Black Christmas

WARNING: This review is hidden because it reveals the content of the film.
Click here to show this review. It’s ironic in a way. “Black Christmas” predates pretty much every single slasher horror film (including the one I consider the first in the genre, “Halloween”) but you can see so many elements in this film that have been borrowed or distilled into familiar horror tropes that at first, it will seem kind of routine. For this reason, you might be wondering what the big deal is about if you’re just a casual movie viewer. There’s a lot more to it than just an ancient ancestor of your “Friday the 13th” and your “Prom Night” though. It goes without saying that if you’re a true fan of horror cinema, this is a must-see. The plot, as you might expect happens on Christmas Eve/Day. It follows a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered by an unknown killer hiding in the attic of their sorority house. Sounds basic? In a way it is, but it’s the details that make this movie stand out.

As a fan of horror movies, I have a great deal of admiration for this film. I enjoy seeing the beginnings of the horror genre. The cast of characters gradually being reduced in numbers as the movie comes along, the building tension, “the final girl”, the various kills and the escalating terror as the sorority sisters slowly realize that there is something very wrong happening. It’s like looking at the skeleton of an ancestor to Tyrannosaurus Rex and looking at what bones are going to gradually turn into which ones and what traits were deemed unnecessary so they were dropped until the creature in front of you became this legendary killing machine. From a fan of horror films, this historical aspect ranks about 3rd on my list of “favourite things about Black Christmas”. I’ll get to #1 in a bit, but my #2 isn’t the familiar aspects. It’s the sort of precursors to some of the familiar tropes in slasher films that are quite different in their primeval state. For example, the main character in the film isn’t very clear at first. Are we going to be following the killer? Is it going to be Margot Kidder’s character, the sarcastic, drunken girl who appears to kick-start the plot? Usually the protagonist of the film is “the virgin”, so maybe it will be Claire (Lynne Griffin), who leaves the party early when she is offended by Barb’s lewd remarks? Maybe it’s Jess (Olivia Hussey), the recipient of the obscene phone call that is our first clue as to who the killer might be? Just as there are some points in the film where your familiarity with slasher films will help you deduce some developments, the fact that this movie doesn’t adhere to many of the clichés (because it predates them) makes it often unpredictable and unconventional as far as films of the genre go. You’ll be surprised to learn, for example, that the killer in this film does not have a signature weapon, that we don’t really learn a lot about who he is and that there’s really not much blood in the film. Just when you think you’ve got this movie figured out, it throws you for a loop, and I like not knowing where a plot is going to go.

You’re probably wondering what the main appeal, my favourite thing about this movie is. Well, it’s the fact that the film is genuinely frightening. There’s a very naturalistic look about the film that brings home the terror. The movie doesn’t begin with a fresh face going to college for the first time and being introduced to a slew of characters, some of which act funny from the start to indicate they might be the killer later. It starts at Christmas time. All of these characters know each other, they’re all busy doing their own thing, and it’s like you’re coming in uninvited to peep in on the action (in a way that’s similar to the killer) When we hear the phone ring and learn that it’s a strange man making lewd phone calls, and that he’s been doing this for a while, it’s not really a grandiose shock to the characters, they’ve heard it before and yeah, it’s creepy, but it’s not a big deal. It really feels like these people have a life outside of the events of this movie. We hear several off-hand remarks of other crimes that have happened around the campus, and we have no way of knowing if they’re connected to this plot at all. This helps make the identity of the killer even more mysterious. Has he been murdering people for a long time and he’s just now coming into contact with these sorority sisters? Is this the first night and the other events are just coincidences in the same way that you have coincidences all the time in real life? A lot of it can only be guessed because like the characters in the movie, you don’t really get big bits of exposition explaining the who, the what and the why of this plot. This lingering uncertainty as to what exactly is happening, and why, makes the conclusion of the film incredibly intense and unsettling. There are images of the killer that spook me every time I see them.

“Black Christmas” is a movie that does suffer because it has been imitated so much, but there’s a reason it hasn’t been forgotten. It has some really genuinely frightening scenes, a lot of tension and also several humorous scenes to throw you off. I really like the comedic moments because just like in real life, when you get genuinely scared you do manage to find little nuggets of humour to try and steel yourself. You have probably heard some things about this film and wondered what the big deal was about, but watch it again, really watch it and I think you’ll agree that it really is something special. (On Blu-ray, December 5, 2014)