Do you like scary movies?

October 22nd, 2009 at 09:24am Will Pfeifer

BLACK CHRISTMAS

Just in time for Halloween, the Onion AV Club’s “Gateways to Geekery” features focuses on the disreputable movie genre of slasher films, offering recommendations for taking tentative steps into this nasty, bloody – though undeniably fun — little pool.

I question their advice though. Zack Handlen suggests 1996’s SCREAM for newbies, but if you ask me, that’s a movie better appreciated by someone more familiar with the cliches and tropes of slasher movies. Most of the enjoyment of SCREAM comes from hearing the characters comment on their own unlikely predicament, and watching Kevin Williamson’s script play off things we’ve seen in other films. I’d probably go with Handlen’s second recommendation, John Carpenter’s 1978 HALLOWEEN. I’m not as huge a fan of this movie as many are, but there’s no denying it’s a lean, mean scream-making machine, and it helped kick-start the entire genre. More important for the topic at hand — i.e., introducing fans to the genre — HALLOWEEN is essentially the ur-slasher film, a movie stripped down to its absolute essentials with virtually no fat on its bones. If you want to sightsee at ground zero for the modern horror movie, this should be your first stop.

Handlen also mentions Bob Clark’s BLACK CHRISTMAS, which arrived four years earlier and obviously influenced Carpenter’s film. It’s not nearly as lean as HALLOWEEN, with more unnecessary subplots and (as Handlen says) too much comic relief, but it’s got a stronger cast and, I’d argue, generates a more powerful feeling of unease and dread. If you’ve never seen it before, rent it sometime this year — if not for Halloween, then for that other big holiday that arrives in December. (And yes, director Bob Clark is the same guy who brought us that other yuletide tale, A CHRISTMAS STORY.)

Whatever you do, don’t rent that idiotic BLASK CHRISTMAS remake that arrived a few years ago. In fact, avoid all the remakes — and, while you’re at it, all the slasher movies made after 1990 or so. The best stuff in this genre is the early, cheap stuff, before the big studios came sniffing around and realized there was money to be made — if only everything could be slicked up a bit.

Entry Filed under: Horror movies