Michelle Trachtenberg

No chick flick : Women loved to be scared by movies like Black Christmas

VANCOUVER - In the dark interior of a Vancouver sound stage, a cast of happening twentysomething actresses is putting the final touches on Black Christmas, a remake of the seminal 1974 Canadian-made thriller.

A rambling sorority-house set has been built on the stage, to match a house in Vancouver where director Glen Morgan earlier filmed exteriors. Castmates Michelle Trachtenberg, Lacey Chabert, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Katie Cassidy and Crystal Lowe — the lone Canadian in the bunch — run through the rooms and shriek as directed.

During breaks, they log onto laptops in the sound stage darkness to keep abreast of L.A. e-mails. A maniac may be stalking the sorority, but careers must be tended to.

The original Black Christmas, which got its scares from creepy atmosphere rather than gore, became a hit in Canada, was butchered and retitled in a botched U.S. release, but over the years became a word-of-mouth favourite.

"Anytime I bring it up to people who ask me what I’m working on, everyone goes: ’Oh that movie scared me to death,’" says Chabert.

"There’s a real cult following, so I hope we’ll do it justice."

The movie also invented the young-women-in-peril template that continued through countless Friday the 13ths and Halloweens _ and the made-in Vancouver Final Destination series from director Morgan and his writing-producing partner James Wong. Seems there’s no end of teenaged and 20-plus women who want to see themselves threatened onscreen.

"I get very scared," Chabert says. "The first scary movie I saw was Scream, which Neve Campbell was in, and we were in Party of Five together. I was like maybe 13 or 14. . . . And knowing her and knowing that it’s only a movie, and knowing even how it ended, I still was frightened. I had a hard time sleeping at night, when I could close my eyes and see that guy’s face."

But she understands what fans see in on-screen stalkers, as with the original Black Christmas. It starred a pre-Superman Margot Kidder, Olivia Hussey and Andrea Martin, who returns in the remake as the sorority den mother.

"You could see yourself in characters and see your friends in characters, and realize that these girls are so clueless as to what’s going on," says Chabert. "That’s what made it even scarier _ they have no idea how vulnerable they are."

If Chabert is a horror newbie, the rest of the cast have seen on-screen blood before. Cassidy was strangled in this year’s horror remake When A Stranger Calls. Vancouver’s Lowe was killed off by being roasted on a tanning bed in Morgan and Wong’s current hit Final Destination 3. Winstead also stars in that movie.

"Most of the women I know are horror fans," says Winstead. "We love to feel (what) they go through, the vulnerability and the fright, but also the woman who in the end can take over a killer _ you don’t expect the small, frail little girls to be able to kick ass but they can."

Trachtenberg spent several years with the TV ghouls of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and did the family flick Ice Princess and several indie films after leaving that series three years ago.

"I didn’t want to go too deeply back into that scary, things-that-go-bump-in-the-night world," she says. "I finally felt that this script was really cool, and Glen let me have my choice of characters."

Does Trachtenberg have a handle on what draws women like her to these movies?

"I do like scary movies _ I’m so the person that ruins the experience for everyone, I’m screaming, I’m covering my eyes, I’m like ’What’s happening, tell me?’ We all like to be afraid."

The new Black Christmas wraps this month and is aiming for a release next December.