BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)

 

(a.k.a. SILENT NIGHT, EVIL NIGHT; a.k.a. STRANGER IN THE HOUSE [television/NBC retitle for its initial airing on May 14, 1978]. Director/uncredited co-screenwriter: Bob Clark. Co-screenwriter: Roy Moore.)

Review

BLACK, along with Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO (1960), Michael Powell’s PEEPING TOM (1960), Mario Bava’s A BAY OF BLOOD (1971) and Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974), is credited with creating and refining the slasher subgenre, and rightfully so─each of these films contributed their own quirks, filmmaking tricks and twists to the soon-to-burst subgenre.

One of the slasher-expansive aspects of BLACK was Clark and Moore’s fleshing-out of its characters, particularly the collegiate sisters. Clark felt that previous higher-learning films only showed young women as pretty, peppy types without any depth, so he and Moore set out to create women with their own personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. (Also, according to IMDb, Clark set and abided by the rules that the female characters should not be objectified, nor were they to do nude scenes.) 

BLACK is also the first holiday season-themed slasher flick made, featuring some of the most creative kills of the subgenre (a plastic bag, a crystal unicorn, etc.).

Shot in forty days and set in the fictional town of Bedford (an homage to Frank Capra's 1946 movie IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE), BLACK was inspired by the real-life crimes of Wayne Boden, a Canadian serial killer who murdered four women between November 1969 and spring 1971 (he was caught soon after that). Moore mixed Boden’s murders with the urban legend of The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs.

The story: while the sisters of Pi Kappa Sig (ΠΚΣ) prepare for the winter holiday break, a crank-calling, distorted-voiced serial killer who secretly resides in their house stalks them and those around them.

Everything works in this film: the dark, viewer-immersive cinematography (courtesy of Reginald H. Morris, billed as Reg Morris); the offbeat, unsettling soundtrack (composer Carl Zittrer said he tied combs, forks and knives to his piano strings to warp the music); the tightly penned, often-humorous screenplay and no-shots-wasted film.

Of course, all of this would have been for naught if BLACK‘s cast had not been worthwhile─and what a stellar cast it was!

Olivia Hussey played Jess. Keir Dullea (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, a film Clark loved) played the high-strung pianist Peter. Margot Kidder played the razor-tongued, alcoholic Barb (Clark later said Kidder drank real alcohol for her character’s inebriation scenes). Andrea Martin played Phyl (Martin appeared in the 2006 BLACK remake, playing a different character). Lynne Griffin played Clare Harrison. Marian Waldman played the hilarious secret-inebriate house mother Mrs. Mac (a character based on Bob Clark’s real-life aunt).

Art Hindle played Chris Hayden─Hindle later played Ted Jarvis in Clark’s PORKY’S (1981) and PORKY’S II: THE NEXT DAY (1983). Doug McGrath, billed as Douglas McGrath, played Sergeant Nash─McGrath also became a PORKY’s cast member, playing Coach Warren in the first film of the coming-of-age sex-comedy trilogy.

John Saxon played Lt. Ken Fuller (Saxon was a last-minute fill-in actor, replacing  Edmond O’Brien, who had to bow out because of his Alzheimer’s and his physically frail health). Saxon saved the film by taking his role days before BLACK was slated to begin production; if he had not, the movie would not have been made.

A holiday season perennial for this cineaste, BLACK is one of my all-time favorite horror flicks, a landmark work that elevated the genre with little, if any, gore, strong character-based writing and equally believable acting, a dark but humorous tone and cinematography, and twisty ending (which later became a cliché, but in 1974 was a fresh plot-pretzel finish).

Lee Hays wrote a now-out-of-print novelization of BLACK, published in 1976. I read that it delved deeper into the characters and had more plot development. If you find it at a reasonable price, you might want to consider purchasing it.

IMDb says that Elvis Presley supposedly loved BLACK and made it an annual tradition to watch it every Christmas. (Cool, if true.) Presley died in August 1977.