DuracellEnergizer said:
Mondess122 said:
Black Christmas (1974)- Some people argue day and night about what the first slasher film is...and I think it's this one. It's not as well made as something like Halloween, but it's also much more stylish and moody than Friday the 13th.
I'd disagree with you in regards to Halloween. I think Black Christmas is a much more engaging film with more interesting characters and a far scarier murderer.
I do agree with your point on Friday the 13th, though. Of course, the entire Friday the 13th franchise is an exercise in derivative mediocrity, so it's hard not to.
If we're talking about the main character, then yes; the side characters are on the same level for me. The ones in Black Christmas are more realistic and generally less stupid, though. As for the killers, they're different kinds of scary. I was more talking about the films on a technical level; Halloween has the advantage in cinematography by having Dean Cundey behind the camera, and I think John Carpenter perfected the 'killer POV' introduced by Bob Clark. And let's not forget that pulsing theme; that scene where Loomis gets to the insane asylum and the music kicks in still gives me some shivers.
DrCrowTStarwars said:
Granted I don't watch a lot of slasher films so i am not an expert but I always thought psycho was the first slasher film since it was a horror film that was more bloody then anything made up to that point and Norman Bates killed woman with a knife. Then again I am not an expert. i will have to track down Black Christmas and give it a shot.
A lot of people say that, but it doesn't really fit with the slashers of the 1980s. I think it was Black Christmas that got the ball rolling for the genre as we know it, considering that Carpenter was obviously inspired by that film's opening. Black Christmas does have a lot of the elements that later slasher films would imitate (except not from this film, but from Halloween, which was inspired by Black Christmas); POV shot from the killer, characters get killed one by one in usually one location, the killer uses a knife (or a sharp object) and the killer stalks his victims. Not that these elements weren't used before, but Black Christmas was the first to use them all together. James Rolfe made a pretty good video about it: