Black Xmas

“Black Xmas” was one of those movies I wanted to see when I just needed some junk-food for the brain. When it came out on December 25^th, 2006 Chicago Tribune gave it a ½-star rating and I never really had any intention to see it. But when I was at Family Video with Seth some time later perusing their movie titles and the two of us were not able to agree on anything, I suggested “Black Xmas,” which was immediately vetoed by Seth. So for my horror movie watching body of experience this movie was shelved until winter of 2008 when I came back from China.

When I was in the last couple of weeks of my 4-month sojourn abroad I believe I heard word from Seth that he was finally willing to watch the movie. I spent less than 30 minutes watching the original “Black Christmas,” split up into 10-minute segments on Youtube. I was sitting in my bleak dorm room with a sore back knowing for sure I was wasting time, but I looked out the large window at the city immersed in dream-like smog; that pollution index with a head cold was combination enough for me to decide to stay indoors.

Sure enough, shortly after I returned to the States, Seth and I made our way over to Family Video and this time took no time to dawdle, simply grabbed the movie, paid a dollar and left. There was a snowstorm in Chicago that night, and the video store parking lot was filling quickly with white wispy powder that had my pant leg bottoms wet and cold. We went back to Seth’s house and vegged out in his room until late watching this movie, which is a ridiculous mess of gruesome eye-stabbings. That was indeed the central motif that seemed to tie the film together: ceaseless eye-gouging. Seth’s ceiling fan made my eyes dry but otherwise I was comfortable. I recall thinking the movie must have made me 5% dumber.