This is the end, beautiful friend, the end. As the Texas dusk settles over Town Lake and Austin proper, I swing my precision German machine into the wide confines of Sixth Street, determined to brave the dusk-to-dawn horrors of the last QT III movie-go-round. Tarantino has selected a feast of genre titles to send us out in bloody style:

Black Christmas

Eyes of a Stranger

Torso

Hell Night

The Prowler

The Blood-Spattered Bride

This will be a marathon post too, so bear with me. The trailers are going strong (here's a favorite) as I enter the Alamo womb with a view for the final show. One minute in, and I'm already nostalgic. I find my usual seat, say hello to Harry Knowles (who never finished his write-up of QT III, though it was funny to watch Quentin pore over them when Harry passed them to him -- at the time QT claimed to not use the internet)  and order an ale and pepperoni pizza. Fug it, it's Saturday night!

Alamo programmer extraordanaire Lars bops out to intro and thank QT and us for coming out. Quentin enters stage left, wired and excited, making sure the crowd catches his infectious enthusiasm. He goes into a long spiel, most of which I've lost to DNA, but the evening's sub-title comes from one of Quentin's favorite books on horror theory by Carol Clover (who taught this course when I was at Berkeley). Quentin switches the focus to us with his Who Will Survive This Night And What Will Be Left Of Them speech. He warns us that HIS MOTHER is in the house and if she can take an all-nighter, then YOU better be able to, alright? We all give Connie a huge round of applause, rightly honoring her for giving birth to such an influential film geek. Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater and Mike Judge are also among the attendant Austin media mafia.

Quentin sets us up for the first film, Bob Clark's 1974 classic BLACK CHRISTMAS. QT is a big fan of Clark and talks about his quadrant of memorable 70's horror films, CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS; DEATHDREAM and DERANGED (which is a pretty amazing genre run before Clark unleashed the dismal PORKY'S upon the world). He talks about how influential BLACK CHRISTMAS was with its killer POV and various shock effects, although HALLOWEEN and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS received more attention a few years later.  John Carpenter admitted to being a fan of BLACK CHRISTMAS as his script PREY was set to be directed by Clark in 1975. Apparently, Clark even gave him the genesis of the idea for HALLOWEEN. After setting us up, Quentin tells us we’re going to have a Best Of The Fest awards later on. He also gleefully reminds the audience to "Don't be like Mr. Pink! Tip your waitress!" He  swings the microphone and drops it with a scary THUD. Showtime.

I saw the trailer for BLACK CHRISTMAS  in 1975 at a military base theater before the awful forgotten Elliot Gould "comedy" WHIFFS (tho I still recall much of that horror). Watch the creepy trailer here. Scares me even in daylight. And yes, the movie is just as frightening. Set in an all-female college dorm during a snowy Xmas time, Clark directs with a sure hand, creating an atmosphere of increasing fear and dread, with almost no blood whatsoever. We start with the now all-familiar POV shot of the panting madman entering the attic of the house, planting himself there armed only with a phone...at this point. Soon, the women start to receive the most disturbing phone calls in film history from "Billy," who talks in a variety of voices and modulations. You will never forget this schizoid sound collage once you hear it.

Featuring a low-budget , yet game cast of Olivia Hussey, John Saxon, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder and a young Andrea Martin, the film moves them through their claustrophobic paces, guided by the ever-gliding camera that keeps taking us we don't want to go. Clark also keeps things humorous when he can, and the roots of PORKY'S are here with Clark's signature moment: characters laughing uncontrollably at somebody (I swear, this scene shows up in almost every one of his films). His direction is surprisingly stylish, with split-diapter shots and effective framing. I won't give anymore away, suffice to say that the unlikely but terrifying ending of BLACK CHRISTMAS  never lets you off the phone hook...I think it’s the scariest final scene until THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT came along. In fact, BLACK CHRISTMAS remains in my top three scary films of all time. I defy you to watch this alone at night. Of course, the great irony is that the man who directed the most frightening Christmas movie also directed the heartwarming classic, A CHRISTMAS STORY. Bob Clark RIP.