Dreaming of a Black Christmas

Merry Christmas Media fans!

Since I haven't been at college this week I thought I'd do something a bit different with my blog and talk about two Christmas based Horror films that I have seen recently. These films deal with the themes of obsession, murder, stalking, childhood trauma, revenge, and perversity. Y, know, tis' the season for such things.

1974's Black Christmas is often acknowledged as an important film in the Horror Genre for being one of the earliest examples of the Slasher sub-genre and an influence on John Carpenter's Halloween which would define the genre. It was independently produced and directed by Canadian Bob Clark, who astonishingly enough went on to direct another, very different Christmas film, 1983's A Christmas Story. Early in his career he made low budget horror films such as Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, but went on to direct massively successful films such as the frat comedy Porky's and the aforementioned A Christmas Story. His later career saw him making low budget and poorly received children's films such as The Karate Dog and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2. This makes him probably the only director in history to have had films on both the IMDB Top 250 and Bottom 100. He was tragically killed in car crash in 2007.

Black Christmas follows a group of college girls who are stalked and murdered during the Christmas season by a killer hiding in their sorority house. He makes obscene phone calls and and he creeps about the place in POV shots. The influence on Halloween is obvious in these shots, and the way that Clark shoots the sorority house from a distance with Gothic lighting is similar to Carpenter's shooting of house in his film. The influence of the Bates residence in Hitchcock's Psycho on both films should not be forgotten. The film surprisingly features a number of well known actors in the cast, not big A listers, but distinguished enough to be known to film fans. Keir Dullea, best know for playing David Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey, appears here as our leading man. It's a little surreal to see someone who worked with Kubrick on such a legendary film appear in a sleazy Grindhouse flick like this. Olivia Hussey is our leading lady and final girl, best known for Romeo and Juliet, but her performance here is unmemorable and I have to say I much preferred Margot Kidder, best known for Lois Lane in the 70's Superman movies. Her character is just so enjoyable, swearing and drinking and not taking any crap from the killer when he's on the phone. Sadly she's killed off half way through and we are left with the much less fun Hussey, who maybe wasn't that comfortable appearing in a film like this. Special mention must go to the always enjoyable John Saxon, known for his role in Enter The Dragon and appearing in countless B and Horror movies.

For horror fans Black Christmas should be an essential movie, not just because it's an important one, but also because it's enjoyable in it's own right. Clark directs the film with style and suspense that lifts it above standard grindhouse fare and makes it obvious why it was so influential to Carpenter and others. There's also a remake, made in 2006, but I haven't seen it.

Something that dawned on me whilst I was watching Black Christmas was that the Christmas setting itself was largely inconsequential. There's one scene near the beginning where one of the characters is working as a Santa Claus, but overall the film could have taken place at any time of year with the same story (though the original script was apparently based on a series of murders that occurred over Christmas in Quebec). One film that really takes the Christmas season and runs with its horror film potentials however, is 1980's Christmas Evil, also known as You Better Watch Out and Terror In Toyland. The film was directed by Lewis Jackson, who has never made another film since, and stars Brandon Maggart, who the same year appeared in Brian DePalma's Dressed To Kill and since has worked mainly in Television. However the most well known face in the cast to a modern audience will be Jeffrey DeMunn who recently had a recurring role in The Walking Dead.

Brandon plays a man named Harry Stadling. This guy takes Christmas spirit deadly seriously. In the opening scene, we see how as a young boy he witnessed Santa, or what we presume was his dad dressed up as Santa, sexually groping his mother. This obviously had a damning effect on his psyche and as we flash forward to the present day we see how he has taken it upon himself to become the next true Santa, he sleeps in the costume, and his flat is covered in Christmas toys and decorations. He spies on the children in his neighborhood to see it they've been bad or good and writes their names in his "Bad Boys & Girls" book. Like I said, this is a man who takes Christmas spirit seriously. As the film goes on, his mental state deteriorates. We see how he works a lowly job at a local toy factory and clashes with his superiors, who are more concerned with profit than giving children a good Christmas. Harry sets off on a "roaring rampage of revenge" against those he feels have poisoned the spirit of Christmas.

Christmas Evil is less of a slasher film and more a psychological character study, a sort of Christmas Taxi Driver. Viewers can symphasise with Harry because what he wants is ultimately pure and admirable. The guy wants to be Santa Claus and give kids who deserve it a good Christmas, and most of the adult characters around him are so horrible we can actually see his point of view despite him plainly being as mad as a hatter. I actually found myself cheering when he started to take down the suits. The film ultimatley doesn't feature much that much gore or violence, like I said, it's more psychological than slasher, and it has an ending that leaves you thinking, "what the hell just happened?". I highly reccomcend all cult film and horror fans check Christmas Evil out, even more so than Black Christmas, simply because it's so off the wall and entertaining in its concept. The film is well directed by Jackson, who really gives us a sense of Harry's isolation, and it's a shame he hasn't gone on to direct any other films. Brandon Maggart also does a good job at selling the lead (though some of the other performances leave a lot to be desired). Christmas Evil might be the ultimate cult Christmas film, and deserves to be a yearly tradition for people who enjoy this sort of thing. You go in expecting a sleazy Christmas slasher film, but get a whole lot more than you bargained for.

That's all for this year. Have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. See you all in 2015. Get ready for those self lacing shoes, hoverboards, and flying cars!

Fan Man - Handed In and Not So Good

On Tuesday we had a screen of the films that Level 4 have made in both the factual and fictional groups. The films that the Factual groups made all looked amazing, they had been shot in a highly professional manner and they could have easily sold their footage. There was loads of room for improvement in these films but the overall consensus was they had produced some extremely good looking films, for the most part well edited, with only slight flaws that brought them down. When it come time to show Fan Man to the whole year after having seen these great professional looking films, the experience was an embarrassing one to say the least.

The version of Fan Man that we showed didn't resemble a finished film but a work print, and it was only when seeing it there in front of me that I realized this in horror. I instantly regretted not spending more time to perfect the edit. As a film and a narrative it does make sense but it looks far from professional. Though the version of the voice over we have is much more dynamic and gives the film its lighthearted, comic feel, there is a big chunk in the middle of the film where it drops out, leaving mostly dead air. I should been more imaginative with the sound, but at least putting in different music tracks to underscore the action helped a bit. The film needed a more dynamic sound scape, louder effects to go along with the music, and more voice over. Ours was also the only film not to include any credits sequences, which I simply never thought to put on.

I think I should have taken a more active role in the group and made a stand for the film. Though I was supposed to be the main editor on the film someone else took over and I don't believe that they had the same enthusiasm for the project that I had. They took out some of the more creative choices I had made in rough versions, and I even had to put one of these back in after it was pointed out the film looked a lot better with it in. The versions of the film that come out of this I felt was edited rather dryly and brought down the film. When I finally got the chance to get on a mac and edit myself I felt I was being pulled in different by the group, some who supported the decisions I had made, and the other editor who wanted to keep his version. The frustrated me so much at one point I had to leave the edit suite. What frustrates me the most is I believe that the film could have been better if I had complete control over the editing, but in the end I didn't speak up like I should have so it's my fault.

In the end, though the finished product did not come as well as we would have hoped, Fan Man still proved to be an invaluable experience. It taught me about the inner-workings of teamwork when working on film projects, how you all to pull your weight and it becomes immediately obvious when someone isn't. Communication is vital and without this progress and creativity can slam to a halt. It is no good enough to think something is done, you have to watch it over and over again and get it perfect. I am excited to begin my factual module in January and am looking forward to incorporating the lessons I have learned in my fiction experience in my future projects. Fan Man was a much needed lesson and kick up the arse.

The BBFC - Nasty Videos or Nasty Censors?

I have always been interested in the history of film censorship in this country, and for any film fan
with even a passing interest in more extreme movies, it's hard not to get sucked into it at some point. In the age of such immediately accessible content and movies on demand, it's crazy to think that well known films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist were essentially banned in this country until 15 years ago. It's equally crazy to think now you can walk into HMV and buy many of the so called 'Video Nasties' that sent a shock wave through the country in the early 80's These films and the moral panic that they spawned were documented in Jake West's brilliant 2010 documentary 'Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Video - Tape'. West also produced a follow up this year for the 30th anniversary of the Video Recordings Act - 'Draconian Days', which details it's effect on film censorship through to the modern day. One of the things that these films point out is that the moral crusaders who caused a such a fuss about these films in the first place either don't know or don't care that many of them are now readily available in an uncut form - they have moved on to video games and the internet as the new scapegoats for the ills in society.

In many ways. a moral panic a quintessential British thing, a reflection of our countries class system. It's always the upper class, well educated censors who are looking after the working class, whose lack of sophistication leaves them more vulnerable to be influenced by the content of films. This attitude is no better demonstrated than in this quote from James Ferman, ex cheif censor of the BBFC, who said after a screening of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre -  “It’s all right for you middle-class cinéastes to see this film, but what would happen if a factory worker in Manchester happened to see it?”. It's not just violent videos that have been subject to this classist discrimination, in the 1950s there was a similar moral panic other the effects of Horror Comics, and the same kind of panic is seen constantly in the press nowadays over video games. In the Victorian era, Penny Dreadful literature, the precursor to pulp fiction and the aforementioned horror comics, lead to fear of increased crime due to their influence on the lower classes, who read them on cheap, pulpy paper. However, it was seen as fine for the upper classes to read them in bound form. This same kind of classism was seen in the Video Recordings Era - Terminator 2 was released on VHS in a cut form, but the Laserdisc edition was completely uncut. The assumption obviously being that if you can afford the Laserdisc version of the film, then you are a 'middle-class cinéaste' with no danger of being influenced by any of the films violent content. This same kind of thing is even seen today, with The Hunger Games being released cut on DVD with a 12 certificate, and but uncut on Blu Ray with a 15.

On the other hand, it is difficult to defend some of the films that the BBFC are worried about. As a horror fan, I fail to see the attraction of 'mondo' movies such as Faces of Death which have a little purpose other than to show horrific images of real life death. I personally would never have any death film crap anywhere near my collection. The recent trend of increasingly nasty and boundary pushing horror films are also extremely hard to defend. I have no wish to ever see films like 'The Human Centipede 2' and 'A Serbian Film' and I find that the fact I have witnessed people my age talk about these films as something of a cheap laugh both disturbing and sad. Though for the most part I am against censorship, to me these kind of films represent the fact that we have reached an aphex, both as a society and in films, in which we have become completely numb to violence and it is impossible to shock. These films seem to some extent to be deliberately testing the BBFC, whose relaxation of censorship in recent years has seen the DVD and Blu Ray releases of many previously banned or unreleased films. They are certainly a much more friendly and open organistation nowadays, allowing the public to view their decisions on their website and even releasing a regular podcast. Hardcore horror fans can now easily import films from abroad, or download them from the internet, which increasingly makes the BBFC look outdated. But with the strength of the right wing tabloid press and moral panic tradition in this country, it is unlikely the BBFC will ever go away, and the question is only how it will grow and adapt further in the digital age.