Why BLACK CHRISTMAS is an Iconic Slasher, Is the Future of Horror in Comedy? and More!
In this Issue:
- Horror History: Bloody Actually: The Legacy of Black Christmas
- Image of the Week: Hey, Lo Pan! The Check is in the Mail!
- Tiny Bites – This Week’s Best Horror Headlines
- Things We Love: Memento Mori Bonsai
- Hey, That’s Us! – Shudder in the News
HORROR HISTORY: BLOOD ACTUALLY: THE LEGACY OF BLACK CHRISTMAS
By Alexandra West*
Did you hear the one about the sorority with the dead bodies in the attic? If you aren’t already familiar with Bob Clark’s iconic cult slasher Black Christmas from 1974, chances are you’ve heard about Blumhouse’supcomingremake. If you need a primer, here are the basics: set in a sorority house at the onset of the holiday break, young women are picked off one by one by a man hiding in their house who may or may not be connected to the threatening phone calls they’ve been receiving. Oh, it was also remade in 2006 with the edgy retitling Black Xmas.
But let’s get back to the OG.
Simply put, without Black Christmas, we wouldn’t haveHalloween, Friday the 13th or any of your other favorite slashers. At least not in the way we know and love them. While Black Christmas is an unsettling, eerie and disturbing film, it also codified many of the tropes we’ve come to know and love in the slasher genre. From the killer’s POV shot to the Final Girl and the situational set up of unsupervised co-eds, Black Christmas synthesized elements from Hitchcock’sPsycho, Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom, and even a splattering of giallos to create a dark holiday fable designed to get young people into movie theatres.
Black Christmas, however, was not just an arbiter of the slasher genre; it set a standard that has been aimed for and rarely repeated with its female characters. While many horror films give their women and Final Girls interesting, dramatic roles, rarely does this consideration extend to the victims in the film. Rarer still does a film directly tackle a narrative where the protagonist intends to have an abortion, making it a rational, undramatic decision. The female characters in Black Christmas are at any given moment funny, lively, tragic, conflicted, excited and scared. They feel like real people with interior worlds and lives.
Black Christmas has long remained a staple of the horror genre which proves you can have it all; from iconic tropes and violent deaths to endearing characters and genuine feminism. No matter what your stance on the remakes, it’s hard to deny the power of the original which situates likable characters against the most depressing Christmas season on record.
Black Christmas is available to stream on Shudder.
*Alexandra West is the author of Films of the New French Extremity and The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle for McFarland & Company. She has co-hosted the Faculty of Horror podcast with Rue Morgue Executive Editor Andrea Subissati since its inception in 2012.
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Hey, Lo Pan! The Check Is In The Mail!
John Carpenter’s cult classic Big Trouble In Little China turns 33 this week, so here’s a behind-the-scenes shot of James Hong laughing it up with Carpenter to celebrate. As if he weren’t intimidating enough as Lo Pan, Hong holds the record for most film and television credits, alive or dead, with 500!
TINY BITES
LGBTQ HORROR HISTORY, STRANGER THINGS ARCADE GAMES AND MORE
Emily St. John Mandel’s international bestseller, Station Eleven, is getting the TV treatment from the creator of Netflix’s Maniac. The post-apocalyptic series follows the survivors of a devastating flu as they try to rebuild society after its collapse.
Is the future of horror … in comedy? There are some truly amazing horror projects on the horizon from creatives like Jordan Peele, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Chris Rock, and many more.
Attack of the Queerwolf co-host Sam Wineman’s giving the history of queer representation in horror the Horror Noire treatment in an upcoming Shudder documentary executive produced by Kelly Ryan and Fangoria editor-in-chief Phil Nobile Jr.
We’re still grieving over the announcement that DC is closing their Vertigo line, but their new pop-up imprint, Hill House Comics, curated by none other than Joe Hill, is giving us life.
Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival kicks off their 23rd year with the world premiere of Sadako, the latest Ringu film directed by franchise creator, Hideo Nakata.
Sure it’s a marketing tie in, but we’re still delighted by the secret Stranger Things retro arcade game hiding on Polaroid’s website. No quarters required!
Screen Rant put together a list of the best horror movies that use practical effects. They’ve got everything from werewolves to cenobites, but it’s the callback to Peter Jackson’s gore-filled roots with baby Selwyn that’s the real treat.
Chucky isn’t the only killer in the toybox. Wired’s assembled a Child’s Play-inspired list that’ll get any horror fan or newcomer into the subgenre of killer dolls.
LGBT pride should last year round, so check out this list of the best LGBTQ horror where classics like Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and Nightbreed are joined by some glorious new flesh.
Cosmo curated a list of amazing classic horror lit to give you chills in the summer heat.
Smitten by the In Fabric trailer, Gizmodo counted down their top 7 “glamorously gruesome” films that stitch together the worlds of high fashion and horror.
THINGS WE LOVE: MEMENTO MORI BONSAI
We are living for these Grave Yard Bonsai Mountain Skulls from Jack of the Dust. Each one is hand made and completely unique. Make sure you check out their website for more of their amazing skull work – you’ll be like a kid in a sick, twisted candy shop.
HEY, THAT’S US! – SHUDDER IN THE NEWS
Shudder Announces New Queer Horror Doc + July U.S. Highlights & More
Patrick Schwarzenegger Thriller ‘Daniel Isn’t Real’ Lands at Samuel Goldwyn Films and Shudder
AMC Streamer Shudder Picks Up Zombie Thriller ‘Blood Quantum’ For US, UK & Australia; XYZ Strikes Int’l Pacts
Maxine Peake-Starring Thriller ‘Gwen’ Goes to RLJE Films, Shudder (Exclusive)
Fantasia 2019: Final Wave of Films and Events Includes SADAKO, VIVARIUM, Joe Bob Briggs, And More! (Shudder Presents Joe Bob Briggs Live: How Rednecks Saved Hollywood)
