Blog #6 - Black Christmas

            What do Andrea Martin (legendary SCTV member), Keir Dullea (open the pod bay door HAL), Margot Kidder (Christopher Reeve’s Lois Lane), John Saxon (he was buddies with Bruce Lee), and Art Hindle (you’d know him if you saw him) all have in common.  They all played a part in creating a whole new kind of cinema style that lives on today.  It’s Canada’s movie making dark and dirty secret no one likes to talk about.  The trashy and despised movie style known as the Slasher Flick is a product of the north.  This cast came together with director Bob Clark at an old Toronto mansion for 40 days in the ‘70s, and for just over half a million bucks invented the slasher movie. The first of it’s kind, forever to be copied by the greats; Black Christmas was born.

            Halloween, Prom Night, My Bloody Valentine, just to name a few, found their inspiration in Black Christmas.  There are a bunch of others that also use the caller from inside the house premise, and to some degree you have to admit the phone alone as an antagonist is appears in the modern stuff like the Scream franchise.  I used to think quite poorly about slasher flicks, but then I always thought they were an American invention.  Like most Canadians, I naturally leap at the chance to claim any cultural invention that we can claim our own; too bad it’s slasher flicks.

            This week’s movie might be from a bad genre, but it’s a popular entertaining one that shows no signs of slowing down.  This one is iconic, and when you watch it, you’ll understand why it started an entire movement.  Olivia Hussey was revered for her famous rendition of Juliette in the legendary Zefferelli production of R and J, and her performance at 15 yrs old made her a legend.  She was up for the role of Roxanne in the movie of the same name with Steve Martin.  He told her she was in one of his favourite movies of all time, confessing to have watched more than 20 times.  Hussey of course thought he was talking of Romeo and Juliette; he, of course, meant Black Christmas.

Black Christmas 1974

Director	Bob Clark
The Main Players
Olivia Hussey	Jess
Keir Dullea	Peter
Margot Kidder	Barb
John Saxon	Lt. Fuller
Marian Waldman	Mrs. Mac
Andrea Martin	Phyl

Synopsis: 

            Just after Christmas in a small sorority house, the most deranged crazed killer sneaks in to kill off the girls one by one. 

Review:

            It’s not a big deal these days, but Black Christmas (BC) starts out almost exclusively in a style that’s known as POV – Point of View.  We get to see the world through the eyes of Billy as he picks out the sorority house, and then breaks into the attic.  Perched above the unsuspecting women living below him, he can watch them come and go; knowing just when to strike.  But, just coming out of hiding and killing isn’t all that interesting to him.  Instead, Billy uses a second phone line within the house to repeatedly call the main house phone providing an escalating level of verbal torment.  It was in this movie the famous line, the calls are coming from inside the house, was born. 

            We never learn much about Billy other than he has some serious anger issues when it comes to girls.  And it’s not just because young girls reject him, or something like that, because he waists no time in dispatching Mrs. Mac, the house mother.  But the first victim is Clare when she is investigating strange sounds coming from the closet.   She is suffocated with dry a cleaning plastic bag, and Billy drags her up to the attic where she spends the rest of the movie perched in a rocking chair; her lifeless eyes peering out from under the clear plastic while Billy gently rocks her.  Did I mention that this is a seriously creepy movie?  When I was about 9 years old, I couldn’t go past a theatre without seeing that girl in the chair with the plastic covering her face in the movie poster.

            Like usual, I won’t spoil this one for you so you can see for yourself what made it so great.  The killing doesn’t stop, and suspects do come to light with just enough to keep you interested in wondering who it could be.  One thing I can tell you is that you will see the beginnings of some great careers, as well as some seasoned professionals at their best in this small time movie.  Just think of it: John Saxon had just finished filming Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee, and what does he do next?  He comes to Canada to make this little film because it’s special.  I don’t know if BC is something that leaps to mind when you think of Christmas movies but I can say this.  It’s been a long time since I watched BC and to do this review, I reacquainted myself with it a couple days ago, but every year at this time, I can’t help but put the word Black in front of Christmas at least once.  Watch it, and so will you.

Lessons Learned:

• There isn’t always safety in numbers.
• Caller display is a great invention.
• Cellular Phones are a great invention i.e.
• Sgt Jones, “Brian!  The calls are coming from inside the house!
• Brian, “That’s OK.  I’m on the Perimeter, using my hands-free of course.
• It takes a lot of effort to destroy a grand piano.

Fun Facts:

1.  The calls to the house by Billy were truly creepy and disturbing.  They were achieved using three different voices.  One of the voices was provided by Nick Mancuso, a solid character actor that you know but don’t know.  Look him up and you will see.

2.  Art Hindle, another well known unknown, wore his own fur coat for shooting and is reported to still have it hanging in his closet today.

3.  There never was an actual Billy.  Almost all of Billy’s scenes were filmed by the cinematographer Albert J. Dunk, and with the POV style sort of made him Billy.