Dundead: Black Christmas & Dead of Night AKA Deathdream (50th Anniversary)

While John Carpenter’s 1978 film Halloween often gets credited for codifying the elements which would become staples and tropes of the slasher genre, Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, from 4 years earlier, could in all good conscience lay claim to being the first fully-formed slasher film. 

You have the cast of young victims (and while future franchises would delight in eviscerating their female stars in increasingly violent and often misogynistic ways, here Clark shows real compassion for his female characters, including Olivia Hussey and a scene-stealing turn by Margot Kidder.) You have the barely-glimpsed, but very human killer. You have menacing phonecalls. You have a seasonal gimmick – before not just Halloween, but also My Bloody Valentine, April Fool’s Day and Silent Night, Deadly Night. 

Not content with changing the face of slasher films, Bob Clark also released Dead of Night in the same year (also known as Deathdream in some countries) - a film which perhaps was overshadowed by its more festive counterpart but is no less fascinating. Pre-dating other seminal post-Viet Nam films like Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, and of course, the Rambo series, Deathdream tells the story of an adult son (Richard Backus) who returns to the family home from Viet Nam a changed man. Deathdream marks the first time that effects guru Tom Savini was credited in a film; he would go on play a huge role in horror cinema over the next few decades.

Bitter, nihilistic, but also melancholic, with Deathdream Clark is pulling open the still fresh wounds caused by the Viet Nam war which were felt by families across America. 

Clark’s career would go to some unexpected places before and after this electrifying diptych, but in a single year he contributed two incredibly prescient, inventive and gripping additions to the horror genre.