Black Christmas
Short description
A sorority house is decorated for Christmas when the women living there begin receiving frightening phone calls. The house has a history: years earlier it was home to Billy, a boy who endured a neglected and abusive childhood and was long believed dead. As the holiday approaches, the calls grow more threatening, and the residents start dying one by one.
Black Christmas is a remake of the 1974 horror film of the same name, directed and written by Glen Morgan. It followed his 2003 feature Willard, making it the second film he directed. The cast includes Katie Cassidy as Kelli Presley, Michelle Trachtenberg as Melissa Kitt, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Heather Fitzgerald, Lacey Chabert as Dana Mathis, Oliver Hudson as Kyle Autry and Kristen Cloke as Leigh Colvin. Victor Solnicki, James Wong and Morgan produced.
Released in December 2006, the film had a budget of 9 million USD and took in 22 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 4.7/10 from around 33,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5.2/10 from roughly 622 votes. A critics' rating of 3.6/10 from 66 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- For the film's advertising campaign, it was decided to reshoot several scenes with Melissa, played by Michelle Trachtenberg. However, the actress was unavailable, so in the trailer and television commercials, a then-newcomer actress, Jillian Murray, can be seen instead, and she played in the scenes where Melissa falls from the roof of a house and finds a girl in a frozen pond.
- The image of the killer was inspired by the serial killer Ed Kemper.
- The film is known for its difficult production history and frequent conflicts of interest between director Glen Morgan and producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. At the latter's insistence, a second maniac appeared in the film. They also initiated the reshooting of a scene depicting the death of one of the characters, making it more agonizing, and rejected the original ending, which was an homage to the 1974 original. Furthermore, various scenes for the trailer and TV commercials were filmed without the director's knowledge.
- Michelle Trachtenberg agreed to star in the film only on the condition that her character would die.
- The image of the killer was inspired by the real-life serial killer Ed Kemper, whose mother kept him locked in the basement as a child, eventually becoming his victim.
- All the actresses performed their own stunts.
- After the film's failure at the box office, the original director Bob Clark began working on a direct sequel to his film, which would have brought back Olivia Hassie and John Saxon. Clark soon died without realizing this idea.
- Lacey Chabert injured her leg on her first day of filming during a fight scene with the killer.
- Initially, the film had a different ending, but it was decided to reshoot it after test screenings.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
