It’s that time of the year again, and nobody has done Christmas better than Bob Clark. The late Canadian pop director has made two holiday classics, Black Christmas (1972) and A Christmas Story (1982), one a seminal Christmas horror picture and the other a Christmas comedy. How the heck did he do it? Bob succeeded in making two movies each on the opposite spectrum of genres on the same holiday. Scrooge or Santa Claus, you get to pick that holiday classic!
Arguably, Black Christmas began the modern slasher genre with a masked killer and multiplying body count even before John Carpenter’s classic Halloween (1976). In comparison to the slew of Christmas slasher films that Black Christmas has mothered from Silent Night Deadly Night to many other Christmas horror trash, Black Christmas remains a classic in its own genre because it was well-made and well-executed featuring two fabulously beautiful actresses Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder.
Seriously, if there’s one Christmas horror movie you want to watch, watch Black Christmas but do fast-forward through Christmas horror junk like Silent Night Deadly Night which has bred five sequels that get progressively more and more horrible. You’ll get a good taste of the franchise by watching the “best scenes” of Silent Night Deadly Night.
While horror is a niche, comedy is considered the broadest genre casting the broadest audience net. Being able to do a successful horror movie and a comedy is definitely an unusual talent. And on Christmas? Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story is a classic comedy and a classic Christmas movie. And here’s my classic scene from the movie:
When I first watched this scene as a kid, I thought it was slightly racist yet I still couldn’t help laughing out loud when the Chinese restaurant owner chopped the head of the roast duck off. And when I kept thinking about this scene, I couldn’t help but think how brilliant the scene was. It’s classic horror comedy.
Dare I say Bob Clark invented horror comedy too?
Looking at Bob Clark’s incredibly diverse slate of movies from the campy She-Man to Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (one of the first zombie movies) to Porky’s to Baby Geniuses, I, as a director, am inspired by how Mr. Clark has made hits out of different genres without missing a beat.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Clark! Nobody has done Christmas better than you!
I loved Bob Clark’s work. Sadly, he past away too soon a couple of years ago because of a drunk driver. He was actually working on a remake of Porky’s with Howard Stern at the time….
Wow… I didn’t know he was killed. “Clark and his son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, were killed in a head-on car accident on the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles on the morning of April 4, 2007.[11] The crash occurred when an SUV crossed the median and struck Clark’s Infiniti I30, causing the closure of the highway for eight hours.[6] Police determined that the SUV’s driver, Hector Velazquez-Nava, had a blood alcohol level of three times the legal limit and was driving without a license.[12] He initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter,[13] but changed his plea to no contest in August. On October 12, 2007, Velasquez-Nava was sentenced to six years in prison under the terms of a plea agreement.[14] In addition, he may face deportation to his native Mexico, as he entered and was living in the United States illegally.[15] A biographical documentary, ClarkWorld on Clark’s life, works and death was produced and directed by Deren Abram. Abram and Clark worked together for over a decade.”
Totally crazy!