Day 31: Bob Clarks Black Christmas (1974) Four long years before John Carpenter put holiday horror on the map with the legendary Halloween, Canadian Bob Clark kick started the slasher genre with this overlooked classic. Owing much to the Italian giallo films, mystery and suspense are the chief concerns of this groundbreaking masterpiece. The storyline is typical horror grounds - sorority sisters stuck in their dorm over the Holiday break are stalked and killed by an unknown assailant. What makes this film work so well over the imitators that followed is the fact that you never see the killer or have any idea what his motive is. He makes some (still) very obscene phone calls to the sorority sisters (which are eventually traced to be coming from inside the house long before When a Stranger Calls did it), but thats all the insight we get in to him. The fact that the viewer is unable to get any perspective on what makes him tick may be the most horrifying aspect in the entire film. The murders are brutal, but mostly bloodless. You get to know each of the girls well enough and they are all genuinely likable (particularly lead Olivia Hussey and bad girl Margot Kidder). Its just that lack of being able to humanize the killer thats truly unsettling. From Halloween on, every slasher was humanized in the hopes of making them the next big thing in horror. Clark was brilliant for letting the girls be front and center characters to the audience while the killer remains a background force of nature that carries no logic or reason. Black Christmas is not only the first slasher film, its the best. Lots has been said about the remake from 2006 because of it emphasizing gore over genuine scares and giving far too much information about the killer. Personally, I love it. Its a great remake because it allows the original plenty of berth to exist on its own while staking a new claim. For all the things the remake gets right, it just cant touch the originals horrific ending. That phone keeps ringing. And ringing. And ringing. And ringing...
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 22:16:43 +0000
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