Director Bob Clark is best known for his family fave A CHRISTMAS STORY and its polar opposite, PORKY’S. Lying somewhere in between is BLACK CHRISTMAS, considered by some as the first slasher film, complete with killer hiding in a sorority house. All the clichés began here.

The film wastes no time getting started, as an unseen maniac breaks into the Kappa house right before Christmas break. Taking refuge in the attic, he emerges only to kill a coed every now and then. On top of this, the remaining girls are terrorized further by a series of graphic telephone calls, which, disturbingly, are mostly unintelligible. (In a dig at another Christmas favorite, the town is named Bedford.)

Though BLACK CHRISTMAS begins to get bogged down in a near-needless abortion subplot, it does a credible job of building suspense. Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder and John Saxon all perform well in their individual roles, but it’s the killer who steals the show. Most unsettling is the fact that said killer is neither shown nor named at the end, contributing to an altogether creepy film.

To capitalize on the Weinsteins’ upcoming remake (hitting theaters, tastefully enough, on Dec. 25), Critical Mass and Somerville House have released the film on a special-edition DVD, beefed up enough to render prior releases useless, even if the extras are a bit pedestrian. These include two scenes from the film now with a different, original soundtrack, and interviews with the stars. The Q&A with Clark and Saxon at a midnight screening (the director’s only appearance on the disc, strangely) is more interesting, and more eye-opening than the rather rote and uninspired THE 12 DAYS OF BLACK CHRISTMAS making-of documentary.

Still, it’s the movie that counts most, and BLACK CHRISTMAS is an underappreciated horror classic. –Rod Lott

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