Black Christmas The Clasher Film Was Made In Canada Summary

Sara Constantineau’s critical essay “Black Christmas: The Slasher Film Was Made in Canada”, (2011) provides an exploration into Bob Clark's Canadian production Black Christmas, (1974), emphasizing the narrative’s Canadian perspective/sensibility, overtly feminist subtext, revolutionary induction of slasher tropes and conventions, as well as it’s progressive social commentary. In her essay, Constantineau argues that Black Christmas is a revolutionary narrative and the true originator of the (now) extremely popular modern day slasher (a sub-genre of horror cinema). Moreover, she engages in a comparative analysis of Black Christmas with John Carpenter's universally revered slasher Halloween, (1978), to effectively challenge the widespread myth

(.) [intending] to illustrate the value of criticism through a close reading of a film’s style and content.”, (Forsyth et al.). Not only is Constantineau an academic, deeming her a reliable source, CineAction is also credible, as all academic submissions sent into their journal are reviewed and edited by their team of revered Canadian film professors and critics; namely: Scott Forsyth — hailing from the University of Toronto, as well as Florence Jabobwitz and Richard Lippe — who currently teach at York University. Moreover, Constantineau’s analysis aligns with pre-existing scholarly debates on the topic, hence the author’s semi-recent works are both reliable and credible, providing an extremely useful approach to understanding the narrative’s significance as a work of Canadian national

Namely, the narrative’s final girl Laurie (portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis) is a virgin — a trope that has become something of a hallmark in the slasher genre, whereas her friends (who fall victim to Micheal Myers, portrayed by Nick Castle) who either have sex or talk about sex are picked off one by one; effectively demonizing female sexuality, as opposed to Black Christmas’ liberation of such a controversial topic. Moreover, Halloween’ ending results in Laurie (despite being the final girl) having to be saved by Myers’ highly intelligent male doctor, Samuel Loomis (portrayed by Donald Pleasence) — a male authority figure. Such an ending effectively suggests that the people who have power in the (male-dominated) patriarchal society are deserving of it, and must maintain these powers to protect the innocent, represented by