It’s tough to think of a director whose signature movies were as diverse as Bob Clark’s. Yeah, Clark made his fair share of schlock during his career, with films like Rhinestone, the two Baby Geniuses flicks, and other movies tainting his filmography; but in his time he also made some of the definitive films for various subgenres. The Teen Sex Comedy has had few examples that are as entertaining as Porky’s or its first sequel, Murder by Decree is still one of the best Sherlock Holmes or Jack the Ripper movies ever made, and what would the holidays be like if there wasn’t a 24-hour marathon of A Christmas Story on every year? Still there’s one movie in Clark’s career that simply doesn’t get enough credit, and it’s a film that helped create one of my favorite genres of all time, the original 1974 version of Black Christmas.
Now right off the top, let’s just forget about the awful 2006 remake; that movie doesn’t even deserve to be displayed on the same shelf as this glorious 70’s Horror thriller. This is the Slasher still in its gestation, but nonetheless a masterwork of style, and a terrific precursor to Halloween‘s perfection in the genre. With a terrific use of editing, suspense, and just the right amount of gore, Clark crafts a film that could still stand with any Slasher made today, and would outpace most of them for pure terror.
Of course, because the film was so influential, even if you’re seeing it for the first time the story will feel quite familiar. You’ve got a sorority house full of girls, and each fits a certain archetype, from “the strong good girl with relationship problems” in Olivia Hussey’s Jessica Bradford to Margot Kidder’s awesome Barbie Coard, the promiscuous, heavy drinking loud mouth who likes to make men uncomfortable and give alcohol to little kids, along with others who fall somewhere in between. All are together for the Christmas holiday, and after a round of obscene phone calls, they all start disappearing one by one, leading up to a terrifically staged conclusion.
Clark manages to ratchet up the tension, but never lets the proceedings fall into camp or implausibility. While the movie is funny, with great comical bits from Kidder, Marian Waldman’s drunken house mother, and Doug McGrath as the embarrassment to the local PD, Sgt. Nash, the movie still manages to take itself very seriously, and never relies on its characters being stupid to drive its plot. The violence in the picture is also treated with the utmost sincerity, and never becomes too elaborate or comical, and never gets too repugnant in its brutality either. Much like Halloween, Clark seems to have a reverence for the material, and wants to generally thrill or shock his audience without trying to punish you with an overabundance of gore.
It’s a terrific feat by Clark to make you laugh in one scene and then shock you in the next without making the film seem schizophrenic in any way. He does a lot of this by making you like most of the characters, even the goofy ones, without making funny ones overly slapstick or the serious ones too dour. Clark especially makes you feel the gravity of the situation faced by Olivia Hussey’s Jessica, who is going through a possible pregnancy/breakup, and must deal with the strain even as her friends start to go missing.
Jessica’s storyline is carried with subtlety, helped immensely by Hussey’s performance, who turns the character into a pretty memorable accidental heroine. Again, it’s gratifying to see a main character that manages to never seem overly brain-dead or go catatonic in such a crisis, as often times a character like that insults the audiences’ intelligence to the point of making us root for the killer instead. Jessica is definitely terrified at film’s end, but is still working on all cylinders when her survival mechanism kicks in.
Working on all cylinders is also an apt description of the film itself. Clark’s Horror milestone should be experienced by all that love Slasher movies, and makes a great companion piece to Carpenter’s Halloween or any of the lesser “holiday” themed genre entries. If nothing else, this movie is a terrific stepping stone from which Carpenter built on to create his classic, but fortunately for us, the movie is a great one all on its own.
The sound on this disc is great, but some may take issue with the movie’s visuals on this disc, as there’s still a ton of grain on this print. Thing is, this is exactly as this movie should be presented, as this is an old school ’70s Horror film, cleaned up but not altered in any way. There’s still a ton of great detail, and all the artifacts are gone, but the grain inherent to the movie’s filming is still present.
The 12 Days of Black Christmas – Narrated by John Saxon, this Featurette is a pretty nice document describing Black Christmas‘s cinematic legacy and why it belongs in the Horror pantheon. Unfortunately, the late Bob Clark does not appear on this, but you still get interviews with Saxon, Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, Art Hindle and others.
Midnight Screening Q&A – The best feature on this disc, this panel at a midnight screening of the film has Director Clark, John Saxon, and Composer Carl Zittrer all speaking about the film. Clark dominates this Q&A, and has a lot of terrific insights about the movie and talks about how Halloween actually began as an idea from Clark as a sequel to Black Christmas, but that he was happy that Carpenter went and did his own thing. Overall, this is really fun and marks Clark’s only appearance on this Blu-ray.
Interviews – You get really long interviews on this disc with Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, and Art Hindle. The best of these is absolutely Margot Kidder, who never seems to run out of things to say whenever I see her on these types of features. As always, she’s hilarious and never stops being entertaining.
Deleted Scenes – These are scenes that are actually in the movie, but feature some different sound mixes that make Billy’s presence in the movie more obvious.
Trailers
Black Christmas is a terrific piece of entertainment, and for fans of the Slasher genre this is a must see movie. The film gets a decent transfer, and looks exactly as it should, like the Grindhouse film that it is. The disc itself also should have enough extras to satisfy the fans of this picture.
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Somerville House presents Black Christmas. Directed by Bob Clark. Starring Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated R. Released on Blu-ray: November 11, 2008. Available at Amazon.
