BLACK CHRISTMAS: COLLECTOR'S EDITION (1974)
Director: Bob Clark
Critical Mass

My discovery of BLACK CHRISTMAS goes back about three or four years ago. While flipping through the channels late one night, I happened upon Cinemax. The creepy lettering of the opening title card was all I saw. I'd remembered reading bits and pieces about the movie in Fangoria over the years, but I'd never seen it. So, I turned off all the lights and decided to check it out. After the film was over, I just sat there…on the couch…afraid to even move. This was the first and only film to have frightened me as a "grown-up."

The ever-lovely Olivia Hussey stars as one of a group of sorority sisters who stays in the sorority house over the Christmas holiday. She and a couple of the others are being terrorized by an eerie maniac, who phones them with bizarre, perverted taunts. Pretty soon, people in the house end up missing, and the mysterious caller (who refers to himself as "Billy") continues to phone with seemingly mindless, scary ramblings.

While this sounds far from being original, made in 1974, BLACK CHRISTMAS could be considered one of the pioneers of the slasher flick as we know them today. It pre-dates even HALLOWEEN and in some instances, is a more effective film. I would even go so far as to say that BLACK CHRISTMAS is quite possibly the greatest slasher ever made. The film moves at a slower pace than we're used to with the genre, but results in palpably frightening moments, since the atmosphere of the goings-on are dark and serious and we truly know and care about the characters involved. The key to the whole film's success, however, is "Billy." The mysterious caller is not only one of the scariest on-screen presences ever committed to film, but also his menacing presence is felt even when he's off-screen, throughout the entire film. Roy Moore and Bob Clark truly created a monster in "Billy." He's almost ghostly in his actions, and the way he's portrayed, he could be just about anyone. This is why the ending has become such a debated classic amongst fans of the film. I won't spoil it here, but I'll just say, it's my favorite ending of a horror film…ever.

BLACK CHRISTMAS is presented on DVD in a wide-screen aspect ratio of 1:66:1. The film itself was shot full-screen (never wide-screen), intending to be cropped by projectionists during theatrical showings. Subsequently, all home video versions (except for the old Warner laserdisc) have been full-screen presentations. Fan reactions to the first Critical Mass disc were a loud "Why isn't it wide-screen?" So, for the new disc, Critical Mass has decided to crop it at 1:66:1 (eliminating a boom mic which found its way into the frame in previous releases). From what I hear, cropping it at 1:85:1 like the old Warner laserdisc was too obtrusive, cutting off heads and such. 1:66:1 works just fine. The only time when I longed for the previous version was right at the end, when we see a shot of the entire house. In the previous VHS and DVD versions, you see the entire house, including the attic window. Cropping the film at 1:66:1, once the camera has panned all the way back, you no longer see the attic window. However, considering this is the absolute best that BLACK CHRISTMAS has ever looked, I'm not about to start nit picking. The transfer looks much better than the previous DVD release. While some shots fare better than others, there are many noticeable improvements in the actual picture quality of this release over the previous editions. Critical Mass has gotten rid of a lot of the grainy flickering that plagued their previous release. The one drawback that many have been interested in is the fact that the disc is not anamorphic. Being that I do not have a 16:9 TV right now, this is currently a non-issue for me, but I do realize that many of you are concerned about this. As for the audio, the disc features an impressive (although low-key, due to the nature of the film) English Dolby Digital 2.0 track, an English mono track, and a French mono track.

Regarding the disc's special features…where do I begin? First off, is a 36-minute documentary titled "Black Christmas Revisited," hosted by actors Art Hindle and Lynne Griffin. The actors go back to the location of the original house. It's amazing how much it looks like it did in the film. The rooms have been restored over the years and look more cheerful than they did in the film (especially the attic) but it's nice to know that the house does indeed still exist. So many classic movie sets from other films have been destroyed over the years, that fans of BLACK CHRISTMAS will be relieved to see their beloved sorority house still standing after almost 30 years. Hindle and Griffin seem to be having a great time exploring the house, reliving old memories, and sharing anecdotes about the filming of the movie (at one point, Griffin even places a plastic bag over her head to show how her rocking chair scene in the attic was filmed.) The documentary also features clips of interviews with director Bob Clark, composer Carl Zittrer, Keir Dullea, John Saxon, and producer Gerry Arbeid. The only two people I would've liked to have seen in this would've been Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder. Kidder, I hear, was going to be involved but was in an accident before she could be interviewed, and Hussey, for whatever reason, couldn't be tracked down. Canadian friends tell me that they saw this documentary recently on ScreamTV. However, that was an edited-down 20+ minute version. This DVD contains the full 36-minute documentary with footage not seen on ScreamTV.

There are numerous TV spots, radio spots, and trailers included on the disc, as well as a couple of alternate opening title sequences (under two of the film's alternate titles, STRANGER IN THE HOUSE and SILENT NIGHT, EVIL NIGHT). A poster gallery was also included, showing various photographs, pressbooks, rare posters, and what looks to be a novelization from the film. Incidentally, one of the rare posters included (the red ad poster depicting original lines from various critics of the time praising the film…including Regis Philbin, of all people), I supplied Critical Mass with from my own collection.

In the "Interviews" section of the special features is a rare, un-aired episode of the Canadian horror biography series "Dark Dreamers" with John Saxon as the focus. It runs 20 minutes and is very informative. He discusses his involvement with the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series, ENTER THE DRAGON, CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE (very interesting stuff), and of course, BLACK CHRISTMAS. I wish they would've shown him discussing his work on TENEBRE with Dario Argento, but you can't fit everything into 20 minutes, I suppose. For serious or even casual John Saxon fans, this "Dark Dreamers" episode is a must-see. Also in the "Interviews" section of the disc, is the complete John Saxon interview, of which only two brief clips were taken from for the first Critical Mass DVD release. Here, you get the complete interview. Finally, in the "Interviews" section is a nearly 25-minute interview with BLACK CHRISTMAS director Bob Clark. Stories briefly mentioned in the documentary are elaborated on here, as well as previously unheard anecdotes.

Two different audio commentary tracks are even included on the disc: One by director Bob Clark, and the other featuring actors John Saxon and Kier Dullea. From the sound of it, Saxon and Dullea's commentary was not recorded at the same time, but each has a number of interesting stories to go along with different points in the film. Saxon speaks a great deal more than Dullea (Dullea isn't even heard until his character appears in the film). Being a massive Saxon fan, it was interesting to hear him actually react and even get quiet when a particular scene engaged him. The Bob Clark commentary is more fluid with comments, showing that he's probably seen the film a great deal more than John Saxon has over the years. One of the most surprising of Clark's revelations is that Gilda Radner was originally cast in Andrea Martin's role, but got her job on "Saturday Night Live" a week before filming began, so she chose SNL instead. Both audio commentaries also seem to include a few moments taken from the earlier Saxon and Clark interviews, possibly to make up for dry periods in the live commentaries.

But, on top of all that is an Easter Egg…Directions to on how to access three bonus goodies on the disc. Among them, the original "Silent Night, Evil Night" pressbook, two enlarged pictures of original posters from the gallery (the poster I supplied being one of them, so you can clearly read what Regis and the other critics had to say about the film) and finally, quite possibly my favorite feature of the disc…the original screenplay for the film by Roy Moore, under its original title "Stop Me!" What's really neat about this script is that it contains both original handwritten and typewritten pages. You can even see where Moore and whoever else has gone over it made corrections, etc. The script sheds light on some things that "Billy" says which are more inaudible in the film, while still keeping some things as ambiguous as ever. It's a good read and one of the coolest bonus features I've ever seen included on a disc. Once more, all of these additional Easter Eggs are printable!

Regarding the presentation of the disc, we get well-done animated menus on nearly every screen, a chapter list insert which features a few more photos and rare poster artwork, and finally, the cover artwork is reversible. The standard cover you'll see in stores is a new design by Critical Mass. For a non-original design, it's quite impressive. But, if you don't happen to like it, on the reverse side you'll have the classic original one-sheet artwork of Lynne Griffin's character sitting in the rocking chair surrounded by a Christmas wreath. Also, the image on the cover's spine is likely to haunt horror DVD collectors for a long time to come. Very cool.

Bar-none, the BLACK CHRISTMAS COLLECTOR'S EDITION is the best horror DVD from a non-Anchor Bay distributor in a long, long time. Here is a seemingly unknown Canadian slasher film and yet, Critical Mass was able to track down all these rare goodies, and even made sure the film looked and sounded as good as they could. If the fact that this disc isn't anamorphic bothers you so much that you wouldn't bother buying the disc, well, you are truly missing out. Anamorphic or not, this is the ultimate presentation of BLACK CHRISTMAS and is a celebration of the cult classic that we have all come to love and enjoy. Critical Mass looks to have swung for the fences with this release, and for me, they knocked it right out of the park. (Wes Ray)

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