Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear: Toronto FanExpo 2008

The Black Christmas Panel

Featuring:
Bert Dunk – Camera Operator
Lynne Griffin – “Clare”
Art Hindle – “Chris”
John Saxon – “Lieutenant Kenneth Fuller”
Carl Zittrer – Composer

The (blurry) panel: L – R
Saxon, Griffin, Dunk, Hindle, Zittrer

Black Christmas is a Canadian horror classic from 1974, directed by Bob Clark (Deathdream, Porky’s, A Christmas Story) and is considered by many to be the very first “slasher film.” It was shot in High Park, an old Toronto neighborhood, and was recently reissued as a special edition DVD by Critical Mass Entertainment, who moderated the panel.

John Saxon has been in over a hundred movies and TV shows, but is probably best known as “Roper” in the Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon (1973). Although he is in his early 70s now, he remains in fantastic physical shape. He was a late addition to the cast of Black Christmas (the role was originally cast with Edmund O’Brien) and talked about his intuition that the movie would be a success. He also told a funny story about the argument he had with Bob Clark over the pronunciation of the word “fellatio” in the script.

When the moderator presented Lynn Griffin with a gift of a hanger and a dry cleaner’s plastic bag, she demonstrated how she can still hold her breath for over a hundred seconds (“They’d break for lunch and not tell me!”). She also talked about how Clark sprayed her face with catnip so the cat in the “cat licks dead girl’s face” scene would lick her but it wouldn’t work, so he ended up just throwing the cat at her. There was an ongoing joke that the cast shared about Art Hindle giving Lynne her first kiss and eventually he ended up demonstrating his technique! Art Hindle was a real Hollywood character: full of personality and hilarious commentary. He shared stories of working with Chuck Norris and David Carradine, the ugly fur coat he wore in Black Christmas, and other great anecdotes from a career which rivals Saxon’s in longevity.

It was Bert Dunk the camera operator who came up with the idea of filming scenes from the murderer’s point of view (a technique which was used in Halloween four years later) and he described how he used a rig mounted on his shoulder with a safety belt to create the effect. He also discussed how the flickering effect during the murder scene of Margot Kidder’s character Barb was an accident caused by a too-tight loup on the Mark II camera they used, but that it ended up looking neat, so they kept it.

Carl Zittrer, who did the score for Black Christmas as well as several other Clark films, revealed that the voice of “Billy” was actually Bob Clark. He used some ingenious effects to manipulate Clark’s voice, such as putting speakers in a piano, pressing pedals, and recording the vibrations. He also scraped a fork over strings and used reverb to further alter the sounds.

None of the members of the panel could agree on who played Billy’s eye in the one shot where we see him. Keir Dullea, who played Peter, had confirmed to them previously that it was not him and there was speculation that it may have been his stand-in. Most significant to me, was the fact that none of the cast or crew had seen the 2006 remake of Black Christmas and didn’t seem particularly interested in watching it, but all of them admitted they had probably watched the 1974 version at least ten times since they filmed it.

Additional Resources:

Black Christmas:
Visit Dan Duffin’s Black Christmas fansite, It’s Me Billy.com for images, news, a messageboard, and much more.

Rue Morgue:
To find out more about this horror institution, including the magazine, online articles and forums, staff blogs, film screenings, movie nights, and Rue Morgue Cinema and Radio, please visit their website. The next Festival of Fear will be held in Toronto, Ontario, from August 28-30, 2009.

Upcoming Events for the Playdead Cult:
Oct 4: Nuit Blanche—”Play Day of the Dead” is a indoor and outdoor festival and parade inspired by the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos, in Playdead style.

Oct 22: L’Oreal Fashion Week, Main Stage—The Original Fashion Grindhouse presents “Flash and Burn” a runway multimedia show with co-producers/designers Damzels In This Dress.

Oct 24-26, 30, 31 & Nov 1: “Nightmare on Queen Street” a two-floor Haunted Attraction at the Playdead Mansion co-produced by Darkside Store.

Stu currently has a collection of paintings at the Shanghai Cowgirl, 538 Queen Street West in Toronto.

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