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Monday, May 6, 2019

BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)

Canadian director Bob Clark, who swung between enjoyable fare (MURDER BY DECREE/’79; A CHRISTMAS STORY/’83) and crap (PORKY’S/81; RHINESTONE/’84), foretold the late ‘70s Horror revival (e.g. HALLOWEEN/’78; NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET/’84) in this initially unheralded precursor. Not exactly good even as a genre pic (scripter Roy Moore quickly dropped out of sight), it still gives off a nasty vibe and lands a few potent shocks. At heart, your basic Sorority House Slasher pic, the over-aged students (Grad School?) are stalked by some crazed killer in ubiquitous handheld P.O.V camera shots. Sound familiar? Credit for coming up with so much of the standard template. They’ve even got that creepy phone call that turns out to be coming from . . . INSIDE the house. Yikes! And Double Credit to Clark for rousting up something like an A-list cast to torment: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin, John Saxon. Pretty tame now, of course, but manages a reasonable amount of tension by not showing too much, even while dropping the ball with dumb moves like having the cops not bother with a thorough house search.

DOUBLE-BILL: The 2006 remake (not seen here), apparently adds backstory to help ‘explain’ the slasher’s possible motives, effectively dumping the original’s most original idea.

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