** The first time you saw... BLACK CHRISTMAS **

[Dark_One79]

Here it is, number 3 in the series. For the first two I went with films that I saw in the prime of my youth. This time around I'm going to roll with a film that I witnessed for the first time only one year ago - and it was thanks to these very boards. Yes, the site you are perusing as you read this.

I rented Bob Clark's 1974 gem Black Christmas soon after hearing many schmoes sing its praise on this message board. I was going through a time in my life where I had, unfortunately, a lot of time to kill. I was between college and a job. Needless to say there was a lot of alcohol consumed and a lot of horror movies viewed. Anyway...

I love this film.

I hate this film.

Well, that last one isn't entirely accurate. What I mean is I can never, ever, respect a film like Halloween in the same way ever again. Many of the things I saw as groundbreaking in Carpenter's classic can be found in this, much earlier, film.

So really what I am saying is that this movie managed to shake up my to-5 horror movies of all-time. It moved way up the list, and it consequently bumped one down a notch or two.

It isn't often, at the age I am now, that I come across an undiscovered gem of a film such as Black Christmas.

There were so many things to love in this demented holiday slasher.

1. Set in a sorority house.
2. Olivia Hussey.
3. Margot Kidder before Lois Lane & long before the freak-out.
4. Billy's anonymity.
5. The attic... and its contents
6. The phone calls.
7. The alcoholic fat woman.
8. Constant fealing of dread.
9. Nearly always present sound of wind blowing. (I'm all about the mood that helps create).
10. John Saxon pre-Nightmare.

I returned the old, dusty VHS tape the video store the day after I watched it. Soon after I made a trip to Best Buy where I proceeded to pick up this film (along with Fulci's Zombie, and Savini's '90 NotLD.

I've shown it to many of my friends since, and they have all loved it and wondered how it had eluded them for so long. Some have also purchased the movie on their own.

The film now has a roster spot in my annual X-mas movie marathon. Black Christmas now sits comfortably after another holiday classic... A Christmas Story.

Coincidence?

Doubt it.

Anyone else?

[Damn_Disgrace]

Seriously I have never seen this movie, one time me and a friend of mine rented "Christmas Evil" because we thought it was the same movie.... Jeeeweez does that movie fucking suck.

-Tony

[Romero&Juliet]

Easy.. I had gone back to my hometown for the weekend, cause we were selling a house that belonged to my dead Grandmother..
pretty much a trip devoted to selling, or looting, old crap..

It was one of the last nights and I had been working for pretty much the entire trip, so an oooooold friend of mine came over to the empty house with an old tv, Vcr, and a huuuuuge stash!

So we got REALLLY fucked up and the old house began making wierd noises and gettting Extra creepy.. lol, I didn't finish the movie cause I spent a while throwing up the bottle of Marshmallow cream that I ate while watching the movies..

[Cronos]

I saw it for the first time a dew months ago and was very impressed, it built tension, the camera work was excellent, as was the script and acting, this has to be my all time favourite slasher flick.

[angelinwhite]

This is undoubtedly the most discussed film on the board. I anxiously rented it when I spied it at my local Hollywood video.

I can understand the attraction to a small, unheard of horror film. But the raves this movie gets is quite a mystery to me. I just felt that it broke no new ground in any way (yes, I realize it pre-dated Halloween, but I mean it really didn't stand out in its story or execution from other made-for-TV movies I've seen from that same time).

I also hated the ending because:

***SPOILERS*****

The killer has no (zero) frame of reference. It was like, why the hell did I try to follow this movie at all if the killer is just some random dude?

Sorry. I know most here like this film, and Icertainly don't hate it, but I think it's entirely overrated by many.

[The Claw]

uhm. i rented it and i watched it

quite the story huh?

[countchocula]

Originally posted by angelinwhite
I also hated the ending because:

***SPOILERS*****

The killer has no (zero) frame of reference. It was like, why the hell did I try to follow this movie at all if the killer is just some random dude?

Sorry. I know most here like this film, and Icertainly don't hate it, but I think it's entirely overrated by many.

Well, I went into Black Christmas knowing that the killer had no identity. In a sense, the whodunit angle is a bit pointless, but I love this flick all the same. Try watching it again with all of your preconceived notions erased. You may get more out of it.

[bulletproof]

It was pretty scary the 1st time i saw it.It has this rep for predating Halloween as being the real starter of the slasher craze.BC balances a number of laughs with frights.And margot kidder had me rolling.

Poor John Saxon though.He's played so many cops,he must actually be one by now.

[Jason Vorhees]

I THOUGHT IT WAS COMPLETE AND UDDER CRAP!


SORRY I JUST HATED IT.

[Haddonfield]

I too saw this movie about 6 months ago after hearing all the great things about it. I understand the history between BC and Halloween and when I watched it I keeped all of that out of my head and had no expectations so I could judge it the right way.

With that said, I didnt really like it too much. The first 15 minutes were intriging and was a nice set up, problem is it didnt really go anywhere after that. I dont mind the killer not having a reason but I didnt think they used the guy enough. I also didnt get too freaked out by the phone calls. They didnt scare me in the least. I respect this movie because it did give way for Halloween, without it we may never have had a Michael Myers, so that is a good thing...I hate to compare the two films but I guess you have too when talking about BC...Over all the two films story is the same..strange killer, no motive, kills young people mostly woman, and has an open ending. Problem with BC is that there was no killer to cheer on, the suspence was pretty much not there minus the first kill, the dialog was messy...where I think Halloween suceeded was first off the score...the music from the first scene throws you into the moment, that cant be overstated, and then also we saw more of Mike in the shadows...we also had Loomis...there were more compelling people to cheer for...

at any rate sorry for the rant. I respect the hell out of Black Christmas...I just didnt like it very much.

[XCoRyX]

The first time,i only watched the first 30 minutes,turned it off,and quickly returned it...didnt dig it at all.dont see why it gets so much praise.

[teenkiller]

First time I saw BLACK CHRISTMAS was about a year ago after hearing so much good talk about it on the boards. I bought it without ever seeing it and I DON'T regret it! It's now in my top ten favorite horror films. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[Pumpkinhead]

Originally posted by Haddonfield
I too saw this movie about 6 months ago after hearing all the great things about it. I understand the history between BC and Halloween and when I watched it I keeped all of that out of my head and had no expectations so I could judge it the right way.

With that said, I didnt really like it too much. The first 15 minutes were intriging and was a nice set up, problem is it didnt really go anywhere after that. I dont mind the killer not having a reason but I didnt think they used the guy enough. I also didnt get too freaked out by the phone calls. They didnt scare me in the least. I respect this movie because it did give way for Halloween, without it we may never have had a Michael Myers, so that is a good thing...I hate to compare the two films but I guess you have too when talking about BC...Over all the two films story is the same..strange killer, no motive, kills young people mostly woman, and has an open ending. Problem with BC is that there was no killer to cheer on, the suspence was pretty much not there minus the first kill, the dialog was messy...where I think Halloween suceeded was first off the score...the music from the first scene throws you into the moment, that cant be overstated, and then also we saw more of Mike in the shadows...we also had Loomis...there were more compelling people to cheer for...

at any rate sorry for the rant. I respect the hell out of Black
Christmas...I just didnt like it very much.

Although I can see where you're coming from, I have to respectfully disagree with you on several of those points. Halloween scared me a lot when I first saw it, but I was fairly young when I saw it, so I can't give it too many points for that. As it stands, I think that Black Christmas is much scarier. There are images from that film that will be embedded in my memory for years to come. The eye, the unicorn scene, the first murder, the attic, the hook scene and the phone calls all severely creeped me out, and still manage to do so today. Also, although the score obviously isn't as good as that of Halloween, Black Christmas is also oozing with atmosphere, and the sorority house is the perfect setting. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live there! You say that there was no killer to cheer on, but personally, I think this is a good thing. Obviously, in a fun horror movie (Friday the 13th sequels), I'm going to want to cheer for the killer, but in a truly good horror movie, I don't want to be cheering for the killer! I want to cheer for the potential victims! And Black Christmas made me do this.

Which brings me to my next point. You say that there aren't any compelling characters to cheer for, but I think that the characters in BC are much more interesting than the ones in Halloween. In Halloween, the only characters I cared about were Laurie, and Loomis, to an extent. Hey, there's only so much ranting I can put up with! I didn't give a damn about any of the other characters, and couldn't wait for Lynda and the other girl (Annie?) to bite the dust. In BC, on the other hand, I LOVED the heroine, and cared about almost all of the characters, even Barb, who was supposed to be the bitch character!

One thing that always interests me about Halloween is that people always say that the characters in Halloween are developed. Who are these people? Because I can't find any developed characters! We know absolutely nothing about the side characters, which is somewhat acceptable, I suppose, but we also know very little about Laurie, who is supposed to be the heroine of the movie! What do we know about her? Well, she seems to be very capable under pressure...she likes some guy called Ben Traymer...she's kind of shy...and that's about it. In Black Christmas, we at least get some sense of who Jess is, and although the side characters aren't extremely well developed, they're a lot more colourful than the ones in Halloween.

Finally, you say that the dialogue is messy, but I think the dialogue is much better than that of Halloween. To me, dialogue was one of Halloween's weak points, except for the classic exchange at the end between Loomis and Laurie, of course. Black Christmas not only has better dialogue, but it has some excellent comedy! Margot Kidder is absolutely hilarious, and steals every scene she's in. The fellatio thing and her little monologue about the zoo animals are sidesplitting! Meanwhile, Halloween's attempts at comedy totally fail! I mean, totally! Well, at least I think that was an attempt at comedy.

Anyway, I don't want it to seem like I hate Halloween. I think Halloween is an excellent movie, and a landmark film for the genre, but to me, Black Christmas kicks its ass all over the show.