FILM · 2006 · CANADA
Black Christmas
66 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (66)
- #001
After finishing Final Destination 3 (2006) with her, Glen Morgan approached Mary Elizabeth Winstead about the film at an airport at 4 a.m. Although she hesitated at first, having just completed a horror film, she accepted the role of "Heather" because she was a fan of the 1974 version.
- #002
It is known that some of the footage in the trailer was shot purely for promotional purposes, that no trace of these images appears in the film, and that no deleted scenes are included. These scenes were shot without Glen Morgan's knowledge, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead informed him about it by phone. Both were quite angry when they heard.
- #003
All the girls did their own stunts.
- #004
After this film's critical and financial failure, Bob Clark began work on a direct sequel to the original film, which Clark would direct and in which Olivia Hussey and John Saxon would reprise their roles as Jess Bradford and Lieutenant Ken Fuller respectively, with Jess becoming the new house mother of the sorority house. However, his untimely death prevented this idea from coming to fruition.
- #005
In Japan, the film was marketed as a "Final Destination" film.
- #006
Eve, the sorority sister of the "ugly duckling" girl played by Kathleen Kole, was a model at the time she appeared in the film. This is her only film credit.
- #007
The sanitarium in the film is the "Clark Sanitarium," a nod to Bob Clark, the director of the original Black Christmas (1974).
- #008
It was the last film for which Shirley Walker composed the music before her unfortunate death on November 29, 2006, one month before the film's release. The film is dedicated to her memory.
- #009
To pay respect to the 1974 version, Glen Morgan wanted Margot Kidder or Andrea Martin (both of whom appeared in the original Black Christmas (1974)) to play the house mother in this film.
- #010
Glen Morgan had no particular male actor in mind for the role of Kyle in the film. Instead, during auditions, his 14-year-old daughter (the stepdaughter of Glen's wife, actress Kristen Cloke, who also appears in the film) chose Oliver Hudson while shouting "That one!"
- #011
Rather than having to do the whole process back and forth, the flashback scenes with Billy's family were shot first so that a dilapidated house could easily be decorated with Christmas decorations, and then the present-day scenes with the sorority sisters were shot.
- #012
Melissa's original death was Agnes putting a bag over her head, gouging out her eye, and dragging her down the hallway by the eye socket while she screamed helplessly. Dimension Films reportedly forced Glen Morgan to shoot this scene. Morgan decided to reshoot her death because the previous one was not creative enough; she escapes the bag and is chased to her room, and while trying to escape through the window, part of her head is cut off by an ice skate. This was shot behind the studio's back. The eye death became the death of the United Kingdom Version, and the ice skate death became the death of the US Version.
- #013
On the first day of shooting, Lacey Chabert injured her leg while filming the skating scene in which she kills Agnes's character. The actress returned to Los Angeles to see a doctor, and the doctor who happened to treat her was the stepfather of her co-star Katie Cassidy.
- #014
Amanda Seyfried auditioned for the role of Kelli but lost out to Katie Cassidy. The producers stated they turned her down because they did not want two actresses from Mean Girls (2004), Seyfried and Lacey Chabert, to appear in the film.
- #015
The film was shot in Canada and was filmed in 29 days.
- #016
Glen Morgan was good friends with Bob Clark, who directed the original Black Christmas (1974). He got Clark's approval to direct this film, and Clark stayed on set as executive producer. Clark managed to see the remake before he died.
- #017
In the original script, the tone was much more serious and lacked the noticeable dark comedy, and Leigh ended up living with Melissa; Melissa died because Michelle Trachtenberg would not do the film unless her character died. Also, Billy had died in the mental hospital long before the events of the film. Agnes was the main antagonist and the film's sole killer, and was rewritten as merely Billy's accomplice due to studio interference. Agnes was also meant to be just his stepsister, not his daughter/sister. Agnes's incest backstory through Billy being raped by his mother was introduced entirely for shock value at the studio's insistence. The original ending had Kelli and Leigh killing Agnes and being taken to the hospital. Before Trachtenberg was cast, Melissa was also planned to be Asian, and Lauren Hannon was instead cast alongside an Asian actress (Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe is biracial, with Scottish and Chinese parents).
- #018
Michelle Trachtenberg became interested in serial killers during production and often researched them during breaks. She eventually went on to produce the Tubi original true-crime show Meet, Marry, Murder (2021), which she hosted.
- #019
When she applied for a role in the film, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was initially offered the final girl Kelli Presley, but she insisted on taking the victim role of Heather Fitzgerald to avoid a typical role, since she had just finished another final girl role.
- #020
After the box-office failure of Willard (2003), Glen Morgan stated that if this film bombed, it would be the end of his directing career. The film went on to be both a critical and financial failure (grossing only $21 million against a $9 million budget and earning a dismal 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), unfortunately proving his fears correct, as he has not directed a film since, aside from a few episodes of the new seasons of The X-Files (1993).
- #021
Glen Morgan based the character Billy Lenz on the life of Ed Kemper, a real-life serial killer who was locked in his home's basement by his mother during childhood and later killed her for revenge.
- #022
The fake snow used in the film unfortunately became sticky and gooey when it rained during shooting.
- #023
Despite playing hostile rival roles, Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead became close friends on set.
- #024
For the notorious fake commercial footage in the theatrical trailer and TV spots, Bob Weinstein of The Weinstein Company hired up-and-coming actress Jillian Murray to shoot some of the promotional material. She is the girl who clears the snow off the frozen pond and later encounters the girl who breaks through the ice and the girl who falls from the roof tangled in Christmas lights.
- #025
Camera operator Dean Friss was initially cast as the killer Billy Lenz despite having no prior acting experience. He later took on the role of the second killer, Agnes, when the character was written into the script. During the film, the two characters were meant to be interchangeable to confuse the audience. Friss struggled to create a female voice for the character until he realized that young Agnes and Billy's mother had raspy voices, so he blended the range of their voices.
- #026
This would be Kristen Cloke's last feature film for 11 years, until she appeared in Lady Bird (2017).
- #027
It is one of the few mainstream films to feature a male actor in place of a female actress. Lauren Hannon spends part of the film drunk in bed, and on the day Crystal Lowe was not on set, a male stunt double was used with his legs hanging off the bed. Not only did the pair not have smooth, feminine-looking legs, they also had matching skin tones.
- #028
Due to the film's box-office failure, Vivendi Visual Entertainment cancelled its planned Blu-ray release and put the film out only in the short-lived HD-DVD format. Fortunately, a Canadian Blu-ray was released by TVA Films, but it has since gone out of print.
- #029
Dean Friss does not actually appear as Agnes until the film's third act. For most of the film, the scenes in which Agnes attacks and kills characters are performed by stuntman Kirk Caouette.
- #030
While applying makeup around their eyes to portray eyeless corpses, the actors stuck cotton swabs to the area to collect the tears that built up from the irritation caused by the makeup.
- #031
Since most of the film takes place during a power outage in a sorority house, the cinematographers and lighting department had to find creative ways to provide proper lighting on the actors, including drilling holes in the walls.
- #032
The hospital at the end of the film is the same hospital used in the series Supernatural (2005), in which Katie Cassidy also appeared.
- #033
Most of the sorority girls in the film are named after famous singers of memorable Christmas songs: Kelli Presley (Katie Cassidy) - Elvis Presley (1935-1977), Melissa Kitt (Michelle Trachtenberg) - Eartha Kitt (1927-2008), Dana Mathis (Lacey Chabert) - Johnny Mathis (1934), Clair Crosby (Leela Savasta) - Bing Crosby (1903-1977), Leigh Colvin (Kristen Cloke) - Shawn Colvin (1956), Megan Helms (Jessica Harmon) - Bobby Helms (1933-1997), and Heather Lee Fitzgerald (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) takes two names: Brenda Lee (1944) and Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996). Lauren Hannon (Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe) and Eve Agnew (Kathleen Kole) appear to be the only sisters not named after singers. Barbara MacHenry (Andrea Martin) does not count, as she takes her name from a character in the original film.
- #034
Three alternative endings were shot for the film. In the first ending, Leigh and Kelli have a heartwarming conversation as Leigh opens Clair's gift. The ending closes with Kelli receiving a call on Kyle's phone implying that Agnes or Billy survived. In the second ending, Leigh is brought to the morgue to examine Agnes's body, and Clair's corpse reveals that Agnes escaped and that Billy died from his burns; the ending closes with Leigh being killed by Agnes and Kelli electrocuting Agnes and being taken away by her parents. This ending was used in the UK version. In the third ending, the mortuary attendants discover that Billy's body is missing, while a shot through the smoke detector on the wall reveals that Billy has escaped.
- #035
Pastrami was used as the garnish baked into the Christmas cookies that Billy swallows in the "cannibalistic cookie" scene.
- #036
Lauren Hannon's (Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe) original death scene involved Agnes sneaking into her room and gouging out her eyes with a glass unicorn, a nod to the original in which Barbara Coard (Margot Kidder) is stabbed to death by Billy with a glass unicorn. The death scene is entirely absent from the theatrical cut, in which her body is only found by Kelli, Leigh and Kyle. It was restored for the unrated version.
- #037
None of the scenes in the mental hospital were in the original drafts of the script. Before the opening scene featuring Clair (Leela Savasta), all the flashbacks to Billy's childhood were in place.
- #038
In the original film, the house's mother was known only as Mrs. MacHenry and had no first name. In this film, she is given the full name Barbara MacHenry, a nod to the character Barbara Coard, played by Margot Kidder in the original film.
- #039
Kristin Cavallari turned down the role of Kelli, while Camilla Belle and Amber Tamblyn turned down the role of Heather due to scheduling conflicts. Belle was working on When a Stranger Calls (2006), while Tamblyn was working on The Grudge 2 (2006). Katie Cassidy also starred alongside Camilla Belle in When a Stranger Calls.
- #040
Among all the actresses in the film, Lacey Chabert is the only one among the cast who had no prior connection to the horror genre, whether in film or television, before this movie.
- #041
Lacey Chabert's tears during Dana's death scene in the crawlspace were real, because her eyes were constantly covered in dirt from filming in the area, which caused irritation. Jokingly, when Chabert sneezed during filming, her mucus would be muddy because of the dirt in the crawlspace.
- #042
While filming her death scene, Michelle Trachtenberg was left with bruises on her neck and legs because she had to kick and break the stair railing as the killer strangled her with a bag.
- #043
To build tension and keep the audience on edge, all the sorority sisters in the film were written with an equal amount of characterization and given plenty of screen time. This was meant to keep viewers guessing who the final girl would be. Once the killings begin, the girls are chosen at random; the first few murders even claim the film's most recognizable stars (Lacey Chabert, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Michelle Trachtenberg). The final girl is Kelli Presley, played by Katie Cassidy, who was then unknown before she became famous.
- #044
Body count: 18. Clair Crosby, Security Guard, Santa Claus, Megan Helms, Billy's father, Billy's stepfather, Billy's mother, Eve Agnew, Dana Mathis, Heather Lee-Fitzgerald, Barbara MacHenry, Melissa Kitt, Lauren Hannon, Kyle Autry, Morgue Attendant, Leigh Colvin, Agnes Lenz, Billy Lenz. Not counting the killers, the only characters in the film not killed by Billy or Agnes are Mrs. Mac and Billy's biological father; instead, Billy's mother and stepfather kill his biological father, while Mrs. Mac dies in a freak accident.
- #045
The scene in which Billy wears a Santa Claus costume as he leaves the mental hospital is a reference to the character Billy Chapman in Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).
- #046
The film's Christmas Day premiere date was not only tied to the holiday, but also inspired by the success of two other Weinstein Company horror films, Scream (1996) and Wolf Creek (2005), which earned financial success when released during the holiday. This backfired, as seen in the film's drop in ticket revenue in the following weeks. Box office analysts suggested one reason was that audiences no longer had the holiday spirit to watch a Christmas film beyond the actual day.
- #047
Megan Helms (Jessica Harmon) is an original character and shares no traits with any character from the original film. However, her death scene mirrors that of Mrs. Mac in the original film. Both characters are drawn up to the attic by the killer (Mrs. Mac by her cat's meowing and Megan by the melody from a snow globe) and are killed immediately after finding Clair's body in a rocking chair, and their bodies are later hidden in the attic as well.
- #048
Oliver Hudson, who plays Kyle Autry in the film, would later play Wes Gardener in Ryan Murphy's hit comedy slasher horror series Scream Queens (2015). In that series, a secret killer primarily murders his sorority sisters, and two killers who are a brother and sister share a sordid childhood history involving siblings. This film also features two killers who are a brother-and-sister pair, primarily killing the sisters in a sorority house and sharing a sordid childhood history tied to that sorority house.
- #049
Actress Ariana Dubynin did a great deal of ADR for the screams in the scenes where the girls are killed.
- #050
Anne Marie DeLuise and Greg Kean, who play Kelli's parents, are credited even though they appear at the end of the film only in the United Kingdom. This is because the film was released earlier in the United Kingdom on 15 December 2006. Its release in the United States came 10 days later on Christmas Day. The film's work print was sent from the United Kingdom to the United States for its theatrical release, and the footage was later edited into the current theatrical cut that American audiences saw, but the credits remained unchanged, and even though a scene was removed from the film, their names stayed in the credits. Jody Racicot, who plays a morgue attendant, also appears for only a second in the European version but receives a credit. However, his role in the alternate ending is somewhat larger, showing that he comes to the operating room to collect Billy's body but learns that Billy did not actually die and escaped through the ventilation.
- #051
The character Agnes Lenz (Dean Friss) was deliberately meant to have an androgynous appearance. Her physique and face are masculine, while her lips, nose and eyes are feminine. This was intended to heighten the character's ambiguity.
- #052
At one point during production, it was said that the film would be rated PG-13 until Dimension Films confirmed that it would in fact be rated R. Coincidentally, the name-only remake Black Christmas (2019) was rated PG-13, which drew backlash from fans.
- #053
Heather Lee-Fitzgerald (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Eve Agnew (Kathleen Kole) are the only sorority sisters in the film not killed by Agnes; they are killed by Billy instead. In the unrated version, Lauren Hannon is shown being killed by Agnes, who gouges out her eyes with a glass unicorn, while her eyeless body is found in the theatrical cut only by Kelli and Leigh.
- #054
Kristen Cloke also appeared in a Final Destination film. This makes her the fourth actor from that series to appear in this film. The other three are Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who starred in Final Destination 3 (2006), Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, who appeared in the tanning bed scenes, and Jody Racicot, who played a supporting character. Kristen appears as a teacher in the original Final Destination (2000).
- #055
While filming the scenes in which Billy and Agnes corner her between the walls of the house, Kelli begins pounding on the walls in anger to call for help. Katie Cassidy had to hit and punch the walls so much that she accidentally cut and injured her knuckles.
- #056
Despite the unrealistic nature of Mrs. Mac's death, in which an icicle pierces her eye and bursts out the back of her head, it is actually medically accurate. According to producer James Wong, one possible story is that Mrs. Mac played ice hockey in 1962 and took a blow to that area, suffered headaches for a few days and recovered without being checked, leaving the area a weak spot that softened and could be pierced by the icicle. It is also worth noting that icicles are only known to kill people by falling on them.
- #057
Michelle Trachtenberg and Katie Cassidy would go on to work together again in Gossip Girl (2007) and the film The Scribbler (2014).
- #058
Black Christmas was not screened in advance for critics.
- #059
At the start of the film, Mrs. Mac asks who is missing from the secret Santa gift exchange. Two of the names mentioned are Chelsea and Greer. Chelsea Morgan is the daughter of Glen Morgan 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.
- #060
It is one of three slasher remakes starring Katie Cassidy, alongside When a Stranger Calls (2006) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).
- #061
Although it was considered a major box office bomb at the time, it still grossed 3 million dollars more than the 2019 remake, even though the 2019 version was also made for 4 million dollars less.
- #062
A long-standing and unverified rumor held that the film's theatrical release contained extra footage that was never released again on any home video. The rumor remains unproven, and any intermediate or alternate scenes were either restored in the unrated cut, made available in the United Kingdom version, or included as deleted scenes on DVD and Blu-ray.
- #063
Early promotional materials listed Heather's full name as Heather Lee. In the final film, however, her character's name is Heather Fitzgerald for some reason. This led viewers to assume her full name was probably Heather Lee Fitzgerald. Both names are associated with singers famous for Christmas songs, Brenda Lee and Ella Fitzgerald.
- #064
Characters such as Eve Agnew, Leigh Colvin and Kyle Autry were written to be misleading suspects for the killer. Eve is suspicious because she lives in Billy's old room and is fascinated by his past. Leigh is suspected even by her sisters because she has a different surname from her sister Clair (she was in the middle of a divorce), and because she sent Dana outside to turn on the electricity, inadvertently sending her to her death, and she insists the missing girls are alive until she sees otherwise. Kyle is suspected because he had a bad breakup with Megan (one of the film's first victims) and was an unnamed presence during the murders. All of these characters ultimately proved innocent, with Kyle more clearly so because Billy was shown to have yellow skin due to jaundice, which Kyle clearly did not. Agnes is presumed to be missing one eye, while both Eve and Leigh have both eyes intact.
- #065
Twenty cast members of Black Christmas (2006) appeared in Supernatural (2005): Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Katie Cassidy, Leela Savasta, Jessica Harmon, Karin Konoval, Robert Mann, Cainan Wiebe, Howard Siegel, Ron Selmour, Michael Adamthwaite, Peter New, Christian Sloan, Aly Purrott-Armstrong, Juan Riedinger, Aaron Pearl, Jill Teed, Jerry Wasserman, Derek McIver, Anne Marie DeLuise and Greg Kean.
- #066
Cainan Wiebe (Young Billy) also played a supporting character with no lines in another film, Beyond Sherwood Forest (2009).
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