Black Christmas Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Black Christmas Blu-ray Movie Review

Anchor Bay has released a "Season's Grievings Edition" of Bob Clark's BLACK CHRISTMAS in Canada. It contains three exclusive bonus materials: an original screenplay accessible on BD-ROM, a sixteen-page booklet with an essay and interviews with cast/crew, and a brief gallery of ad campaign materials. The S.G.E. also houses many of the same special features that would later reappear on Shout! Factory's 2016 Collector's Edition. Region "A" locked.

My colleague, Dr. Svet Atanasov, and I previously covered Black Christmas (1974) for the Somerville House and Shout! Factory editions. You can read our comments on the film in the linked reviews. Initial pressings of the S.G.E. came with a slipcover but mine did not. I have scanned a spread of the cover art in Screenshot #1, the front of the leaflet and BD picture disc in #2, and an image of the main menu's backdrop in #15.

Back and front cover artwork for the "Season's Grievings Edition"

Black Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Black Christmas appears in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which is opened up from its originally framed ratio of 1.85:1. This BD-50 uses the MPEG-4 AVC encode. The average video bitrate clocks in at 20000 kbps. This is not the same transfer as the 2K scan that appeared on disc one of Shout!'s set. There are more blips and artifacts on this print. Skin tones are definitely on the reddish side. Contrast is also inferior. However, grain is preserved and the transfer still looks better than its DVD and BD predecessors.

Anchor Bay has titled each of the sixteen scenes that are accessible on its chapter menu.

Black Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The lone sound track option is an English Dolby Digital Audio 5.1 Surround (448 kbps) remix. The back cover lists Dolby TrueHD 5.1 but unfortunately, that's an error. I did not notice the sibilance technicality that plagued the original monaural presentation on the initial disc pressings of Shout's release last year. Hiss seems minimized as I could make out nearly all the characters' spoken utterances. This is a front-heavy track. Satellite speakers are used on occasion.

Anchor Bay has notoriously left off subtitles or closed captions on a lot of its DVD and Blu-ray releases but English SDH are included here. There are a few grammatical errors and missed words/names but it's a fairly complete transcription (see example in #4.)

Black Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• "Billy Is Watching": Audio Commentary with Billy (Actor Nick Mancuso in Character)

• Audio Commentary with Director Bob Clark

• Audio Commentary with Actors John Saxon and Keir Dullea

• "Black Christmas Legacy" documentary (40:21, 1080p)

• 40th Anniversary Panel at Fan Expo 2015 (18:02, 1080p)

• EXCLUSIVE Still Gallery (:52, 1080p) - brief as it is, this slide show displays a couple of rare international posters where the film had alternate titles, the Warner Bros. press book, and some color lobby cards.

• "12 Days of Black Christmas" featurette (19:48, 480i)

• "Black Christmas Revisited" documentary (36:25, 480i)

• "Uncovered" Sound Scenes: Trellis Climb and Final Pan (3:04, 480i)

• Interview Segments: Olivia Hussey, Art Hindle, Margot Kidder, Bob Clark, and John Saxon (1:41:30, 480i)

• Midnight Screening Q&A (20:20, 480i)

• English and French Trailers (8:16, 480i)

• TV Spots (2:01, 480i)

• Radio Spots (1:08)

• Alternative Title Sequences (2:47, 1080p)

• EXCLUSIVE BD-ROM Content: Original Script with Handwritten Notes - the major selling point is this 166-page original script of Black Christmas. As you'll see when you access the PDF file, it was originally titled Stop Me! by the Ottawa writer Roy Moore. There are numerous spiral notebook pages filled out, with the exposition composed in cursive and dialogue printed in longhand. There are also many pages typed on an old-fashioned typewriter. They contain inserts by Moore, scenes crossed out, scenes re-numbered, and annotations in the margins. Overall, the script is readable and the basic gist of the cursive sentences can be discerned. This screenplay initially appeared on the Region 1 Canadian Critical Mass Releasing "Collector's Edition" and the Region 4 Roadshow "Collector's Edition" in Australia. I believe that those two DVD are out-of-print so if you didn't procure a copy, the S.G.E. is the one to get! The script is even more valuable considering that the eponymous 1976 novelization by Lee Hays (who based it on Moore's screenplay) is long out-of-print and is only held by a select few libraries worldwide.

• EXCLUSIVE Enclosed Booklet - includes an essay by the editor of Rue Magazine, an interview with Bob Clark, and lots of interview snippets by several cast/crew members. Also contains eleven small images of poster design concepts and production stills.

Black Christmas Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Shout! Factory's two-disc Collector's Edition of Black Christmas has the best image, the original mono, and most complete collection of supplements. However, the Canadian Season's Grievings Edition is a very cool set in its own right, even if its A/V pales in comparison and comes up short in number of bonus features. Some rare stills, the complete screenplay, and a nuggets-packed booklet make it a FINE COMPLEMENT to Shout's and so it earns a SOLID RECOMMENDATION for the true fans.