The Powers of Horror- Black Christmas & Under the Shadow Film Comparison
In this blog entry, I'll compare Black Christmas (1974) and Under the Shadow (2016). Both films are made by people who understand that filmmaking is a craft, not simply "for-profit" entertainment. They also recognize that a good horror film scares an audience with the unknown and also by reenacting familiar experiences of pain and fear which are gradually amplified throughout the film. Furthermore, both of these films share the situation of a female protagonist fighting for her autonomy. Another important aspect of these films is that they were low budget, unique, and aesthetically remarkable. I watched the extensive trailer for the upcoming Black Christmas (2019) being shown on YouTube and I'm not impressed. If the director and producers of the 2019 film watched the original film, they seemed to have missed the points that the 1974 film was making. Corporate film studios keeps remaking 1970s horror films which often turn out to be insulting, unnecessary, and/or forgettable. The recent remakes of Suspiria, Carrie, and Piranha would fit this category in my opinion and of course, the horror genre is not unique in this regard. Action films are not the height of cinematic art to begin with so, remaking them makes little sense aside from chasing large profits. The new remake of Charlie's Angels is yet another example of these entirely unnecessary remakes except that one has some fake feminism thrown in for the targeted "woke" demographic. I highly recommend that you watch Black Christmas (1974) and Under the Shadow (2016) before reading any further. Both films are emotionally intense and very disturbing so, you've got to be in the mood for that. I wouldn't watch either of these films while you are alone either. There is coarse language, intense violence, and several frightening scenes in Black Christmas. Under the Shadow also has several frightening scenes and it is quite intense at times too. The sound in each film is very atmospheric and is an integral part of the horror both films generate in their audiences. Air raid sirens and curtains rustling add another layer of horror in Under the Shadow. The sound and music composed by Toru Takemitsu for the 1964 film Kwaidan was apparently an inspiration for the creepy soundscape of Black Christmas. I also think it's helpful to read about the historical contexts for both films especially, Under the Shadow because some might argue that the film confirms biased outsider or stereotypical views of Iran.
GUIDING CONCEPT
In Powers of Horror (1982), French feminist, Julia Kristeva describes abjection as the horror humans experience when a breakdown in meaning occurs. This breakdown in meaning happens in a moment when there is no clear distinction between self and other or subject and object (p.4-5). Kristeva uses the human corpse as the primary example of this but, bodily fluids can also arouse these feelings of disgust. The human corpse reminds us of our own mortality and materiality, this is why it is profoundly disturbing. Horror stories and films use abjection as their primary way of scaring us (e.g. lingering close-ups of people who have been brutally murdered and also building a sense of dread or helplessness). The abject also refers to “in-between-ness”, ambiguity, and to people who do not respect boundaries: “the thief, the traitor, the terrorist, the liar, and the killer who claims to be a saviour…” (p. 4).
PREMISES & PLOT SUMMARIES
Kristeva's conception of the abject is useful to think about while viewing both films. In Black Christmas, a group of sorority sisters are terrorized by a warped serial killer who makes several frightening, obscene phone calls during the holiday season. Under the Shadow is about a mother and daughter who have a very ambivalent relationship that is further strained by the Iraq-Iran war during the 1980s and strange occurrences within their apartment building. The main characters in both films are confident, sympathetic, and ambitious young women. Jess (Olivia Hussey) in Black Christmas and Shideh (Narges Rashidi) in Under the Shadow are challenged by the men in their lives. Jess's boyfriend, Peter (Keir Dullea), doesn't want her to have an abortion and becomes furious with her when she asserts her intention to do so. When Jess sees his reaction, she adds: "I wasn't even going to tell you." Shideh's husband, Iraj (Bobby Naderi), wants Shideh and their daughter, Dorsa to stay with his parents in another part of the country and is taken aback by her refusal to do that. Shideh is especially resentful of this suggestion because her attempt to return to medical school was blocked by a university administrator who refuses her request based on her previous activities with leftist student groups. Iraj has been called into military service where he will serve as a doctor. So, this dysfunctional family is plunged into further turmoil by his departure. Shideh exercises to the strictly forbidden Jane Fonda workout tapes on a VCR (the machine itself is also forbidden) to relieve some of her stress and frustration at the increasingly confining situation she finds herself in. She also drives around in a red Renault 5 and she is criticized for doing so by a male neighbour because women are not supposed to be driving in this new, theocratic Iran. In each film, both Shideh and Jess are presented in a sympathetic light and both actresses (Hussey & Rashidi) give excellent performances. Olivia Hussey elevates the film with her sophisticated and elegant presence. Narges Rashidi's Shideh is a well written character, who can display her flaws and admirable qualities in one scene and remain likable. She is trapped by so many factors beyond her control so when she loses her cool with Dorsa (who is definitely spoiled by Iraj), we can understand why.
ABJECTION AND THE ABJECT
Jess also finds herself confined in a figurative sense by the serial killer ("Billy") who targets her specifically with his increasingly horrific phone calls, making it so she cannot escape him in any sense. "Billy" speaks in different voices-(e.g. a boy, a girl, an old woman, an older man, and then in his own voice) which creates confusion about who or what "Billy" is. Billy even repeats Peter's offensive comments about Jess having an abortion. Jess begins to believe that "Billy" is actually Peter. The audience knows he is not but, at this point in the film we don't know what Billy is exactly. Is he a supernatural entity? There is not enough evidence in the film to support that conclusion although, Billy does operate like a shadowy, unstoppable monster from a nightmare. Is he a sociopath that used to live in the house and does he have a dissociative identity disorder ? Billy is an abject being in this way-he uses coarse language disrupting the middle class manners of the sorority house, speaks in sing-song voices like some kind of ghost, and tends to snarl like a ferocious animal when he attacks his intended victims. Billy does not respect boundaries. First, he invades a women-only space, then he behaves as though he is a ghost or some type of predatory creature (e.g. a snake, or spider) stalking the sisters, and gradually turns the familiar domestic space of the private house into a giant death trap. He uses household items for murder in two of the film's most shocking scenes. These scenes are more frightening because Billy operates as the abject in the film but, like Peter he works to make Jess feel more and more abject herself because of her desire to be an independent woman.
Shideh and Dorsa are actually challenged by a supernatural entity that operates in ways that are similar to the methods used by Billy. The jinn haunting the mother and daughter takes full advantage of the animosity that grows between them. The jinn also uses the telephone to play cruel mind games with Shideh (as Billy does with Jess) mimicking what Iraj has said or would say. At one point, the jinn actually impersonates Iraj in a nightmare Shideh has. Dorsa's doll, Kimia is the jinn's metaphorical casualty because when a beloved personal item is taken by the jinn, it can possess that particular human. Kimia is a comfort object for Dorsa and when she is taken, Dorsa is traumatized. A neighbour, Ms. Ebrahimi advises Shideh about the powers of the jinn and Shideh's skepticism fades as she realizes that she is facing two different oppressive forces in her life-the repressive regime she lives under which is inadvertently helping the jinn in its mission to possess her and Dorsa. The jinn also eventually uses a white chador to cover itself and in this way it uses something that Shideh refuses to don to menace her with. The jinn in this film makes the familiar strange and horrifying whether it is a person, place, or object. This developing sense of dread is the abject at work. The familiar begins to signify death and this is where the breakdown in meaning occurs.
The jinn and Billy don't seem to care whether their victims are ethical or immoral people. They operate as though nihilism is a guiding part of their respective missions. Furthermore, we the audience are forced at times, to view each murder and grotesque scene through Billy's eyes. Since the audience can't identify with the homicidal and unsympathetic Billy the feeling of abjection is enhanced. Thus the viewers of the film become invested in seeing him stopped even though we can feel like disgusted, frightened, and helpless witnesses to all of this. Billy murders the kind and thoughtful Claire (Lynne Griffin) in a particularly vicious manner. Later, Billy follows through on the death threat he made earlier in the film over the phone to the hard-drinking, tough, and insensitive Barb (Margot Kidder). In fact, nearly every time the phone rings in the film you realize that someone will be murdered following that call. Now, Barb is a bit of an oddball among her sorority sisters. She talks and behaves like a frat boy, is unfazed by Billy's calls, and challenges him boldly. Barb is the most assertive sorority sister but, she is often rude and mean. Both Jess and Phyll (Andrea Martin) call her out on this at different points in the film. It becomes clear that Barb seeks attention (positive or negative) because she is hurt by the fact that she doesn't receive any attention from her own mother. This is similar to the mother-daughter conflict between Shideh and Dorsa. Billy hates all the sorority sisters regardless of their behaviour. He focuses on Jess because she is truly the most stable, mature, and confident of the sisters. She is the most balanced and thus traumatizing her continually will guarantee that the others will fall easily and Jess will be the only one left.
THE END?
Shideh and Dorsa are similarly the only ones left in the haunted apartment which becomes a hellscape just like the sorority house. Perhaps the jinn in the film chooses Shideh because it knows she will be an interesting challenge rather than someone possessed easily. Shideh and Dorsa must repair their damaged relationship to escape the jinn. It is already too late for the sorority sisters to repair their fractured relationships in Black Christmas. Both films have "surprise" endings that leave what may or may not happen next open to interpretation. My thought on this is that both Billy and the jinn represent an existential threat to the protagonists (Jess, Shideh,& Dorsa) that cannot be destroyed until greater, radical action is taken. Shideh and Dorsa have to go further than Iraj's parents if they want to do more than survive. The mutilated doll and Shideh's cherished medical textbook remain in the apartment kept by the jinn suggesting that they have only evaded the monster who can keep trying to possess them. At the end of Black Christmas, the police officers leave believing Peter to have been the killer. Jess had killed Peter with the fireplace poker thinking that he was the murderer. We see Jess sleeping alone in the house and the camera takes the audience back up to the attic where Billy is muttering something. Billy makes his last phone call and descends from the attic presumably to murder Jess while she sleeps. However, a phone ringing loudly can certainly wake someone up so, Jess could indeed escape and there is a police officer outside the front door who could help her. The open endings in each film certainly create the abject in terms of narratives because they are not giving viewers the narrative closure we often seek from a film-a clear beginning-middle-end structure. This narrative disruption along with the abject imagery and sounds work together to solidify terror in the minds of viewers. The directors Bob Clark and Babak Anvari both knew that the scariest aspect of any horror film is uncertainty. The feeling you have when the lights suddenly go out in the evening during a power failure or when you don't know what lurks in the shadows of a dark forest, parking lot, or just any dark room really. The monstrous threat in a good horror film is a stand-in for some larger problem of existence such as war, sexism, racism, classism, anti-LGBTQ hatred, ageism, ableism, colonization, or the degradation of the environment. Both directors also knew that a good horror story needs a protagonist or protagonists that an audience will identify with and root for because if we don't care about the characters,we won't invest ourselves in their life or death narrative. Jump scares, gore, elaborate death traps, and unlikable or bland characters are simply not good enough for a horror film to be memorable beyond the moments in which it was watched. The best work of Angela Carter, Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen King, and Anne Rice maintain that mix of uncertainty, fear, and disgust in the life of at least one character with an existential conflict that we would actually care to follow for the length of a novel or film. For my next entry, I'll discuss the hopeful, zany, and delightful Steven Universe.
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