Just in time for the season of giving is the ultimate anti-Christmas movie, Black Christmas. The special-edition DVD of this cult classic will make a perfectly nasty gift for genre buffs.

This low-budget nightmare, directed by Bob Clark, is a precursor to Halloween (1978), predating it by four years. And that is rather astonishing, when one considers that many of the trends allegedly set by John Carpenter’s film are in full view here. Both films are set around rituals (and the fact that all this slashing happens on the religious holiday Christmas makes this one all the more subversive); both films feature point-of-view shots from the murderer’s perspective, complete with heavy breathing; and both boast unstoppable killers who aren’t clearly dead by final credit roll.

Add to that the incredibly creepy crank phone calls the gals in this sorority house receive—enough to make anyone’s skin crawl. (Long before Drew Barrymore got a deadly cranker in Scream.) Then there’s the Trivial Pursuit Special Edition-friendly cast, including Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet), genre vet John Saxon, Andrea Martin, Margot Kidder, Doug McGrath and Art Hindle.

Even jaded old me began to get mighty creeped out by this film. Black Christmas is one terrifically scary movie—not to be watched alone. :

» Matthew Hays