Director Bob Clark's 1983 film A CHRISTMAS STORY is a holiday classic. TBS shows it for 24 hours straight every year on Christmas, and I never let a Christmas go by without at least one viewing of it. Nine years before making that one, Clark made another Christmas movie that may not be as widely known and celebrated as A CHRISTMAS STORY, but it is a classic in its own right. BLACK CHRISTMAS.
2015 is the 41st anniversary of BLACK CHRISTMAS, and to mark the occasion Critical Mass Releasing Inc. and Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada are putting out a special "Season's Grievings" edition Blu-ray/DVD release of the film in Canada.
If you've somehow missed out on BLACK CHRISTMAS to this point, the synopsis goes like this:
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.
The bonus features on the Season's Grievings edition will include:
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
DVD EDITION BONUS FEATURES:
Commentary Tracks:
– Billy Is Watching: NEW commentary with Billy himself (Nick Mancuso as Billy)
– Commentary: Bob Clark, and John Saxon with Keir Dullea
– Black Christmas Legacy: NEW documentary
– 40th Anniversary Panel at FanExpo 2015 featuring John Saxon, Art Hindle, Lynne Griffin & Nick Mancuso
– Archival Doc: "12 Days of Black Christmas"
– Midnight Screening Q&A w/ John Saxon, Bob Clark, Carl Zittrer
– Two original scenes with a new vocal soundtrack
– Original Trailer
– Rue Morgue retrospective 16 booklet featuring interviews with cast and crew
This sounds like a fantastic release, with the two most enticing special features to me being the "Black Christmas Legacy" documentary, which was directed by George Mihalka (who made his own holiday horror classic with 1981's MY BLOODY VALENTINE) and the commentary that appears, going by the wording in the features list, to have been done by Nick Mancuso in character as homicidal, obscene phone call maker Billy. If that commentary truly is a feature length version of Billy's phone calls, it is going to be mind-blowing to listen to.
If you want to get the BLACK CHRISTMAS: Season's Grievings Edition as a stocking stuffer for a horror fan, it will be released in Canada on November 24th and is available for pre-order on Amazon.ca.