That's enough of unintentionally scary Christmas movies, it's time that I review a Christmas film directed by Bob Clark.
No I already reviewed that film.
I said directed by Bob Clark!
There was a sequel to "A Christmas Story" that took place in the summer that was directed by the same guy? It might be worth reviewing, but it isn't a Christmas film.
There we go!
Yes believe it or not, before Bob Clark would direct the Christmas classic that we would all hold close to our hearts, he directed a
slasher film in 1974 that took place on Christmas where a bunch of teenage
girls living in a sorority house are being killed by a mysterious killer hiding
in the attic. Many would be shocked to tie a Holiday
slasher film, and a coming of age comedy Christmas film with the same director,
and as shocked as I was when I first found out about it, it kind of made sense to me. I
mean after all "A Christmas Story" did have a bit of a dark edge to
it. Not to mention that Clark would later direct a horrifyingly bad movie known as
"Baby Geniuses" (and its sequel) towards the end of his career. So it
doesn't sound too out of the norm that he would direct something dark and
scary. But as interesting as this piece of information sounds, does the film
itself actually deliver at being a scary Christmas movie; ON WITH THE REVIEW!
For a film with a cheesy horror title called "Black
Christmas", you expect the film's horror atmosphere to be just as
exaggerated and corny as the title is. And going into the film I expected that,
until I saw the opening credits. Instead of getting intense music
as the opening credits roll in front of something that obviously doesn't look
pleasant, we find ourselves looking at the house where the girls live that's filled with Christmas lights as a church like choir sings a holy
rendition of "Silent Night". Now that's clearly not an opening meant
to crap your pants, or get you in caught in by the thrills before the story
begins. But as simple and welcoming as it sounds, it still comes across as
unsettling. Even though we're looking at beautiful Christmas lights, the lights
appear to be dim since everything is drenched with darkness and shadows; and as
touching as "Silent Night" would sound in a church or watching the
snow fall outside with your loved one, since everything seems to look grim, the
song comes across as dark and ominous as the environment itself. Just judging
by this opening credits sequence, it seems that the film's horror atmosphere is
going to be subtle and quiet, as opposed to being excessively loud and dramatic, and that's exactly what the rest of the film is. The film is consumed by
darkness, but you still get a bit of that warm Christmas feeling as you look at
the lights on the house and tree, the colorful decorations, and see a Yule log
burning on the fire, despite feeling unease by it, since the colors and lights
aren't as bright as they should be. You know that the characters can leave the
house whenever they want too as they appear to know it too, but you somehow
still feel trapped inside the house with them from the way the scenes inside
the house are shot at a claustrophobic level, and how the killer is able to
kill these people without a trace. The deaths are brutal, but they aren't covered with gore. Nor do they go on for a long period of time;
they mostly come and go rather quickly, where it’s the build up to the deaths that’s
the scariest part. And rather than
getting a score that's bleeding with suspense, the film is mostly quiet where
the only sounds we hear are the killer's heavy breathing, or the wind blowing the
snow outside, which act as the film's score. And when we do get music playing
for the scenes involving the killer, it comes across as strange and out of the
norm, rather than sounding as something big and suspenseful as the music in
"Psycho" or "JAWS". Also adding to the strange factor of the score is how the film's composer Carl Zittrer (who also composed the
music for "A Christmas Story") created it by tying up silverware to
the strings of the piano, and slowing the recordings down. That's definitely not a traditional method when composing music for a film.
As the film manages to have a creepy atmosphere that hardly
ever goes overboard, what ties into the film's horrifying vibe is the person
killing all the characters. Now in most slasher films that involve an insane
killer killing people one by one, the murderer would usually be seen wearing a
mask to hide his identity, but with this film on the other hand we never see
the killer, but we get a feel of his presence. We hear his voice over the phone
when he calls the girls. See through his eyes from the use of POV shots (and even
see him climb to the attic outside of the house through those shots). And we would
occasionally see his eyes as he would hide in the shadows staring at his
victim. There's never a scene in the film where we see the killer in full,
which makes you feel just as paranoid and clueless as the girls are, where you
keep trying to guess who the killer is and why he's doing this to girls who (as far as we know) have never wronged him. I'm not going to give away the
ending, but I will say that the result is a direction that I don't see too many
horror films do. Now even though we don't see the killer’s on-screen appearance
as he torments and attacks the sorority girls, they still give him an insane personality
that make up for not having a full on-screen appearance where he seems to be an
escaped mental patient from an asylum from the way he talks and acts. I'll admit,
when he first called the girls I didn't think he sounded that scary, which
ironically was pretty much how the girls felt. But as I let the film play on,
he his voice started to get scarier to the point where you feel like you're
going to have a mental break down if you have to listen to his eerie voice and
vulgar comments one last time, which again is pretty much how the characters
feel. The scariest moments that involve his voice has to be when we hear him
mimicking more than one person's voice, which makes him sound like a completely
deranged sociopath. Also the scenes where he props up a few of the dead bodies
in the attic like decorations, and rocks a dead girl on a rocking chair as he
sings a nursery rhyme sends nothing but shivers down your spine for how weird
and still these scenes are.
As scary as the film maintains itself to be, much like how
"A Christmas Story" was mainly a comedy but had a few dark elements
to it, this film has a few comical moments as well. The housemother played by
Marian Waldman is a hilarious character with her obsessive drinking habits
where she'll hide her liquor bottles in obscure places all over the house. Doug
McGrath is humorously dry as the careless cop. Some of the things that sorority
girls do and how they live are over the top in the right way. And if you
thought that the Santa in "A Christmas Story" was bad, how about a
Santa who doesn't put on a show, looks miserable, and curses constantly in
front of kids who sit on his lap. There are indeed some comical crazy things going
on in this film, but not to the point where they break away the fear and
tension that the film constantly brings. The acting in this film is as top
notch as a slasher film can get. I can't think of a performance that was bad or
too over the top for the film's own good. And the casting in this film isn't
bad either since you have good actors like Olivia Hussey (from "Romeo And
Juliet" fame) as our lead heroin, Keir Dullea (who played Dave in
"2001: A Space Odyssey") as the suspicious boy friend, John Saxon as the
detective who's willing to protect our characters, and up and coming stars
Margot Kidder and Andrea Martin as the sorority girls. However as good as the
acting is, I will say that a good half of the characters fall a bit short in
terms of being interesting or memorable. The struggling relationship between
our lead and her boyfriend is interesting considering that the subject matter deals
with abortion (yes abortion in a Christmas movie, I never thought I hear about
that topic outside of one of the "South Park" Christmas Specials).
And characters like the cops and the alcoholic housemother stand-out for their
personality and behaviors. But characters like the sorority girls, their
parents, and so on and so forth, just don't seem to be as fun or engaging as
the other characters. They're not boring, or the worst of characters compared
to what I had seen in the slasher genre, they're just not all that appealing.
At this point you may have probably noticed that most of the
slasher tropes are in this film such as the use of POV, teenagers doing naughty
stuff, a stranger on the phone, a body count, and a murder spree on a Holiday. But as cliche as the film is when viewed by
today's standards, this film came out before the classic slasher film
"Halloween" would set the rules for the genre. As a matter of fact,
the director of "Halloween" John Carpenter was even inspired to make his
groundbreaking horror masterpiece because of this film, and Clark's
idea for a sequel to "Black Christmas" if he had to make one. Bob
Clark insisted that "Halloween" is not a copy of his movie, and while
you can agree that they do have their differences, it goes without denying that
Carpenter did take some ideas from the film. The film has also even inspired
the iconic 20-minute opening of "When A Stranger Calls" (which I
won't spoil why for those who haven't seen it). But as influential and ahead of
its time as the film is, it’s definitely not the first try all these horror
tropes. Even though it did heavily inspired the "Holiday Slasher"
genre, there were still a few "Holiday Slasher" films that came out
before this film like the 1972 film "Silent Night, Bloody Night"
for example. There were also plenty of famous slasher films that came out
before this one such as "Psycho" and "The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre". This isn't even the first slasher film to use the POV
shot, or the killer on the phone cliches since films like "Peeping
Tom" and "Black Sabbath" already used those ideas. But despite that those ideas aren't that new, it still is one of the earlier slasher movies
to lay-out most of these classic tropes in one movie before
"Halloween" would popularize it and add some things of its own like
the killer wearing a mask and an intense score, which you can tell that those
elements were influenced by other slasher films like "Psycho" and
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".
For a film that was so influential to the slasher genre, it kind of
surprises me that the film isn't as talked about or recognized as the other staples
of the genre. It has its fans (including from celebrities like Steve Martin and
Elvis Presley), and it was popular enough to get a remake (that I understand
was crap). But it for some strange reason seems to be overlooked by many as
being one of the importance of the genre. I guess maybe the reason why people
don't talk about it or why it’s never aired on TV during the holidays is
because it’s a horror film, where many people associate the Holiday
season with joy and happiness, instead of scares and thrills, which I suppose
in that regard is understandable. But if you're interested to see something
dark and edgy this Holiday Season, this is the movie for you. The atmosphere is
chilling and Christmassy at the same time. The off-screen killer is one of the
most underrated slasher villains I have ever seen. The acting is spot on. And
the characters that come across as intriguing and fun make up for the ones who
feel there to die. It's a great horror movie, and in terms of Holiday
horror films this is one of the best, if not thee best one of its kind.
RATING 5/5
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