I'm just watching the classic Canadian horror movie Black Christmas from 1974. Now considered to be one of the very earliest slasher films, it boasts 2001 Space Odyssey star Keir Dullea no less as an emotional pianist who could well be the attic-loving slasher himself.
Margot Kidder, Supe's squeeze, also puts in a fine performance as a foul mouthed student who loves a tipple. Her description of a new telephone exchange, FE, to a befuddled cop is priceless.
Olivia Hussey gives the movie extra class as the central character living in a sorority house. She had starred in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet six years earlier to rave reviews. The unforgettable theme tune is one of my all-time faves, largely because my old Mum used to listen to it all the time on her stereo gram in the late Sixties.
My favourite turn in Black Christmas is John Saxon. I love this guy. He has had such a varied career. Born Carmine Orrico from Brooklyn, the films I recall the most of his are Black Christmas itself, where he plays a detective trying to catch the sorority killer, Cannibal Apocolypse in which he battles with his hunger for human flesh after returning from Vietnam and last but not least, Enter the Dragon, perhaps his finest hour playing a Karate expert fleeing debts and hoods by joining a martial arts tournament. One Bruce Lee went along too and the rest is Kung Fu history!
I saw Black Christmas at the flicks with my older brother Ste at Preston's ABC in the mid-Seventies. I was about 14 or 15. It's claustrophobic dark winter scenery combined with the wood-panelled sorority house interior subtlety aglow with Christmas lights was truly mesmerising. I loved it.
It is now one of a handful of films I associate completely with Christmas past and for me watching it every year marks the start of those peaceful few days leading up to the Big Day.
Has anyone else seen it?
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