1974- Ho! Ho! Ho! February 5, 2007
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , trackback1974. Hard to get your head around it, what the world of film was like back then. It was before JAWS hit the industry and started an era of summer blockbusters, cemented with STAR WARS in 1977. It was before the home video market, before DVD, Cable, Satellite…. before merchandising, multi-million dollar salaries for actors. 1974 belonged to a world that we do not live in anymore, our world, to people back then, is the stuff of Star Trek and dreams. In 1974 film-making was different, the world was different, and films could be daring, new, original.
Which brings me to BLACK CHRISTMAS. Now I have to (rather sheepishly) admit that I knew nothing of this film, don’t recall ever reading about it, certainly never saw it, not even a trailer on a VHS video back in the ‘eighties. If not from noticing the release of the 2006 film, and finding out it was a remake of an original film from 1974, I still would know nothing about it. Having become rather tired and despondent about the whole nonsense of Hollywood’s rather incestuous pre-occupation for remaking any film it gets the inclination to (’brand awareness’ seems to be the downfall of modern cinema), I inevitably found myself interested in watching the 1974 film rather than it’s 2006 cousin.
Considering I had never even heard of this film before (the shame, the shame!) it turns out that it’s without doubt one of the best horror films I ever seen. It’s not that it’s scary (to be honest, no film actually scares me these days) rather it’s the films powerful sense of mood and menace, and the profound sense when you are watching it that you have discovered the DNA of nearly every horror film that followed. HALLOWEEN is one of my favourite horror films, and I had thought it an original gem that kick-started the slasher/serial killer genre, but no, BLACK CHRISTMAS did it first. Kudos to Bob Clark, the film’s director, and cue a reappraisal of John Carpenter.
As the title suggests, the film is set at Christmas and subverts the traditional season of goodwill and cheer into a dark, menacing thriller. A group of girls living in a sorority house at the Christmas holidays are preyed upon by a crazed killer who is hiding in the attic. Thats about it. The genius is in the simplicity, and how the drama is played out. The direction is witty and assured, treating the material seriously and not for the laughs that most modern horror-slasher films seem to be after. The acting is above-par, with confident and impressive turns by Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder (who, in particular, is a revelation) and the ever-reliable John Saxon. The camerawork is, quite frankly, astonishing for a mid-seventies horror film - some of the shots are ingenious, and the music score remarkably unnerving. This film is the Real Deal, no doubt about it. How on earth did it stay under my radar? The mind boggles.
So if any of you readers of this blog have yet to sample the delights of BLACK CHRISTMAS, then hesitate no longer, at least give it a rental. I’m sure you won’t regret it. As for the 2006 remake… ugh, I dread to think. Only a morbid fascination with how low modern Hollywood has gone will ever drive me to dare sample its dubious pleasures. The news that Rob Zombie has actually gone and remade HALOWEEN can only confirm that the horror film is fast becoming a redundant genre in 2007. Back in 1974, it was still new….
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