting. First, I have to say I must have been a very good boy this year because I can't recall such an attractive cast in the recent past. Three of my all-time favorite young ladies show up here: Michelle Trachtenberg ("Eurotrip"),Lacey Chabert ("Pleasure Drivers"),and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (numerous recent horror films, including "Final Destination 3"). It was quite the visual feast!

I also enjoyed the inclusion of Andrea Martin as Ms. MacHenry, the house mother. Martin was one of the college girls from the original film and I think it's important to pay some sort of tribute like this (as well as the use of "Clark Sanitarium"). She was a good pick, better than Margot Kidder.

And the use of incest and cannibalism is always a plus (both of which were absent in the original)... and the gore was decent (though not great) with the constant eye-gouging thanks to a glass unicorn. I do love unicorns, as my embroidered unicorn pillow might suggest. While I do not think it was intentional, I appreciate how the unicorn reminded me of another great classic, "The Abominable Dr. Phibes".

But let's start the ripping: Glen Morgan was probably the wrong guy to direct this. He brought along cast members from his prior films (again, such as "Final Destination 3") which was fine, but seemed to put very little thought into any of this. And his films have more of a teenager quality to them, making even the gore, incest and cannibalism seem very youth-oriented, if that makes any sense. R-Rated or not, this was meant for teens to watch. He could have really stepped it up a dozen notches.

The girls get little or no personalities. I don't think I learned half of their names and had difficulty keeping them straight. Maybe reduce the number by one or two so we could at least see them for ten minutes? On the flip side, the film focused almost entirely on Billy Lenz, providing his entire back story. The original never touched on this at all, which made him creepier and more mysterious. Here, there's nothing strange about him (besides the yellow skin and eyes, which play no importance). Obviously, Morgan never learned the secret of good horror: don't show the killer.

Furthermore, they wasted the character of the boyfriend Kyle (who was named Peter in the original). Here, he is briefly thought by the girls to be the killer, but the audience knows the whole time that he's not. In the original, you never know whether or not Peter is the killer (in fact, many people who watched all the way to the end still aren't sure). If Kyle isn't a red herring, and his only purpose is to bring up some sex tape which was not important to the story (despite being shown again and again),then what the hell was he doing in the movie at all?

Other great elements from the original were toned down: the police station scenes, the drunk girl (who now passes out right away). And a shower scene was added, but no explicit nudity, making it almost a complete waste of time.

I'll stop before I start frothing at the mouth. Because, seriously, I was let down. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this movie, but it was clearly the teen remake (not unlike the newer "When A Stranger Calls"). If you need a fix of girls getting strangled with a plastic bag and stabbed in the eye (and that's really all you'll see),check this out. Otherwise, you'll find plenty of great slashers out there on the video shelf. And, of course, you simply cannot beat the original "Black Christmas", one of the best horror films ever made.

BLACK CHRISTMAS is another pointless remake of an old-time horror classic which didn't need remaking in the first place. This one features a needlessly convoluted back story, a general tired rehash of the original film's sorority house plot, some thin and annoying characterisations, and a lot of bloody kill sequences. The film has a bunch of young and pretty actresses, including Michelle Trachtenberg and Mary Elizabeth Winstead among their number, being menaced by a psycho killer with serious personality issues. The whole thing is shot in a cheap and dark way by director Glen Morgan, who also scripted the film and is a long way from his glory days producing THE X-FILES back in the 1990s. The one decent cast surprise is the presence of Andrea Martin from the original movie, here playing the house mother.