3:00PM - We woke up around 9:30 and finished watching the documentary on the Gospel of Judas. Bottom line: Christianity began with a lot of conflicting interpretations of the meaning of Jesus' life (and death), and the canonized version that exists in the New Testament won out. There is nothing extraordinary or revelatory about this, but I would guess that few Christians give much thought to the fractious history of the religion.
I then began watching, "Going to Pieces," a documentary/commentary on slasher films. I'm no lover of or authority on these films, but it always annoys me when John Carpenter gets credit for creating the genre with his 1978 film, "Halloween." I say this because one of my favorites in the genre (and all-time guilty pleasures) is the 1974 film, "Black Christmas," directed by the largely unheralded, Bob Clark, who also brought us "Porky's" and "A Christmas Story." Margot Kidder, prior to her stint as Lois Lane, gives the performance of her life (and death) as a slutty sorority girl, one of several who make the fatal mistake of deciding to spend Christmas vacation in their dormitory rather than at home with their families. There's a quick shot early on of a poster of "Silent Night, Evil Night," an alternate release title for "Black Christmas" (a third was "Stranger in the House"). Later, a brief excerpt from the film is included which depicts a woman being suffocated by plastic wrap, and later still, another shows a woman being impaled on a hook and dragged up into the attic. However, unlike nearly all of the other clips included in the documentary, this one's shown without attribution. I was extremely disappointed that no explicit mention of this film was made, especially as it prefigures by four years much of what follows. (There is, at least, a special thanks to Bob Clark in the credits, as well as an acknowledgement to Critical Mass for clips included from the film.) I also think "Black Christmas" stands up just as well as the better known films that came later, with just as much suspense and far less explicit gore. If this blog post results in nothing other than to get a couple of people interested in the film, which also features Olivia Hussey ("Romeo and Juliet"), Keir Dullea ("2001"), John Saxon ("Enter the Dragon" and "Nightmare on Elm Street"), and Andrea Martin ("SCTV" and the horrible "Black Christmas" remake), then I will be more than satisfied.
We then walked to Starbucks at Four Corners, where I also bought myself a sub next door at Santucci's. When we got back, Allison finished packing and at 2pm, Chris' dad came by to pick her up and drive Chris and her to Dulles for their flight back to LAX. It became suddenly very quiet in the house.
9:00PM - Evelyn and I ate dinner in the dining room as I, with the laptop in front of me, watched the end of "Going to Pieces." While watching, I kept pausing the film to check if the movies they referenced were available for Netflix download. A few were, including "My Bloody Valentine," "Graduation Day," and "The Burning." I suggested that we watch "Scream" together after dinner as a tribute to the slasher genre; Evelyn declined. We settled instead on the far more benign 1935 film, "Werewolf of London" starring Henry Hull and Warner Oland (in a rare stint as someone other than Charlie Chan). I don't think I'd ever watched it all the way through before. It was certainly not the best man-turns-into-a-wolf movie, but I believe it was the first, and with a runtime of 75 minutes, it was mercifully short. Before turning in, I read a chapter from the Fanny Hurst novel, "Imitation of Life." I'm about a quarter of the way through the book and, unlike in the two film versions where they make their appearance pretty much right away, Delilah and Peola (an African American maid and her fair-skinned baby daughter) have only now just showed up. More on that later.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
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