Before seeing Black Christmas (1974), I thought that the market for Christmas-themed movies was already saturated with titles. Having seen this film, I’m convinced that Christmas scripts face far less scrutiny than their non-holiday affiliated counterparts. Scary Christmas? You got it. Action hero Christmas? Easy. Low budget Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years romcom with live action reindeer flights and pyrotechnics? Why not? As far as holiday movies go, Black Christmas, without a doubt, is one of the strangest, original, and most unique titles that I’ve ever seen.
The great thing about finding a film that counts as both a Halloween and Christmas flick is that from now on I have the excuse to watch this twice every year. What an absolute banger of a time. Surprisingly one of the most brilliant takes on domestic abuse I've seen to come out of a horror movie, let alone a slasher! The cinematography is so playful and the editing could not be more perfect. Taunt and depraved, Black Christmas plays like a music box of tune; unsettling to the bone and without a shred of joy.
Usually, slasher films revel in the lunacy of the kills and cartoonish violence. Here, everything is played completely straight and is far from cartoonish. Made in a time where slasher tropes did not exist, Bob Clark concocts a sinister symphony of tension that used my nerves as its string section. No moment is wasted and each shot lingers for the perfect amount of time. Nothing is over the top and blood is rarely seen. Shadows, creaky doors, and phone calls sustain its perverse heartbeat until the utterly chilling climax.
The film laments at its own violence as though it knows what it’s depicting is deeply upsetting and wrong, yet it never relents. Black Christmas resembles its killer, unable to cease what it started. If anything, the film is a condemnation of humanity (specifically men and their desire to control women) and evil that exists because of it.
Black Christmas is a really special one to watch around the holidays. This masterclass of Hitchcockian horror, with a warm Christmas setting, tension and craft granted center focus. This is one of the most unsettling things out there. A classic and a champion in the slasher genre. There’s a much slower pacing here, especially when compared to the slashers of today but MAN does it work well when combined with the style of camerawork and the well written characters. Anyways, if you’ve never seen this one check it out. Especially if you’re not feeling jolly for traditional Christmas movies.
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By Danny Manna @Cinemanna24
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