A few days ago I saw a commercial for the remake of Bob Clark’s Black Christmas and realized I hadn’t seen the 1974 version since not too long after it came out. Then today at my daily trip to the video store it was sitting there on the shelf staring at me and I knew I had to rent it. The DVD jacket heralds that this predated Halloween by 4 years making it “the inventor of the modern slasher film” and actually dares the viewer to watch the movie alone. So that’s exactly what I planned to do. Now, Halloween in genuinely scary but my very fuzzy memory of Black Christmas is that it’s a bit more on the campy side. At the checkout counter the clerk echoed my thoughts and we talked for a little about older horror movies that hold up years down the line and those that don’t.

As soon as I hit play I remembered the last time I saw this, it was mid to late 80’s and on a USA Up All Night or similar program. It had been edited heavily to take out all the sex references although I think they left in all the blood. So I watched it alone like the cover dared me to do – and I’m not scared at all. My memories of it’s campyness were pretty valid. I’m not saying it’s bad, but a caller saying “bleh ahh ugh errr uugh I’m gonna lick your cunt, then kill you!” then hanging up just isn’t as scary today as it might have been in ‘74. Plus while this movie might have pioneered the “the call is coming from inside your house!” genre, it’s been done much better since. Perhaps it’ll even be done better in the remake?

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