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In Defense Of Holiday Edition: ‘Black Christmas’ (Remake)

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Tis the season to talk about horror Christmas movies! It’s a constantly growing sub-genre with quite possibly the most, lowest rated horror movies of any subgenre. Today I want to revisit a movie that’s not only a Christmas Horror but also a remake (a remake of a widely adored horror movie no less) and well, I think it’s just great!

Black Christmas hit theaters on Christmas day 8 years ago and effectively brought Christmas horror back to audiences on a wider scale. It gets an abysmal 14% on Rotten Tomatoes so it’s pretty safe to say the remake of Black Christmas, wasn’t well received. But why? In order to enjoy this film I think you might have to remove yourself from Bob Clark’s original. Yes, the original Black Christmas is a staple of the horror genre in the 70s and for good reason, but there is still a lot of merit to the remake.

Before we get started, for those of you who somehow missed both films here’s a brief synopsis: While several sorority girls are snowed in for the evening they begin getting obscene and disturbing phone calls. The girls are terrorized and killed off one by one by the caller. Pretty simple plot and it remains roughly the same in both films.

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Now, there are some differences in the plot that may be why people tend to dislike it. In the remake, the girls are terrorized by a caller but instead of it being some maniacal stranger the caller is given a back story (a recently growing phenomenon in the remake biz). Poor little Billy Lenz was doomed from early childhood to grow up a freak, he had perpetually yellow skin and his mother hated him. After disposing of the only person who ever loved Billy, his father, Mrs. Lenz soon remarries to get the child she always wanted. To make matters even worse for Billy, his mother’s new beau isn’t living up to his role as baby maker so she turns to Billy himself. She soon gets pregnant but her happiness is short lived when Billy attacks the child and his mother, but not before preheating the oven to make special human Christmas cookies.

As I said, you may need to remove yourself from the original to really be able to enjoy this flick. It came out when I was in high school so I hadn’t yet seen the original when I first watched the remake. If it hadn’t been a remake I think this would have been a lot more successful with horror fans. For one, it is one of the few horror films that have come out in the past 15 years to hold an “R” rating. And it’s a pretty hard “R”. We are constantly swimming in a sea of “PG-13” travesties that it’s kind of nice to sit back and enjoy a blood drenched “R” rated horror movie.

Speaking of blood, I want to point out that Black Christmas really kicked up the gore for the remake. It’s a full blown slasher from the minute it starts and it doesn’t let up until the credits roll. With each kill the audience gets a bucket of blood to go along with it. Being a gore hound myself, I loved it! I understand that some fans might be thrown off because of this drastic shift in tone from the original but Billy really does bring it home for the body count.

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So, yes, the tone is extremely different but it was a change that director Glen Morgan made to get asses in seats. I wish the atmospheric horror of the 70s would make a comeback but current generations just don’t seem to give as much money to those. So creative decisions had to be made and Morgan opted for a more vibrant and fast paced story.

I want to take a minute to acknowledge the leading ladies of this film. Sure, I did miss Margot Kidder and Olivia Hussey on my recent viewing of this but I think there is something to be said about the girls in this film. The cast consists of Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Lacey Chabert. Each of these girls brings their own spin to the “sorority girl”   persona and the result we get is a cast of girls who you actually start to like. At least I did. They aren’t your typical dumb/bitchy girls that are usually portrayed, instead they are resourceful and put up a damn good fight against their attacker. Yeah, Lacey Cahbret plays her typical Mean Girls role but even that’s entertaining.

And speaking of entertaining, this movie is just plain fun. It’s crammed full Christmas imagery to get you feeling festive and it’s got a nice grain of humor to it as well. Often in slasher movies it’s easy to get bored or distracted when someone isn’t getting gutted but in Black Christmas there is always something to amuse you. Between the incredibly creepy phone calls (just as creepy as the original even) and the banter between the girls, I was never bored.

So who else likes this holiday treat? I can’t be the only one. Give it a watch, or a re-watch, and come back and let me know what you thought!

Jess is a Northeast Ohio native who has loved all things horror and fringe since birth. She has a tendency to run at the mouth about it and decided writing was the only way not to scare everyone away. If you make a hobby into a career it becomes less creepy. Unless that hobby is collecting baby dolls. Nothing makes that less creepy.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

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Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

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Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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