History Film / BlackChristmas2006

* ButNotTooBlack: The only non [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASP]] in the cast appears to be Lauren - who's played by the half-Chinese Creator/CrystalLowe - and her hair is lightened to brown. Unless you count Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg is Ashkenazi-Jewish), Dana (Lacey Chabert is half-Cajun) or Mrs Mac (Andrea Martin is Armenian).

* AdaptationExpansion: In the original, the killer was a mystery and we never found out anything about him (and we didn't even know if Billy was his real name). This film gives him a whole backstory, and also explains who Agnes is. Agnes herself was merely mentioned repeatedly in Billy's calls, but becomes a character in her own right.

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Mrs Mac is the only character from the original to reappear (besides first victim Claire). Her original counterpart was an alcoholic and something of a BitchInSheepsClothing. She's very much a ReasonableAuthorityFigure here.
* AdaptationalComicRelief: Inverted! Mrs Mac in the original was an outrageous LadyDrunk, who provided lots of comic relief. Here, the character is more serious.
* AdaptationalSkimpiness: The gift the girls got for Mrs Mac in the original was a ghastly frumpy nightgown - and the woman snarked she "wouldn't wear this to have my liver out". This time, they get her a sexy negligee, and she excitedly asks if they also got a man for her to wear it in front of.
* AmbiguousSituation: A sex tape of Kyle and Megan is found on the internet, Kyle claiming someone stole it and uploaded it to get back at him. It's never made clear if Megan knew she was being filmed and whether her reaction is a response to the video existing at all or the fact that it's been put on the internet.

** The lack of campus security intervening is hand waved with the sorority house being too far away. Every sorority house by college rules would have to be on campus.
** Mrs Mac eats a marshmallow off a skewer she literally just took out of the fire, which should have burned her mouth.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The sorority sisters are all attractive and mostly {{Nice Girl}}s, except maybe Heather. Billy and Agnes are the deformed serial killers, and Billy was actually quite a cute kid before he became a killer. His mother and stepfather are rotten people, and the outsides match the inside. Contrast with his loving biological father, who is better looking.

* ButNotTooBlack: The only non [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASP]] in the cast appears to be Lauren - who's played by the half-Chinese Creator/CrystalLowe, and her hair is lightened to brown. Unless you count Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg is Ashkenazi-Jewish), Dana (Lacey Chabert is half-Cajun) or Mrs Mac (Andrea Martin is Armenian).

* CreepyDoll: Agnes gets one as a Christmas gift in her childhood, and it shows up throughout the film. Notably its eyes are missing, foreshadowing what she'll later do to the sorority sisters.

** Mrs Mac's death in the original is given to a new character called Megan.

* TheDogBitesBack: The whole reason Billy was locked up in the loony bin in the first place; he was locked in the attic just for being born with jaundiced, raped by his mother to conceive another child, and then treated like TheUnfavorite. So he ends up murdering both Mrs Lenz and her lover.

* DropTheHammer: Billy's biological father is beat to death with a hammer.

* FinalGirl: [[spoiler:Kelli]] is the final survivor after [[spoiler:Leigh]] is killed off. Glen Morgan however gave several of the girls some characterization that would suggest any one of them could be the FinalGirl. Heather for example is GenreSavvy and modest, Melissa is a caring TeamMom, Dana has a take charge attitude, and Leigh has more of a backstory. [[spoiler: Kelli averts many FinalGirl attributes such as having a boyfriend with whom she's implied to have a sexual relationship, and of course [[SlashersPreferBlondes being the lone blonde]] in the group]].

* KickTheDog: Billy's mother crushing the "Baby's First Christmas" bulb, and later telling him that Santa was shot down by the Russians. Just to hammer home that she's an abuser, and is going to make Billy's life a living hell.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: It is immensely satisfying to see Billy getting revenge on his stepfather and mother for all the things they've done to him. The former being impaled through the head with a Christmas tree topping and the latter being strangled and brutally beaten to death by a rolling pin.
* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: Melissa is the nicest of the girls, checking in on everyone and making sure Lauren gets a shower and rest on time. Sadly she meets her end, although she was planned to survive in an earlier draft]].

* MadwomanInTheAttic: Billy's mother despised his father, and by extension him (the fact that he looked like him only added to that hatred). She and her lover wound up murdering Mr. Lenz, and kept Billy locked up in the attic, presumably only giving him the bare minimum to survive.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Subverted to the extreme, a rare feat. While the film has a quite a few male casualties, including [[spoiler:Billy's Dad, Billy's Stepfather, The Asylum Santa, A Security Guard, A Mortician, and Kyle]], the body count in this film is almost entirely made up of the female characters [[spoiler:Melissa Kitt, Heather Lee Fitzgerald, Dana Mathis, Lauren Hannon, Clair Crosby, Megan Helms, Eve Agnew, Leigh Colvin, Ms. Mac, Billy's Mom, and Agnes]].
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: A rare male example. Kelli is shocked and disgusted when she finds out Kyle's sex history, especially that he made sex tapes. The entire sorority kicking him out says that we're supposed to side with her.

* OutWithABang: The Santa is killed just as he's about to be get it on with a nurse.

* PeekABooCorpse: [[spoiler:Eve]] is found [[OffWithHisHead decapitated]]. At first they just think she's sitting in her car waiting.

* ProgressivelyPrettier: While the protagonists of the original were good looking, not all of them were conventionally so. All the girls here - and there are significantly more of them - are supermodel gorgeous, with perfect hair and make-up and flattering wardrobes. Even Mrs Mac, the matronly housemother from the original, is now more attractive; portrayed by Andrea Martin from the original, [[GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave who aged very well]].

** Agnes lost an eye as a child, and has a gold-plated fake one to make her look off-putting.

** Heather is referred to as a "Southern bitch", and Mary Elizabeth Winstead uses a light southern accent for her. She herself is from North Carolina, which is in the southeast, but not often counted as the DeepSouth.

** Mrs Mac is of course the sorority's house mother, and seems to care about the girls a lot (besides Heather anyway).

* {{Tuckerization}}: In the beginning of the film Ms. Mac asks who is not present for the secret Santa gift exchange. Two of the names mentioned are Chelsea and Greer. Chelsea is the name of Glen Morgan's daughter from his marriage to Cindy Morgan who is also Kristen Cloke's stepdaughter. Greer is the name of Kristen Cloke and Glen Morgan's youngest child.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: Both Billy and Agnes used to be normal children, until the cycle of abuse turned them into deranged cannibalistic serial killers.

* VoiceChangeling: [[spoiler:Agnes, which she uses to call the sorority with creepy messages. We're lead to believe it's Billy, but it turns out that it was Agnes doing a male voice]].

* VillainousBreakdown: Billy's mother is [[AssholeVictim very satisfyingly]] reduced to a crying, shrieking wreck as she watches Billy eats Agnes' eye and kill his stepfather.

* DeathBySex: The Santa is killed just as he's about to be get it on with a nurse.

* AmbiguousSituation: A sex tape of Kyle and Megan is found on the internet, Kyle claiming someone stole it and uploaded it to get back at him. It's never made clear if Megan knew she was being filmed and whether her reaction to the video is it existing at all or the fact that it's been put on the internet.

* BareYourMidriff: Lauren spends most of the film in her pajamas, which leave her midriff on full display.

* TangledFamilyTree: Agnes Lenz was conceived by her mother raping her brother. Because of that, Billy is both her father and half-brother.

* IdiotBall: Held firmly by whoever thought it would be a good idea to decorate the inside of the sorority house with perpetually blinking lights.

* {{Jerkass}}: Whoever decided to decorate the inside of the sorority house with blinking lights apparently doesn’t care that they could cause seizures in someone with epilepsy.

* Jerkass: Whoever decided to decorate the inside of the sorority house with blinking lights apparently doesn’t care that they could cause seizures in someone with epilepsy.

* IdiotBall: Whoever thought it would be a good idea to decorate the inside of the sorority house with perpetually blinking lights.

* ButNotTooBlack: The only non {{WASP}} in the cast appears to be Lauren - who's played by the half-Chinese Creator/CrystalLowe, and her hair is lightened to brown. Unless you count Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg is Ashkenazi-Jewish), Dana (Lacey Chabert is half-Cajun) or Mrs Mac (Andrea Martin is Armenian).

* ButNotTooBlack: The only non {{WASP}} in the cast appears to be Lauren - who's played by the half-Chinese Crystal Lowe, and her hair is lightened to brown. Unless you count Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg is Ashkenazi-Jewish), Dana (Lacey Chabert is half-Cajun) or Mrs Mac (Andrea Martin is Armenian).

* SlobsVersusSnobs: A minor conflict between Heather - who's said to have a "NASCAR daddy" and appears a bit posher than the others - and Lauren - a hard drinker and LadEtte who's implied to have a lot of tension with her own family.

** Possibly with Dana too, who's quite a GirlyGirl and her actress Lacey Chabert is from Mississippi, but has only a hint of a southern accent.

* {{Jerkass}}:
** Kyle, thanks to cheating on Kelli by having sex with Megan. His response after he's caught? "Fuck all you bitches."
** Heather is also rather unpleasant, Ms. Mac even comments on it as she's getting the car ready. She does have a few JerkassHasAPoint moments though, as it does make sense to try and leave, as the people the others hoping to rescue are already dead, and it could be considered bit tasteless to leave out gifts for a killer as a holiday tradition.

* RedHerring: Eve, who is obsessed with Billy Lenz, to the point of taking his old room in the sorority house, is initially implied to be the second killer... until they [[spoiler:find her body]].

%%* TrailersAlwaysLie: They featured a lot of footage that wasn't in the film itself. All of them can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7QFJRcYwlI here]].

* ActorAllusion: Melissa dies when part of her head is cut off by an ice skate. Creator/MichelleTrachtenberg had just portrayed an ice skater one year earlier in ''Film/IcePrincess''.

%%* BareYourMidriff: Lauren's outfit, which is basically her pajamas.

%%* CrosscastRole: Adult Agnes was played by a man. And it ''shows''.

* DecompositeCharacter: Mrs Mac's death in the original is given to a new character called Megan.

%%* EvilMatriarch: Billy's mother, later devolves into AxCrazy.

* FinalGirl: [[spoiler:Kelli]] is the final survivor after [[spoiler:Leigh]] is killed off.
%%* {{Gorn}}

%%* GoryDiscretionShot: The deaths of [[spoiler:the Santa, Heather, and the morgue attendant]].

%%* ImAHumanitarian: Billy and Agnes. Two words: [[{{Squick}} Skingerbread men]].

%%* KickTheDog: Billy's mother crushing the "Baby's First Christmas" bulb, and later telling him that Santa was shot down by the Russians.

%%* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler:Melissa]], the only main sister besides Kelli who is halfway decent. [[spoiler:Leigh]] is also a decent character, but isn't one of the sisters.

%%* NerdGlasses: Eve wears thick-framed glasses.

%%* PeekABangs: Agnes favours this look with the left part of her face obscured.
%%* PeekABooCorpse: [[spoiler:Eve]] is found [[OffWithHisHead decapitated]].
%%* ThePenIsMightier: Clair's death, and the first instance of EyeScream in the film.

%%* RedRightHand: Billy's skin is yellow thanks to jaundice. Agnes's gold-colored fake eye may also count.

%%* RichBitch: Heather. [[{{Jerkass}} In spades]].
%%* RollingPinOfDoom: Billy kills his mother with one.
%%* ScaryBlackMan: The asylum guard keeps the inmates in line. If only he affected Billy a lot more.
%%* ScreamingWoman
%%* SiblingsInCrime: Billy and [[spoiler:Agnes]] are working together to whittle down the sorority.
* ShoutOut: Billy escapes the asylum he's in by killing a Rent-a-Santa and stealing his costume. A [[Film/SilentNightDeadlyNight deranged killer named Billy wearing a Santa suit...]]
%%* ShowerScene: Lauren gets one, which shows off her tramp stamp.

%%* SophisticatedAsHell:
%%-->'''Melissa''': No. You see, serial killers murder repeatedly for sexual thrill. Billy Lenz was a spree killer - dude just fucking lost it.[[labelnote:note]]Actually, the only difference between a spree killer and a serial killer is the lack of a "cool-off" time. A spree killer is someone who kills multiple people at one time or in quick succession ([[ShapedLikeItself AKA in a spree]]), a serial killer is someone who kills multiple people in distinct incidents. [[RightForTheWrongReasons Melissa's not wrong about Billy being a spree killer, but she doesn't have the correct reasoning.]][[/labelnote]]

%%* TeamMom: Melissa.

%%* VoiceChangeling: [[spoiler:Agnes, which she uses to call the sorority with creepy messages]].

%%* VomitIndiscretionShot: Lauren throwing up in the bathroom during Kelli and Kyle's argument.

%%* BloodierAndGorier: Very much so compared to the original.
%%* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Kelli, Melissa, and Heather, who also happen to be listed first in this order in the credits. [[spoiler: Only Kelli survives]].

%%* CreepyDoll: Agnes gets one as a Christmas gift in her childhood, and it shows up throughout the film.

%%* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The candy cane shiv, for starters.

%%* DeathByIrony: "You're my cookie, and I could gobble you up!"

%%* DisproportionateRetribution:
%%** Billy's mother and her boyfriend murdering Billy's father.
%%** Also, the abuse she inflicts on Billy, ''just'' because he's jaundiced.
%%* TheDogBitesBack: The whole reason Billy was locked up in the loony bin in the first place. And ''boy'', did he bite ''hard''.

%%* EyeScream: All over the goddamn place, that at a point [[spoiler: Agnes]] makes a Christmas tree, with eyes as the Christmas bulbs.
%%* {{Expy}}: Kelli is an expy of the original's Jess. Lauren is an expy of Creator/MargotKidder's Barb (alcoholic and bitchy)

%%* IronicNurseryTune: ''Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies'' and a few others. Surprisingly effective.
%%* {{Jerkass}}:
%%**Kyle, thanks to cheating on Kelli by having sex with Megan. His response after he's caught? "Fuck all you bitches."
%%** Heather is also rather unpleasant, Ms. Mac even comments on it as she's getting the car ready. She does have a few JerkassHasAPoint moments though, as it does make sense to try and leave, as the people the others hoping to rescue are already dead, and it could be considered bit tasteless to leave out gifts for a killer as a holiday tradition.

%%* YourCheatingHeart: Kyle, with Megan.

%%[[caption-width-right:310:some caption text]]

** Almost every single sorority girl plays this completely straight as well, with most of them ranging from "kinda bitchy" to "utterly unlikeable bitch."

* BareYourMidriff: Lauren's outfit, which is basically her pajamas.

* BloodierAndGorier: Very much so compared to the original.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Kelli, Melissa, and Heather, who also happen to be listed first in this order in the credits. [[spoiler: Only Kelli survives]].

* ChildByRape: Agnes, conceived by her mother raping her brother Billy.
* CreepyDoll: Agnes gets one as a Christmas gift in her childhood, and it shows up throughout the film.
* CrosscastRole: Adult Agnes was played by a man. And it ''shows''.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The candy cane shiv, for starters.

* DeathByIrony: "You're my cookie, and I could gobble you up!"

* DisproportionateRetribution: Billy's mother and her boyfriend murdering Billy's father.
** Also, the abuse she inflicts on Billy, ''just'' because he's jaundiced.
* TheDogBitesBack: The whole reason Billy was locked up in the loony bin in the first place. And ''boy'', did he bite ''hard''.

* DropTheHammer: Billy's biological father is beat to death with one.
* DullSurprise: Kyle.

* EvilMatriarch: Billy's mother, later devolves into AxCrazy.
* EvilPhone[=/=]HarassingPhoneCall: Like the original, the sorority sisters get creepy phone calls from the killer.
* EyeScream: All over the goddamn place, that at a point [[spoiler: Agnes]] makes a Christmas tree, with eyes as the Christmas bulbs.
* {{Expy}}: Kelli is an expy of the original's Jess. Lauren is an expy of Creator/MargotKidder's Barb (alcoholic and bitchy)

* {{Gorn}}
* AGodAmI: One of Billy's fellow asylum inmates apparently has messianic delusions:
-->'''Orderly''': Happy birthday.
* GoryDiscretionShot: The deaths of [[spoiler:the Santa, Heather, and the morgue attendant]].

* HostileWeather: A snowstorm and the accidents it's causing make it so the authorities won't be able to reach them for several hours.
* ImAHumanitarian: Billy and Agnes. Two words: [[{{Squick}} Skingerbread men]].

* ImpromptuTracheotomy: The death of the sanitarium guard.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Christmas ornaments, a rolling pin, a candy cane, an ice skate, a gardening claw, the list goes on...
* IronicNurseryTune: ''Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies'' and a few others. Surprisingly effective.
* {{Jerkass}}: Kyle, thanks to cheating on Kelli by having sex with Megan. His response after he's caught? "Fuck all you bitches."
** Heather is also rather unpleasant, Ms. Mac even comments on it as she's getting the car ready.
*** She does have a few JerkassHasAPoint moments though, as it does make sense to try and leave, as the people the others hoping to rescue are already dead, and it could be considered bit tasteless to leave out gifts for a killer as a holiday tradition.
* KickTheDog: Billy's mother crushing the "Baby's First Christmas" bulb, and later telling him that Santa was shot down by the Russians.

* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler:Melissa]], the only main sister besides Kelli who is halfway decent. [[spoiler:Leigh]] is also a decent character, but isn't one of the sisters.
* MadwomanInTheAttic: Billy's mother despised his father, and by extension him (the fact that he looked like [[ComicBook/SinCity That Yellow Bastard]] only added to that hatred). She and her lover wound up murdering Mr. Lenz, and kept Billy locked up in the attic, presumably only giving him the bare minimum to survive.
* MadeOfPlasticine: [[spoiler: It apparently runs in the family, as both Billy's stepfather and Billy himself are ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice, the latter by a ''christmas tree'', no less.]]
** [[spoiler:Ms. Mac]] is also impaled, clean through her skull, by an icicle.
* MagicalDefibrillator: [[spoiler: Inverted. Kelli kills Agnes with one.]]

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Subverted to the extreme, a rare feat. While the film has a quite a few male casualties, including [[spoiler:Billy’s Dad, Billy’s Stepfather, The Asylum Santa, A Security Guard, A Mortician, and Kyle]], the body count in this film is almost entirely made up of the female characters [[spoiler:Melissa Kitt, Heather Lee Fitzgerald, Dana Mathis, Lauren Hannon, Clair Crosby, Megan Helms, Eve Agnew, Leigh Colvin, Ms. Mac, Billy’s Mom, and Agnes]].

* NerdGlasses: Eve wears thick-framed glasses.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Billy and Agnes]] survive the sorority house burning down.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the UK cut, where [[spoiler:Billy]] is, in fact, horribly burned in the fire, and later dies on the operating table.

* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:Eve's]] is found decapitated in her car while [[spoiler:Melissa's]] death is more of a partial example (and by ice skate of all things).

* PeekABangs: Agnes favours this look with the left part of her face obscured.
* PeekABooCorpse: [[spoiler:Eve]] is found [[OffWithHisHead decapitated]].
* ThePenIsMightier: Clair's death, and the first instance of EyeScream in the film.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Despite the unrealistic nature of Ms. Mac's death with an icicle piercing her eye and popping out of the back of her head, this is actually medically accurate. According to producer James Wong, a likely story is that Ms. Mac played ice hockey in 1962 and was struck in that particular area, had a headache for a few days and recovered without having it checked out allowing the area to soften and become a weak point for the icicle to pierce. It is also worth noting that icicles have been known to kill people just by falling on them.

* RedRightHand: Billy's skin is yellow thanks to jaundice. Agnes's gold-colored fake eye may also count.
* RevengeByProxy: Billy attacking Agnes and ripping one of her eyes out. While [[FridgeLogic it's possible]] that he saw her a living reminder of his mother raping him, and/or that he might have done it just to stick it to the source of all the misery in his life, it still doesn't change the fact that Agnes was just an innocent little girl who, up until that point, never even knew that Billy existed.
* RichBitch: Heather. [[{{Jerkass}} In spades]].
* RollingPinOfDoom: Billy kills his mother with one.
* ScaryBlackMan: The asylum guard keeps the inmates in line. If only he affected Billy a lot more.
* ScreamingWoman
* SiblingsInCrime: Billy and [[spoiler:Agnes]] are working together to whittle down the sorority.

* ShowerScene: Lauren gets one, which shows off her tramp stamp.

* SoleSurvivor: If going by the theatrical ending, [[spoiler:Kelli was the only survivor of the film’s massacre]].
* SophisticatedAsHell:
-->'''Melissa''': No. You see, serial killers murder repeatedly for sexual thrill. Billy Lenz was a spree killer - dude just fucking lost it.[[labelnote:note]]Actually, the only difference between a spree killer and a serial killer is the lack of a "cool-off" time. A spree killer is someone who kills multiple people at one time or in quick succession ([[ShapedLikeItself AKA in a spree]]), a serial killer is someone who kills multiple people in distinct incidents. [[RightForTheWrongReasons Melissa's not wrong about Billy being a spree killer, but she doesn't have the correct reasoning.]][[/labelnote]]

* TeamMom: Melissa.

* TitleIn: Repeatedly.
* TrailersAlwaysLie: They featured a lot of footage that wasn't in the film itself. All of them can be viewed ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7QFJRcYwlI here]]''.

* VillainousBreakdown: Billy's mother, who's ([[AssholeVictim very satisfyingly]]) reduced to a crying, shreiking wreck as she watches Billy eats Agnes' eye and kill his stepfather.
* VoiceChangeling: [[spoiler:Agnes, which she uses to call the sorority with creepy messages]].

* VomitIndiscretionShot: Lauren throwing up in the bathroom during Kelli and Kyle's argument.
* WakingUpAtTheMorgue: [[spoiler:Billy and Agnes survive their burning and kill the morgue attendant]].

* YouKilledMyFather: Not stated directly, but considering the fact that Billy's father was the only person to [[NiceGuy give a damn about him]], his brutal killing of his mother was undoubtedly motivated by this as well as vengeance.
* YourCheatingHeart: Kyle, with Megan.

%%* DullSurprise: Kyle.

%%* {{Gorn}}

%%* ScreamingWoman

%%* TeamMom: Melissa.

%%* TitleIn: Repeatedly.

* SoundtrackDissonance: Joyous Christmas carols are heard in the background, coming out of a record player, as Billy beats his mother to death with a rolling pin.

[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10481868/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1 Another remake]] is planned for release on December 13, 2019.