the groundhog day project

A babysitter receives a phone call. The man on the line asks about the children she’s babysitting. After several calls, she calls the police and they trace the next call—it’s coming from a second line inside the house. The version of this story that I know best comes not from someone telling the story around a campfire or wherever but from When a Stranger Calls . Interpretation of this story can go a lot of directions. The babysitter not doing her job thoroughly may stem from fear of such in an age when young women were claiming more independence and, like Jess in Black Christmas rejecting motherhood and other “womanly” ideals. Like the notion (somewhat via Clover (1992)) that female sexuality is being punished in the slasher film, the urban legend of the babysitter and the man upstairs deals in feminine independence (not necessarily or exclusively sexuality) being punished by a man positioned literally and figuratively above her. It’s arguably about patriarchy, paternalism, the punis...

It’s not just feminism that birthed the slasher film. I’m reminded of CNTV 393 at USC, particularly September 27, 1994. Jess’ announcement—“I’m pregnant”—we only hear from outside the window. We are only in the room in time for Peter’s reaction. Essentially, we are with him , not with her. Not right then. That day in class we watched Ten North Frederick , starring Gary Cooper. I barely remember the movie and only generally recall the notion of “male melodrama.” But, fret not, because I still have my notes. Not the quality of notes I might have from more recent forays in the college classroom, but there’s some useful information. For instance, Professor Casper defined the male melodrama as a movie that “traces a series of adventures, professional labors, and sexual episodes of a male protagonist through which the male comes to some understanding about the meaning of life, usually involving spiritual values.” The movie is, on the surface, not about Peter, yet we are with him again—...

Silent Night, Deadly Night is awesome and it amuses me that the main character is named Billy considering how the killer in Black Christmas calls himself Billy*. Silent Night, Deadly Night falls right in the middle of a big wave of slasher films and is full of blood and breasts and stuff actually happens... unlike Black Christmas . While Nowell’s (2010) argument that Black Christmas was a pioneer film for what would become the slasher genre it almost is not a horror film at all. Instead it’s something more of a drama, with hints of melodrama and interruptions of horror. It’s strange amalgamated structure is on purpose, of course. As Nowell describes it, “It was Canadian and it was the product of a complex network of transnational indutrial shifts that had been unfolding in the late 1960s and early 1970s involving the Canadian government, the Hollywood majors, America’s theater-going youths, and independent filmmakers from around the world” (p. 61). Nowell argues that Black Christma...

For the record, I didn’t touch Nowell (2010) today. Had the chapter on Black Christmas in my bag in case I had some spare time in between finishing my org comm paper and taking my org comm final. Instead, some family business came up because, well, life is like that. The busy-ness of modern life. Or just life, nevermind the modern. (Sidenote: why does first Clare and later Mrs. Mac ask after Claude the Cat as if there are numerous cats around? I mean, there’s one cat at Pi Kappa Sigma, so if you hear a cat making noise, chances are it’s that cat.) (Odd detail, probably a mistake: On the wall are framed things with girls’ photos on them, like all the members from previous years of the sorority, except the one we see close enough to read is Pi Beta Phi, not Pi Kappa Sigma.) Peter talks early in this film about practicing for five days straight and not getting any sleep (probably part of why he has gone homicidal... just sayin’). As finals week comes to an end and the fall quarter...

The prank caller in Black Christmas seems to have two very different messages. First, he’s got the whole sex pervert thing going on (with that life-threatening coda in that initial call) then he gets weirder with the baby stuff... and Peter is introduced over the phone. That’s interesting. It occurs to me that the film doesn’t 100% confirm that Peter is not the prank caller. In fact, the change in tone from sexual to something more aggressive would make sense considering his openly negative reaction to Jess’ news about their baby. Of course, I say that “100%” line because of a) the scene in which Peter is there for one of the calls* and b) the twist ending. The movie isn’t bad—let’s get that out of the way. It’s actually pretty good for a Canadian horror film. But, I think it might work better if Peter were the caller/killer instead of just a red herring. The horror works better if it is closer to home. I don’t mean that it always does. I mean for this story, taking place so much w...

Two things: 1. I should have known better than to trust a Canadian horror film. 2. You know that Black Christmas is nothing but a Christmas movie when it starts with “Silent Night.” Followup to point 1: I just cannot trust the Wikipedia page on Canadian horror films, either. I wanted to doublecheck because I’ve got a rule—I don’t like Canadian horror films—but that list includes a lot of movies that may have been filmed in Canada but are not what I would call Canadian . Blood and Donuts —that’s a Canadian horror film I know, and do not like. And, I remember one called The Incubus but IMDb tells me I am wrong about that. Canadian or not, you can tell this film has elements that slasher films would follow; hence Nowell (2010) calling Black Christmas the “pioneer” of the slasher subgenre. Anyway, Lois Lane is stuck at the sorority for Christmas just like Doyle was going to be stuck at his prep school for Thanksgiving... even as she invites others to go with her when she has jus...

Subtitle this one “When I grow up and get married, I’m living alone” because I might as well be writing about Home Alone again for as much as I’ve got to say, which isn’t much. It’s one of those days... sort of. The day actually started well, started early. Starbucks and some gridlock on the 5 and then work. Administered a final exam in my public speaking class, worked on my teaching portfolio for instructional communication, forensics class’ final day was mostly uneventful, then TA meeting and instructional comm. In the latter I had a presentation—the mainstreaming of rebellion. A little Simpsons , a little Switched at Birth , and some Hunger Games and my presentation was done, and the long day was finally catching up to me. Got home and turned on a nice wholesome Christmas movie... Ok, well, that isn’t true. I turned on Black Christmas , and maybe it’s because I’m tired, maybe the movies is just slow and confusing, but I really have little notion of what happened. Unless, of co...