My Review Of Black Christmas 1974

Disclaimer: The image being featured here for this review is only being shared in the purpose of fair use only. All credit solely belongs to the original makers, creators, and owners, and absolutely no infringement is intended of any kind/type at all whatsoever.

From director Bob Clark of 1983’s A Christmas Story fame, Black Christmas from 1974 is a Canadian horror movie set during the Christmas holiday that is about a mentally-deranged serial killer who murders a sorority of women one by one. The premise of Black Christmas (1974) takes inspiration from an urban legend that occurred in Montreal Quebec in the specific neighborhood of Westmount during the 1960s known as “The Babysitter And The Man Upstairs”, in which a babysitter was stalked by an unknown individual by receiving a series of disturbing phone calls.

While Black Christmas isn’t exactly the very first film in the Slasher genre as that honor has been attributed to Alfred Hitchcock’s cinematic adaptation of Psycho in 1960, Black Christmas is still often regarded as at least one of the most inspirational & influential Slashers of all-time ever made due to its success being the driving force of wanting John Carpenter to make 1978’s Halloween, and I myself can say without a doubt that Bob Clark’s Black Christmas truly deserves that recognition for I very much consider it to be one of the greatest within the genre.

Black Christmas works exceptionally well as a horror film all in thanks to its very haunting atmosphere, strong performances from all the actors & actresses, and a well-executed mysterious ambiguous nature, actions, and motivation of the Slasher villain that works favors in making Black Christmas genuinely scary & terrifying to watch.

The 2k digital remaster scan from the original camera negative on the official Region A Blu-Ray release put out by Shout Factory through their Scream Factory line is a pretty solid quality transfer, but I did notice a very times in which it looked grainy in some scenes, but it still didn’t ruin my experience of seeing Black Christmas, and it is still a very good Blu-Ray I can easily recommend buying considering Shout Factory tends to do a great job with the effort they put into their home video releases as they did include a disclaimer in the beginning of how much they did the best they could when remastering the movie in 2k (which is appreciated).

So now that all is said and done, Black Christmas (1974) is in my opinion, a masterpiece of horror & Slasher genre film-making that perfectly proves how much of a talented director Bob Clark was back in the day, and although it is scary and at times unsettling, 1974’s Black Christmas is still a well-made Christmas movie that needs to be seen at least every December as a way of celebrating the holidays.

I give Black Christmas from 1974 5/5 Stars, and Two Thumbs Up!

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My Review Of Pieces (1982-1983)

Disclaimer: The image being featured here for this review is only being shared in the purpose of fair use only. All credit solely belongs to the original makers, creators, and owners, and absolutely no infringement is intended of any kind/type at all whatsoever.

Pieces is a Slasher film that was made in collaboration with the United States Of America, Puerto Rico, and Spain, and the movie was originally released under the title known as “The Night Has 1000 Screams” in Spain back in the year 1982, while the best-known title that is “Pieces”, was given for its 1983 release in the USA.

Pieces is about a chainsaw-wielding murderer who kills young women in a college campus by cutting them up in order to make a female human puzzle, and it should be said before moving on with the rest of this review that no one under the age of 18 should view this movie due to the film’s depiction of graphic violence with the amounts of the blood & gore presented and featured, and the moments that show & depict nudity.

Pieces is a truly interesting movie within the Slasher genre of horror films to discuss & talk about as there is actually a massive tone difference between the Spanish version, and the USA version that’ll most likely affect your viewing experience depending on what version you decide to see first before the other.

I watched the 1983 USA version first before I decided to check out the 1982 Spanish version, and I will say with full sincere honesty that all in thanks to its USA release from 1983, Pieces manages to be a fine example of a fun Slasher movie for fans of the overall genre in general (myself included) in the sense that it perfectly fits as a film that can be considered a guilty pleasure so bad its good cult classic primarily because of its amusing tone & nature of being completely random at times without any logical reason, unintentional funny moments sprinkled throughout the story & plot, and the extremely intense bloody kill scenes from the slasher villain.

The Spanish version released in the year 1982 that’s called The Night Has 1000 Screams, still has the brutal slasher scenes present, but I found it to be an average film at best for while I did enjoy listening to the alternative soundtrack that differs greatly from the 1983 USA version, it just felt to me like a much slower, and less entertaining version considering its more serious tone despite the solid Spanish-speaking acting performances (which ironically doesn’t work as the movie shouldn’t be serious based on how the USA version simply titled Pieces is tone-wise with its enjoyable sleazy nature). Also, despite the very few noticeable key differences between the Spanish version, and the USA version I’ve just pointed out in this review, I actually didn’t notice anymore differences between the two releases as both felt the same to me based on my viewing experience of watching them.

I saw Pieces thanks to me getting an official Region Free Blu-Ray release of the film by a home video label called Grindhouse Releasing, and please allow me to mention right now that their release of the movie in HD (high definition) 4k from the original camera negative is absolutely spectacular to look at based on the quality of the video transfer, and the Grindhouse Releasing Blu-Ray release of Pieces contains a fantastic feature-length documentary about the time period in which 42ndStreet in New York City was filled with a ton of grindhouse theaters called 42nd Street Memories, and it features incredible interviews by Joe Dante (Gremlins, and The Howling just to name a few of what he’s made & worked on), Llyod Kaufman of Troma fame, and many more experts who know a lot about grindhouse cinema.

While I can safely give Pieces 5/5 Stars, and Two Thumbs Up for this review, The Night Has 1000 Screams (its Spanish release) simply gets a 3/5 Stars from me!

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