GUEST BLOG: SOUNDTRACK SPOTLIGHT: BLACK CHRISTMAS

For this soundtrack spotlight it’s time to get festive with the 1974 ‘Black Christmas’ and an expertly minimal soundtrack from Carl Zittrer.

For a Christmas horror it starts with a nice rendition of silent night to get the audience into the right mood and create a nice sense of calm, but then as the camera changes to an ominous first-person view, the music shifts to a more sinister tone using overlapping drones. 

Any sense of calm is extinguished when the sorority receives a menacing phone call.

When Claire leaves to finish packing, we can see from the first-person camera that there is someone else in the room with her, this time rather than the drones heard previously, there are muffled percussive piano sounds as though the piano strings are being struck and dampened from within the piano. After this scene the music again stops until Claire’s body is revealed to the sound of sudden plucked strings fading to an eerie single vocal.

The next time there is any music is when the sorority receives another strange phone call, this is accompanied by the same muffled percussive piano sounds as before.

In a later scene Peter is playing a rather intense piano piece badly for a recital, this is the first diagetic piece of music since the Christmas songs at the party in the opening scene.  Peter later takes out his frustrations on the piano by smashing the strings inside, creating the same percussive piano sounds as the non-diagetic music used for the killer. 

After the death of Mrs. Mac and during the next phone call from the killer the piano sounds begin to become clearer. 

Other than the sounds during the death scenes and phone calls there is not really any music in the film, making the music all the more effective when used. 

The next use of diagetic Christmas music is when a group of carol singers come to the sorority house, this is then mixed with the non-diagetic piano sound as the killer enters Barbs room while Jess is at the door listening to the carol singers. 

When Jess starts to investigate after finding out that the calls were indeed coming from inside the house, the drones begin again this time building slightly in volume each time the further Jess gets into the house.

During the final scene as the camera pans from the house and the credits start to roll there is no music at all, just the sound of the phone ringing, getting louder.

All in all this was an extremely effective soundtrack in creating an identity for the unseen killer and his erratic behaviour with the use of very percussive atonal sounds. A recommended Christmas classic.