Black Christmas Season's Grievings Edition (1 Viewer)

[Winston T. Boogie]

So, this flew a bit under the radar as it was only released in Canada and I don't recall any of our pals here from the Great White North mentioning this had come out but I did manage to pick it up for Christmas viewing and in the event you still want to celebrate the season while the snow flies out there this is now the "definitive edition" of this groundbreaking film. As a minor aside it also happens to be one of Steve Martin's favorite films and I think he claims to have gone to see it in a movie theater some 27 times.

Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada Present

Black Christmas:
Season’s Grievings Edition

Coming to Canada on Blu-rayTM & DVD November 24, 2015

“A terrifying genre masterpiece.” -Dave Alexander - Rue Morgue Magazine


TORONTO, ON – Critical Mass Releasing Inc and Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada are proud to present Canadian horror classic Black Christmas: Season’s Grievings Edition to Blu-ray and DVD on November 24. In celebration of the 41st Anniversary of the film, this version comes packed with brand new bonus features that will place this release atop horror fans holiday gift lists from coast to coast.

The college town of Bedford is receiving an unwelcome guest this Christmas. As the residents of sorority house Pi Kappa Sig prepare for the festive season, a demonic stranger begins to stalk the house. A series of grisly obscene phone-calls start to plague the residents of the sorority and soon they will each meet their fate at the hands of the psychotic intruder. As the Police try to trace the calls, they discover that nothing is as it seems during this Black Christmas.

"Black Christmas is one of the scariest movies ever made, period." - Richard Crouse, CTV's Canada AM

Black Christmas (1974) is a chilling and well-crafted slasher film by the late Bob Clark (Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, Deathdream, Christmas Story, Porky’s). This classic horror title is considered by genre connoisseurs to be the greatest horror film to come out of Canada and the movie proved to be a huge influence on the slasher films (such as Halloween) that followed it. Black Christmas stands up as an innovative film today and stars John Saxon, Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, Art Hindle and Andrea Martin.

"Often copied, never duplicated, few horror movies measure up to Black Christmas " -Chris Alexander, Fangoria

The Black Christmas: 41st Anniversary Season’s Grievings Edition features, brand new bonus features a new documentary Black Christmas Legacy by George Mihalka (director of My Bloody Valentine) and Justin McConnell (The Collapsed) and it comes packaged in new artwork created by illustrator Gary Pullin.

BLU-RAY EDITION BONUS FEATURES:

• Black Christmas Legacy: NEW documentary
• 40th Anniversary Panel at FanExpo 2014 featuring John Saxon, Art Hindle, Lynne Griffin & Nick Mancuso
• Commentary Tracks: Billy Is Watching: NEW commentary with Billy himself (Nick Mancuso as Billy)
• Archival Featurettes: "12 Days of Black Christmas" Documentary, "Black Christmas Revisited" Documentary
• Interviews: Olivia Hussey, Art Hindle, Margot Kidder, Bob Clark, & John Saxon
• Midnight Screening Q&A w/ John Saxon, Bob Clark, Carl Zittrer
• Two original scenes with a new vocal soundtrack
• Original Trailer
• Alternate Trailer
• Original English and French Trailers
• Original TV and Radio Spots
• Alternative Title Sequences
• Rue Morgue Magazine retrospective 16-page booklet featuring interviews with cast and crew

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Makes me wonder if they will do another special release of that other Canuxploitation classic My Bloody Valentine

 

[davidmatychuk]

I got this one just before Christmas. It has virtually every special feature from all of the previous DVD and Blu-Ray versions, along with some new ones, and by "virtually", I mean they finally got close enough for me to get rid of two DVD's and one Blu-Ray. The list of special features above doesn't mention the two original commentary tracks or the DVD-ROM script with handwritten notes. If you like "Black Christmas", this is the Blu-Ray to get, and you'll probably never need another.

 

[bgart13]

Still leaves a lot to be desired for picture quality, unfortunately.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Well, it ain't "Baraka", but it's as good a "Black Christmas" as I ever expect to see.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Yes, I think for a low budget Canadian production from the early 1970s you are not going to see it look any better. It probably looks as good on this blu-ray as it looked first run in theaters. I was very pleased with the presentation.

 

[davidmatychuk]

I saw "Black Christmas" first-run in a theatre, which is why I'm so pleased with how it looks on Blu-Ray. It's so close to how I hoped it would look; grungy, not wiped-clean of grain, but still colourful. It was kind of drab and cheap-looking on screen, but it sure was effectively creepy. And so Canadian! Speaking of which, kudos to the "Rue Morgue" magazine people who were involved with this Blu-Ray release. It's up to their usual high standard.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Maybe Steve Martin was sitting close by when you saw this, David. He claims to have gone to see it many times and at the time it came out it was his favorite film.

 

[turtledove]

I got this new edition a while back and the lip synch was not miles out like the previous Blu version I had so that was good enough for me.

The earlier edition was the worst lip synch I'd ever seen

 

[John Maher_289910]

I think I beat Steve Martin, although not sure. I was part of a crowd that adored this movie, and we just went wherever it played, to see it. I still love it. Among my favorite films of all-time. Is the feature film presentation any different from the previous Blu?

 

[davidmatychuk]

I think it's the same transfer (tweaked a bit darker maybe) as the previous Blu-Ray, John. It's "Black Christmas" as I know it, atmospheric and all-Canadian (though maybe that's just me). I'm very happy with it, especially with all those extras, and there is no better version available. By the way, the 5.1 mix is now TrueHD rather than Dolby Digital, if that makes a difference to you (it didn't to me, especially).

 

[CraigF]

Thanks for the info, I totally missed this.


Reason being, I specifically was looking to get this title (from amazon.ca), must have been early Nov. when we were talking about (new) Christmas releases e.g. remastered Christmas Vacation etc. This title didn't show up at all, must have been only weeks before it came out, and in fact any available version of the original BC was rather expensive here, and the comments on them were all over the map. I have never seen the movie, but peoples' opinions piqued my interest...

 

[darkrock17]

The cover reminds of When A Stranger Calls, which that film needs it's own release.


Why does Canada get to have a lot of nice things, and we here in the US don't.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Thanks for the info, I totally missed this.


Reason being, I specifically was looking to get this title (from amazon.ca), must have been early Nov. when we were talking about (new) Christmas releases e.g. remastered Christmas Vacation etc. This title didn't show up at all, must have been only weeks before it came out, and in fact any available version of the original BC was rather expensive here, and the comments on them were all over the map. I have never seen the movie, but peoples' opinions piqued my interest...

I walked into a Vancouver HMV store a few days before Christmas, and there it was, in the middle of their modest Christmas Blu-Ray section. Hello, new Blu-Ray of all-time classic! It sure doesn't happen that often these days, but that thrill is what I still hope for when I wander into a bricks-and-mortar store.

 

[darkrock17]

I walked into a Vancouver HMV store a few days before Christmas, and there it was, in the middle of their modest Christmas Blu-Ray section.

That sounds like a SCTV sketch, This movie sitting next to Rudolph and Frosty, you should of taken a picture and shared that.

 

[davidmatychuk]

That sounds like a SCTV sketch, This movie sitting next to Rudolph and Frosty, you should of taken a picture and shared that.

I can do that right here, and my life is like an SCTV sketch.

 

[CraigF]

In Canada, HMV is the only (chain) B&M where disc browsing is even worthwhile anymore. Lots of surprises, and sometimes some very good prices too (usually they're mediocre), plus often editions that are supposedly specific to some U.S. retailers too. But a painful web site when it comes to finding stuff, though seemingly accurate IME stock reports so you can reasonably decide where to drive.

 

[darkrock17]

I can do that right here, and my life is like an SCTV sketch.

You look like Terry Gilliam in the pic.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Kind of a missed opportunity to stick "From the director of A Christmas Story!" on the cover wouldn't you say? =P

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Bob Clark was the Canadian Frank Capra...with a sicker sense of humor.


The only reason I found this prior to Christmas was I was looking to pick up a couple of Canadian classics, Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter and Goin' Down the Road (which comes on blu-ray with the sequel) and so was fumbling around the Canadian Amazon site and this popped up in "customers also buy" and I did not own a copy of the film so into the basket it went.


Makes me wonder what other films our neighbors to the North may have got that the US did not. I know for the Canadian release of Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer they got the grown up version unedited and we got an edited (curse words removed) version in the US.


I want to start Canadian film and television show threads so will you Canadians participate?