BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974) AT 50 / SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT (1984) AT 40!!!

BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974) d. Bob Clark (Canada)
SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT (1984) d. Charles Sellier (USA)

**CLICK HERE TO WATCH FULL YOUTUBE EPISODE**

It's time to celebrate the Happy HorrorDays with two Christmas classics, both of which are celebrating milestone anniversaries!

Director Bob Clark’s effective (and underrated) holiday thriller BLACK CHRISTMAS (full review HERE) pre-dates the slasher film craze and its influence is felt in Halloween, When a Stranger Calls, and countless others.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) TURNS 40!!!

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) d. Wes Craven (USA)

**CLICK HERE TO WATCH FULL YOUTUBE EPISODE**

Horror Hall-of Famer Wes Craven created this hugely successful fright flick, which spawned multiple sequels, launched New Line Cinema, and introduced the moniker of “Freddy Krueger” into pop culture consciousness. Heather Langenkamp plays a teenager plagued by dreams of a horribly scarred figure wearing a distinctive red-striped sweater, battered fedora, and a glove with knives attached to the fingers. Robert Englund, in the role he would forever be identified with, creates an original and frightening villain in Freddy, an executed child-murdering psychopath who has found the means to keep up his gruesome work by entering his prospective victim’s dreams.

TENEBRAE (1982) UHD Blu-ray review

TENEBRAE (1982) d. Dario Argento (Italy)

**CLICK HERE TO WATCH FULL YOUTUBE EPISODE**

Welcome to Episode #2 of THE STACK!

One of the 39 official Video Nasties prosecuted by the BFCC, this stellar updating of the classic giallo formula for the slasher-soaked early 1980s sees Argento at the height of his technical and storytelling powers. Dwelling in the shadows of his earlier critical and commercial successes (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Suspiria) and perhaps hindered by its unwieldy title (“Darkness” in Italian) and the subsequent retitled and re-edited U.S. release (the equally clunky Unsane, shorn of nearly 10 minutes), Tenebrae never seemed to find the audience it deserved and has labored for recognition ever since.

TENEBRAE (1982) Blu-ray Review

Tenebrae (1982) d. Dario Argento (Italy) (101 min)

American mystery author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) arrives in Rome to promote his newest novel, Tenebrae. Unfortunately, a serial killer is on the loose, taunting Neal and murdering those around him in gruesome fashion via straight razors and hatchets… just like the character in his novel. As the mystery surrounding the killings spirals out of control, Neal investigates the crimes on his own, with fiction and reality blurring as fear and madness take hold.

BLOOD BEACH (1981) movie review

Blood Beach (1981) d. Bloom, Jeffrey (USA)

“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, you can’t get to it!” You might want to find another locale to take that romantic midnight stroll after watching this low budget monster flick, which succeeds on its own rough graces more often than one might expect. When southern California beaches are being thinned out by a subterranean monster, it’s up to ill-tempered police captain John Saxon to curb the Coppertone creature’s cravings.

BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974) movie review

Black Christmas (1974) d. Clark, Bob (Canada)

Director Bob Clark’s effective (and underrated) holiday thriller pre-dates the slasher film craze and its influence is felt in Halloween, When a Stranger Calls, and countless others. The simple set-up involves a college sorority house and an (unseen) homicidal killer, heightened by some of the most chilling and unsettling obscene phone calls ever recorded. Utilizing extensive handheld camerawork, this is also among the first usage of the “heavy-breathing killer’s point-of-view” shots that would become a staple of the slasher oeuvre.