By now you've probably heard that director Bob Clark, the man behind the seminal 1974 slasher film Black Christmas, was killed yesterday in a Los Angeles car crash. Both Clark and his 22-year-old son Ariel were killed when their sedan was struck head-on by an SUV...driven by an intoxicated man. Who was driving without a license. And who only sustained minor injuries. To call this incredibly depressing is a gross understatement.
If you've been here a while, you know how very much I love Black Christmas, but I also have a huge soft spot (as do most people I know) for Clark's other Christmas film, A Christmas Story. Then there's the campy '70s zombie flick, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, a film whose title alone was enough to incite terror in me when I was young. Clark, in fact, was in pre-production on a remake of Children at the time of his death. I was looking forward to his return to horror after years spent creating mediocre family fare such as Baby Geniuses. His career was nothing if not varied, however, as he brought us everything from horror (Black Christmas, Deathdream, Children...) to frat-house comedies (Porky's) to an excuse to get Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone on-screen together at last (Rhinestone) to beloved family films (A Christmas Story) to something called The Karate Dog which probably isn't as cool as I want it to be.
Read more about his sad passing here.
Isn't this the saddest thing ever? It just kind of breaks my heart. I absolutely extend my deepest sympathies to his family.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope that drunk driver fries.
Sad and pointless. My heart goes out to the Clark family.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first I have heard of this. My sympathies also go out to his family and friends.
ReplyDeleteAn absolute cryin' shame. Seemed like things were on the up tick for ol' Bob, too. I really thought he had some more greatness left in him to show the world but I guess we'll never know.
ReplyDeleteRIP, Bob.
Requiescat in pace.
ReplyDeleteThe news only mentioned The Christmas Story. I had no idea he directed Black Christmas too. What a horrible tragedy.
ReplyDeleteThat does suck. On the other hand, Miss Ponder is mentioned in this month's Rue Morgue magazine.
ReplyDeleteHeh...Des, someone emailed me about that yesterday. I need to track it down.
ReplyDeleteUnderstatement of the Year: That makes me really fucking happy!!!
I love Black Christmas and Death Dream/Dead of Night. One of my earliest memories was of going to the drive-in with my parents and Porky's was part of a double bill. I was very young then and didn't really pay much attention to the movie but I just remember by mom being all nervous: "She we be watching this with the kids?" Dad had a "they got to see it sometime" attitude-he diffently got me into horror early on. I'll miss old Bob.
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