Christmas Horror Followup: Black Christmas 2006, the fakening
Last night encaf1 and I watched the 2006 remake of the 1974 horror classic Black Christmas.
Disappointment is the first word that comes to mind. I was seriously disappointed with the film when compared to the original.
The original was pretty down to earth with natural looking/acting characters. Just about everything made sense while not explaining everything which left a lot of room for the viewer’s imagination and good movie conversation afterward. Gore was at a minimum being used only when dramatically appropriate and the deaths in the film were realistic rather than campy. The viewer experiences the story on the same level as the characters with very little cinematic narration. All of this added together makes the film worthy of Alfred Hitchcock level suspense.
I’m not into slasher horror but I would gladly own this one.
The 2006 remake takes a classic good movie and guts it of everything that made it a unique and compelling film. Instead of realistic characters we get the usual stable of makeup laden pore-less Hollywood plastic people, with plastic lines, plastic attitudes and very little character. Rather than a slow pace that builds suspense, improbable, grisly deaths and mutilation run rampant from beginning to end. The characters act downright stupid as is common in much of modern horror. The worst disappointment for me however is the modern obsession to explain..every..single..thing..in..the..film.
Oh and everyone who is ugly in the film is evil and everyone good looking is good….yeah.
Rather than being a compelling suspenseful movie, it’s a typical run of the mill slasher flick more suited to people with lower attention spans who don’t attempt to suspend belief and like gore for the sake of gore.
If there is one good thing about the 2006 Black Christmas it’s that the story really handled cell phones well. Many western horror movies seem to have a hard time with the conveniences of modern technology as being an easy out for the protagonists. Eastern horror often integrates such innovation by including it as part of the horror itself.
In the end, if you haven’t seen Black Christmas, I HEAVILY recommend watching the 1974 version . You can skip the 2006 version completely, but if you are curious at least try to watch the original first.
Disappointment is the first word that comes to mind. I was seriously disappointed with the film when compared to the original.
The original was pretty down to earth with natural looking/acting characters. Just about everything made sense while not explaining everything which left a lot of room for the viewer’s imagination and good movie conversation afterward. Gore was at a minimum being used only when dramatically appropriate and the deaths in the film were realistic rather than campy. The viewer experiences the story on the same level as the characters with very little cinematic narration. All of this added together makes the film worthy of Alfred Hitchcock level suspense.
I’m not into slasher horror but I would gladly own this one.
The 2006 remake takes a classic good movie and guts it of everything that made it a unique and compelling film. Instead of realistic characters we get the usual stable of makeup laden pore-less Hollywood plastic people, with plastic lines, plastic attitudes and very little character. Rather than a slow pace that builds suspense, improbable, grisly deaths and mutilation run rampant from beginning to end. The characters act downright stupid as is common in much of modern horror. The worst disappointment for me however is the modern obsession to explain..every..single..thing..in..the..film.
Oh and everyone who is ugly in the film is evil and everyone good looking is good….yeah.
Rather than being a compelling suspenseful movie, it’s a typical run of the mill slasher flick more suited to people with lower attention spans who don’t attempt to suspend belief and like gore for the sake of gore.
If there is one good thing about the 2006 Black Christmas it’s that the story really handled cell phones well. Many western horror movies seem to have a hard time with the conveniences of modern technology as being an easy out for the protagonists. Eastern horror often integrates such innovation by including it as part of the horror itself.
In the end, if you haven’t seen Black Christmas, I HEAVILY recommend watching the 1974 version . You can skip the 2006 version completely, but if you are curious at least try to watch the original first.