Happy holidays, everyone! The second half of my Europe journal is finally up. Pictures will be up soon. Deciding whether to post thumbnail links on the journal or take advantage of an online photo album.
Possible trips in 2007 include Ireland, Germany and Austria.
The Pot Calling The Kettle Black... Christmas
While Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life play on TV over Christmas break, the horror film Black Christmas hits theatres on Christmas day. Christian groups, understandably, are making a fuss (from IMDB.com):
Let's assume for a moment that this isn't a publicity stunt by the film's producers or the aforementioned Christian groups.
Black Christmas is a remake of the 1974 original, a creepy slasher flick set in a sorority house. Bob Clark shot the film in Toronto and later directed A Christmas Story, another holiday season TV staple. With the recent surge of '70s horror film remakes and their popularity at the box office, it was inevitable that producers would option Black Christmas. Unfortunately, as with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, studios are dispensing with atmosphere and tension in favour of quick edits, slick design and ample gore. They feel the need to give the killer a backstory, a motive for his madness. Apparently, a crazy stranger isn't scary anymore.
So who would bother seeing such R-rated schlock? Teens, horror film fans and gore hounds. They dig this junk and will check it out no matter what. How else to explain the endless monster B-movies of the '50s and splatter movies of the '80s. Someone's paying to see them. But, by making a public outcry over a forgettable film which doesn't warrant the attention, Christian groups are giving Black Christmas the publicity the producers are craving. They're drawing curious filmgoers to the theatres and video stores to see what all the fuss is about.
Black Christmas's yuletide-themed murders and December 25 release date are merely gimmicks—the latest twist on the tired slasher-movie plot. What's more, this has all happened before. Among the myriad post-Halloween clones was Silent Night, Deadly Night, featuring an axe-wielding killer in a Santa suit. Parent groups picketed theatres showing the film and it was pulled two weeks after release. Although such a sleazy, gory, tasteless film would have had a brief box-office life anyway, it remains notorious to this day and is sought out by the curious because of the protests.
If parent and Christian groups were truly concerned about "our most sacred holiday," they wouldn't waste their breath on "ill founded" horror films, but direct their ire at Hallmark, Toys 'R' Us, Wal-Mart and the like for their part in commercializing Christmas. At department stores who set up for the holidays immediately after American Thanksgiving and subject their employees to a month of Christmas musak. Or more appropriately, why not publicize causes that deserve it at this time of year, such as local charities and food banks!
Christmas is about family and helping the less fortunate. The focus on shopping at the local mega-mall rather than donating to a local charity, helping to keep the homeless out of the cold, is a far greater insult to the holiday season than the senseless slayings by an imaginary character.
