"Did you know - this is a very little known fact, but... did you know that there's a certain species of turtle that... there's a certain species of turtle that can screw for three days without stopping?"
The
origin of the slasher genre (as well as the origin of many of those
tropes that have since become cliché - think 'Scary Movie', but
original and actually scary) 'Black Christmas' is also probably my
favourite slasher flick.
"You don't believe me, do you? Well, I - I mean, how could I make something like that up? No, really! They just... three days, twenty-four hours a day - wha-voom! Wha-voom! Wha-voom! Can you believe that, three days? I'm lucky if I get three minutes!"
It's
low budget and minimalistic as far as sets and actors go (most of the
film takes place in the same house, and there are a lot of (decent)
no-names here), but this works well for slasher, and the POV shots
for the killer are at first a good cheap hook, and then an effective
technique - giving our stabby villain a nice air of mystery.
Oh
yeah, talking of atmosphere, 'Black Christmas' pulls this off better
than most modern horrors. The ticking of the clock during the first
murder is particularly gripping, and the way that it's revealed to
everyone that the call is, of course, coming from inside the house is
excellently chilling.
The
characters were cool too, if pretty damn cheesy. I like that the
staff are all alcoholics – I particularly love Margot Kidder's
character, and Marian Waldman blaming the cat for everything and
hiding booze everywhere.
It's
not perfect, obviously. I felt it sagged a little towards the middle,
and I realise that it invented most of these clichés, but it really
is full of them to the extent that you can predict the plot quite
easily. That's not to say that the final twist wasn't good though,
making it one of the best horror endings I've ever seen.
"Do you know how I know this? Because I went down to the zoo and I watched them. It was very boring. Well actually, um, I, uh, didn't stay for the whole three days, I went over and I watched the zebras, because they only take thirty seconds! Premature ejaculation!"
Black Christmas: 53.8