Review: Original "BLACK CHRISTMAS" is Still a Gift (In Memory of Olivia Hussey, 1951-2024)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 of 2024 (No. 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Black Christmas (1974)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Canada

Running time:  98 minutes

MPAA – R

PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:  Bob Clark

WRITER:  Roy Moore

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Reg Morris (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Stan Cole

COMPOSER:  Carl Zittrer

HORROR

Starring:  Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Marian Waldman, Andrea Martin, James Edmond, Douglas McGrath, Art Hindle, Lynne Griffin, Michael Rapport, Martha Gibson, Leslie Carlson, and Dave Clement

Black Christmas is a 1974 Canadian slasher horror film from director Bob Clark and writer Roy Moore.  One of the earliest films belonging to the horror sub-genre known as the “slasher” film, Black Christmas is the first in a series that includes two remakes.  Set during a university Christmas break, Black Christmas focuses on a group of sorority girls who are being stalked and killed by a stranger in their house.

Black Christmas opens on the campus of an unknown university located in a Canadian town named “Bedford.”  Located on 6 Belmont Street is the Pi Kappa Sigma sorority house where a Christmas party is being held.  An unseen man climbs the exterior of the house and enters it through the attic.

During the party, the house phone rings and sorority sister Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) answers it only to discover that it is an obscene phone call.  It is also from a person who has called before, a caller the sorority sisters have nicknamed “the Moaner.”  Jess and the other sisters listen as the caller rants and screams in a series of strange voices that range from male and female and from adult to small child.  The name “Billy” comes up a lot during this and subsequent calls from the Moaner.  The calls end the same; he abruptly threatens to kill the Pi Kappa Sigma sisters and hangs up.

Soon after the first call, the stranger who broke into the house begins killing the sorority sisters one by one, with no one in the house aware that a killing spree has begun.  Jess seems to be the focal point of the calls, and the police, led by Lt. Ken Fuller (John Saxon), believe that the caller is someone close Jess.  But the killer is closer than anyone seems to realize.

As I write this review, Sunday evening, December 29, 2024, it is two days (Friday, December 27, 2024) after the passing of actress Olivia Hussey (1951 to 2024).  Hussey may be best known for her breakthrough film role as “Juliet” in director Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film, Romeo and Juliet.  However, many movie fans remember Hussey specifically for her starring role in Black Christmas.

Directed by Bob Clark (1939-2007), Black Christmas is a seminal film in the “slasher” sub-genre of horror films.  It is apparently a direct inspiration for John Carpenter's 1978 film, Halloween, which kicks off what some consider the “Golden Age” of slash films (1978-1984).  The film has been remade twice, Black Christmas (2006) and Black Christmas (2019).  Strangely, Clark's other best known films are probably the raunchy, high school sex comedy, Porkys (1981) and the beloved Christmas perennial, A Christmas Story (1983).

Many have already written about the legacy of Black Christmas and about the individual performances and achievements that make up the film.  For instance, I want to shout out Carl Zittrer's pitch-perfect, psycho-perfect film score, and Margot Kidder's (1948-2018) scene-stealing turn as Barbara “Barb” Coard.

For this review, however, I would like to talk about Olivia Hussey.  There is a natural quality to her acting in general and to her performance here that makes this film seem more earthy than contrived and fantastic.  Jess' struggles, both with the the Moaner's phone calls and with her increasingly frantic boyfriend, Peter Smythe (Keir Dullea), come together to enrich the character drama.  Black Christmas is not just a film about a killer stalking girls, but it is also a tale that revolves around Jess and her external and internal struggles.

Here, Hussey is both vulnerable and endangered and calm and stalwart.  Watching Hussey in this film, it becomes obvious that her performance as Jess Bradford is the template for the common horror character or trope known as the “final girl,” which is the last girl or woman who survives to fight the killer in a horror film.  In Jess' final struggle, which takes her from the top of the sorority house to its very bottom, Hussey carries the film to victory.  Hussey's Jess seems so genuine and real that I found it difficult to focus on Black Christmas' nonsensical and inconsistent elements.

I was sad to hear of Hussey's passing.  I find her performance in Black Christmas to be unforgettable, and I think she makes the film unforgettable.  I watch Black Christmas whenever I get a chance because I love watching Hussey in it.  She makes me root for her Jess every step of the way.  As important as Clark's direction, Moore's writing, and the other actors' performances are, Hussey is “the Star of Bethlehem” in Black Christmas.

8 of 10

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Monday, December 30, 2024

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Review: "From Dusk Till Dawn" Still a Bloody, Glorious Mess

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 68 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and gore, language, and nudity
DIRECTOR/EDITOR: Robert Rodriguez
WRITERS: Quentin Tarantino; based upon the story by Robert Kurtzman
PRODUCERS: Gianni Nunnari and Meir Teper
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Guillermo Navarro

HORROR/ACTION/DRAMA with elements of comedy and crime

Starring: Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Ernest Liu, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Tom Savini, Fred Williamson, Michael Parks, Kelly Preston, John Saxson, and Brenda Hillhouse

After a bloody bank robbery, Seth Gecko (George Clooney) and his younger brother, Richard (Quentin Tarantino), are on the lam. The brothers take Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel), an ex-preacher, and his children, Kate (Juliette Lewis) and Scott (Ernest Liu) hostage, in order to use the Fullers’ RV for their getaway. The Geckos and the Fullers escape the police dragnet across the border into Mexico, where the Gecko Brothers are supposed to rendezvous with a local drug kingpin at a biker and trucker cantina called the Titty Twister. What the quintet doesn’t know is that the bar’s owners and some of the clientele are bloodthirsty vampires.

Movies like Scream, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, or even Interview with a Vampire might make the list of great horror movies from the 1990’s, but the Robert Rodriguez directed, Quentin Tarantino scripted horror film, From Dusk Till Dawn is a horrifying, classic howler. Part dark comedy, part gore fest, part action horror, and part crime thriller, FDTD is hell of a film. It’s so blood soaked at times that it might give some people pause and grab their stomachs. Some of the monster and creature makeup and effects are way over the top and hilarious, but the film works.

From Dusk Till Dawn is actually like two movies in one. The first half is straight out of classic crime cinema – dangerous, murderous, cop-killing thieves are on the lam with hostages in tow. The second half is apparently an ode to outlandish Mexican horror films (of which I never seen a one). This mixture is something only genre storytellers do well, and two guys like Tarantino and Rodriguez are steeped in stuff like comics, pulp fiction, and lowbrow cinema to the point where they can make something like FDTD work.

The cast is obviously having a good time; the extras seem to have the best time. George Clooney’s cool and calm killer carries this film across two genres, and his movie star presence shines even in something like this. However, blaxtiploitation star Fred Williamson and horror movie makeup legend, Tom Savini, give sweet kicks to their small, but deliciously kooky parts.

8 of 10
A

Friday, May 20, 2005

From Dusk Till Dawn [Blu-ray]

Review: Original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" IS a Classic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 28 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
PRODUCER: Robert Shaye
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jacques Haitkin
EDITORS: Pat McMahon and Rick Shaine

HORROR

Starring: Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri, Johnny Depp, Charles Fleischer, and Robert Englund

Originally released in 1984, A Nightmare on Elm Street was a film written and directed by legendary horror auteur, Wes Craven (Scream). A low-budget horror flick, A Nightmare on Elm Street launched a film franchise, a television series, merchandising, and imitators, but the film is a classic scary movie because of its penchant for blurring the border between dreams and reality. Most importantly, A Nightmare on Elm Street introduced one of the very best screen villains ever, Freddy Krueger.

Tina Gray (Amanda Wyss) has a dream in which she is stalked by a mutilated man with a second distinctive feature, razor-sharp knives attached to the fingers on his right hand. Her friend, Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), has experienced a similar dream involving the same sinister figure. Even Tina’s estranged boyfriend, Rod Lane (Nick Corri), has dreamed of this creepy man.

After Tina is murdered and Rod is blamed, Nancy discovers that Fred Krueger (Robert Englund), a child murderer killed by a mob of angry parents, is the man in her dreams. Krueger has returned to haunt the children of his killers, using their dreams to get his revenge from beyond the grave. When local teens fall asleep, Krueger attacks and kills them in their dreams, which also kills them in the real world. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen Lantz (Johnny Depp, in his screen debut), hatch a plan to drag Krueger into the real world, but will that help them or make things worse?

In spite its low budget, A Nightmare on Elm Street delivers the thrills, chills, and scares of a movie with many times its budget. This first installment of the franchise has a high creepy factor because the narrative muddles reality with surreal moments in which imagination and the dream world intrude on everyday reality. One could make an argument that all or most of the movie is a dream, and that neither the narrative nor its characters are reliable.

Plus, in Fred (eventually Freddy) Krueger, A Nightmare on Elm Street has a villain who can terrorize his victims in their dreams and occasionally wreak havoc in the real world, which strengthens this story’s unsettling atmosphere. He is a bloodthirsty demon with a wicked sense of humor, and his glove, with its sharp knives, is one of the great weapons in horror movie history and in cinematic history, in general. Practically all the credit for Freddy Krueger’s fame belongs to character actor, Robert Englund, who achieved a rare feat – creating movie monster whose fame spans generations and who has international appeal.

The film’s target audience – the audience that first saw it back in the mid-80s – and likely many that see it now, can identify with Nancy and her friends. Adults don’t take them or their fears and concerns seriously, leaving them at Krueger’s mercy, which is ironic considering that the adults killed Krueger in order to protect their children. The teens are on their own, unable to discern the shifty reality that has become their existence. Like them, we are left alone to figure out this crazy, scary dream world, and A Nightmare on Elm Street delivers. It is the real deal in scary movies, and Freddy is a fictional serial killer who seems almost real.

7 of 10
A-

Saturday, May 01, 2010

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"The Craving Heart" Now on DVD

Triumphant Entertainment Releases The Craving Heart on DVD


LOS ANGELES, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Triumphant Entertainment is proud to announce its DVD release of The Craving Heart. The latest film by award-winning filmmaker Stan Harrington, Craving is enjoying success in DVD sales. The Craving Heart stars Golden Globe Winner John Saxon (Enter the Dragon), Rick Peters (Dexter), and Adrian Zmed (TJ Hooker).

Craving's central theme, Scientist, Alexander Tom thought he had it all, great wife, great house, career... that was until the death of his best friend and a random affair with an anonymous woman force him to re-evaluate everything. In the ensuing days his relationships with his father (Saxon), his wife, his co-worker and Walela, the mysterious woman, contribute to his edification that life is riddled with intangibles, that complacency and routine have deadened him and that despite his scientific understanding of life, there are other forces at play.

Stan Harrington has won multiple awards in his career as a director. Next up for Harrington will be the indie Christian themed drama Prodigal. Stan Harrington partners with CEO John Atterberry of Silent Noise to direct, Silent Noise is co-financing Prodigal for a 2nd quarter start date.

http://www.triumphantpictures.com/