Black Christmas

Black Christmas (abbreviated as Black X-mas) is a sims remake of the 1974 and the 2006 Canadian slasher horror films of the same name. It stars Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, Andrea Martin and Crystal Lowe. The film opened on the 3rd December 2010 to mark the Director's birthday. It received mixed reviews.

Plot
Billy Edward Lenz, a boy born with a rare medical condition that makes his skin yellow, is the offspring of a husband and wife who no longer love each other. Mrs. Lenz hates her son and abuses him. Setting her eyes on another man, she kills her husband when he refuses to let her go, and when Billy finds her and her new lover murdering his father, he is locked and kept in the attic for years. When Mrs. Lenz tries to conceive an ideal child with her lover, she cannot because he is impotent, so instead she goes into the attic and rapes Billy as a last resort. Billy gets his mother pregnant, and she gives birth to a girl she names Agnes. On Christmas Eve eight years later, Billy escapes from his attic and disfigures Agnes by ripping her eye out, gruesomely kills his mother and her new husband, and eats his mother. He is caught and imprisoned in a mental asylum. On Christmas Eve 2010, Billy escapes from his cell after killing the security guard.

Miles away, at the Delta Alpha Kappa sorority house, while writing in her diary, Claire Crosby is stabbed in the eye with a dart by an intruder. Downstairs, the girls, along with their house mother Mrs. Mac, search for a gift they are inclined to get according to tradition - a gift addressed to Billy. It turns out the Alpha Kappa house was previously the home of the aforementioned psychotic Billy Lenz. In her room, fellow sorority sister Megan Helms hears footsteps coming from the attic. She goes upstairs to investigate, leading her to be brutally killed. In the living room, the girls receive a call from a rambling man, who makes no sense. Heather Lee-Fitzgerald, disturbed by the voice and nature of the call, ends it after he says "I'm going to kill you." Dismissing the call as merely a joke, the girls pay no attention until they get another similar call. Worried, Kelli Presley checks on Megan upstairs but instead finds Kyle in Megan's room. As the girls question him, the lights go off. Meanwhile, Clair's sister Leigh arrives searching for her.

Dana descends to the basement hoping to fix the lights. However, she is attacked and, after a brief struggle, killed when the assailant drives a small axe into the back of her head. The mysterious caller phones the girls again, this time using Dana's cell phone. They go outside to look for her and find her dead body rested in the snow. Heather and Mrs. Mac decide to drive to the nearest police station for help, while Kelli, Leigh, Melissa Kitt and Lauren Hanon stay at the house. However, before they can drive away, the killer murders Heather in the car, and Mrs. Mac is mortally stabbed by falling on a garden statue. Seeing the car has not yet left, Leigh and Kelli go to check, leaving Lauren and Melissa in the house. Melissa is attacked and after a brief struggle. Meanwhile, finding Mrs. Mac's blood in the garage, Leigh and Kelli run back into the house, where they find Lauren with her eyes gouged out. Kyle bursts in, claiming to be innocent and urging the girls to leave the house. However, Kelli and Leigh, who are still hoping to find the other missing girls, want to check the attic, as that is the only place they have not yet checked.

As he sticks his head through the opening, Kyle is dragged into the attic by an unknown figure. Kelli and Leigh climb upstairs to rescue him, but he is already dead. Billy makes himself known in the attic and closes in on Kelli and Leigh, unintentionally starting a fire. Kelli and Leigh escape and leave Billy to burn in the fire, and they are treated at the hospital. While Kelli goes for an x-ray, Billy appears in the hospital unharmed and snaps Leigh's neck. When Kelli returns to her room, Billy attacks her as well but Kelli heads to the rooftop of the hospital and manages to throw him off the building, leaving his body at the bottom of a Christmas tree.

Rating
The movie was given a "Restricted" rating due to the amount of gore and graphic death scenes.

Cast

 * Katie Cassidy as Kelli Presley, the most rational sister.
 * Michelle Trachtenberg as Melissa Kitt, the loyal, friendliest sister.
 * Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Heather Lee-Fitzgerald, the rich, pious sister.
 * Lacey Chabert as Dana Mathis, the rich, snobby sister.
 * Kristen Cloke as Leigh Colvin, Clair's older half-sister.
 * Andrea Martin as Barbara MacHenry, the housemother.
 * Crystal Lowe as Lauren Hannon, the heavy drinking, pessimistic sister.
 * Oliver Hudson as Kyle Autry, Kelli's boyfriend.
 * Karin Konoval as Mrs. Lenz, Billy and Agnes' abusive mother.
 * Robert Mann as Billy Lenz, the psychopathic killer.
 * Jessica Harmon as Megan Helms, the second kill.
 * Leela Savasta as Clair Crosby, the first kill. She is also Leigh's younger half-sister.
 * Kathleen Kole as Eve Agnew, the quiet, weird sister.

Critical Reaction
The film received mixed reviews; some applauding the films photography (particularly the death scenes); others criticized that there were too many characters in the movie to keep up with the plot.

Alternate Versions
The final released version of Black Christmas was not how the film was initially intended to be. Several scenes were cut and some characters were omitted from the final theatrical release of the film. An example of this is Billy's sister Agnes, who was originally supposed to be a secret second killer in the movie was cut due to the director believing there were enough characters in the movie. This wasn't decided until the film was filmed and the characters were made - meaning that Agnes' design plan was initially released with the film even though she didn't actually star in the movie. There were many cuts in the death sequences too. One being Melissa's death, where Billy originally cuts out her eyes; this was cut and the movie just showed her head being stamped on, however the theatrical poster showed Melissa's body with her eyes removed. The ending was also altered; the writer initially decided to end the movie on a happy note and allow Kelli and Leigh to live, however because of all the cut backs, it was decided that the ending would stay true to the original movie.