Like a lot of people, I enjoy spending the lead up to Christmas watching a slew of wholesome family holiday classics. But after the first few, the formula - no matter how well done - can get a little tiresome. With that in mind, I checked out Bob Clark's other Christmas story - Black Christmas (us Canadians have to support quality Canadian films, you know). As the title suggests, Santa Claus and Christmas morning stockings are nixed for an old-fashioned psycho killer. If it were set during any other time of year, it wouldn't be great. But for those looking for a change of pace from the same old Christmas trimmings, Black Christmas is certainly it.

The film is set in the town of Bedford, a reference to Bedford Falls, the setting for Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. As the holidays draw near, a sorority house is terrorized by creepy phone calls from some schizophrenic-sounding caller. One-by-one, the girls go missing, one-by-one captured and killed by the psycho presumably on the other end of the line. It all boils down to exploitative mayhem as the girls try to figure out what's going on, while Clark, who went on to direct Porky's and A Christmas Story, uses every opportunity he can to get his female actresses to make like damsels in distress in cute outfits.

Black Christmas does have some tension, but not as much as you might expect from a thriller. As much as anything else, it's likely do to age and moderately low production values. But The Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out the same year and that's still one of the scariest films I've ever seen. But while it's not scary, there is some suspense as there's many avenues the plot could take to keep you guessing even though Clark and screenwriter definitely point the psychotic finger at one person. However, if this person really did do it, wouldn't it be too obvious to make them the killer? But what if the filmmakers knew that we would expect them to avoid the obvious and go with a swerve so they reverted back to the obvious? It's a confusing scenario that might best be described with two words: chicken, egg.

One thing that I really liked was the camera work when the mysterious killer was on screen. The camera goes to their point of view, twisting through hallways and up and down the attic steps. It's not exactly a big revelation in the technique department, but set used inside the sorority house with its dark colours and many solid angles, it works to create a near vertigo experience at times. It adds to the overall intensities of the scenes and teases over who the murderer might be. More than once I checked for distinct body marks that might give away a key detail. They're there, but then one of the major problems I had with the film, like many horrors, was all the misleading information we're fed to keep the guessing going. At one point it all gets rather frustrating and the red herrings come across as an excuse for some lazy writing.

Luckily, Black Christmas has the gimmick of being one of very few Christmas horrors, so the interweaving of the odd carol and holiday wreath ensure that it's bearable. Plus, there's the sight of spotting Margot Kidder before she went on to fly with Christopher Reeve in Superman.

If nothing else, Black Christmas will always be remembered as the inferior older brother to Clark's other Christmas flick, the Tito of the Jackson clan. So enjoy it for what it is and when the curiosity wears thin, hate it for all the same reasons.

©Movie Views; December 1, 2003