Scanning the 'net yesterday, I was shocked and saddened to see the headline that
director Bob Clark and his son were killed in a car accident early Wednesday
morning. Clark is probably best remembered as the director of the holiday
classic A Christmas Story, and the raunchfest Porky's, but genre fans will also
remember him as the director of several horror classics, including Black
Christmas, which fans are now calling the original slasher film before Halloween,
and the haunting Deathdream (one of the only good movies ever shown on Elvira's
Movie Macabre show in the '80's).

Clark also produced Deranged, a fictionalized account of the life of Ed Gein,
which is predictably pretty gruesome, but also funny in an underhanded way.
Screenwriter / Director Alan Ormsby made the film's narration droll because the
real life story was so sick, without the black comedy it would have been
unwatchable (Deranged may also be the first "mockumentary," a style later
perfected in This is Spinal Tap).

Black Christmas is now a classic of '70's horror, with shots from the killer's
perspective years before Halloween's classic POV of the killer opening, and
chilling phone stalking scenes that clearly inspired When A Stranger Calls.
Deathdream was a frightening retelling of The Monkey's Paw, with a dead soldier
coming home from Vietnam a combination vampire / zombie, feeding on the living.
A rotting ghoul was the film's physical manifestation of the horrors of war, and
where it would take the major studios years to make films about 'Nam, Clark had
the courage to make an anti-war film when many wouldn't.

Clark also gave us Murder By Decree, a terrific Sherlock Holmes mystery with
Christopher Plummer and James Mason, and the aforementioned Christmas Story,
which was not a hit when it was first released but is now among It's a Wonderful
Life for mandatory holiday viewing. And of course, Clark also gave us Porky's,
the outrageous comedy for the post-Animal House generation.

Last night at the L.A. Grindhouse Festival, one of the fest's organizers talked
about Clark before the movie screenings, and was pretty broken up over his death.
They had shown Black Christmas last December, and the theater, which holds 280
capacity, had over 300 people in attendance. Clark was there for a Q&A, and
stayed until every fan who wanted to meet him did, and everyone who wanted an
autograph got one. The fest organizer also told us to make sure and watch a Bob
Clark movie in his memory, and I recommend you do the same.