When Love Calls at Christmas
When Love Calls at Christmas
Loving, Knowing, Terrifying
December 22, 2021
Loving and Knowing
You remember the moment.
Princess Leia looks at Han Solo at a critical juncture in The Empire Strikes Back and says, “I love you.”
And Han, Mr. Cool, replies, “I know.”
And hearts across the galaxy go pitter patter.
It’s a great response. By saying “I know” instead of “I love you, too” he was still saying “I love you, too” while also saying he never doubted that she loved him because that’s how much faith he had in her. It wasn’t cocky. It was adorable.
It was also ad-libbed. Harrison Ford was supposed to say something else but he took the rebel route and gave us a memorable moment from an unforgettable movie.
But he wasn’t the first.
In one of the early scenes in 1974’s Black Christmas Jess, played by Olivia Hussey, is on the phone with her boyfriend Peter, (Keir Dullea) and he says he loves her and she says, “I know.”
And hangs up.
Her “I know” is much different. Her “I know” is saying yeah, sure, I don’t love you and I don’t want to be with you. It’s not as dramatic as Han Solo and the fate of the galaxy is not at stake. But it’s just as good. If not better.
And it was first.
Did Harrison Ford have Black Christmas on his mind when he ad-libbed six years later? We may never know.
The Empire Strikes Back is a terrific movie, only a tick behind its precursor, Star Wars, on the scale of awesomeness.
But Black Christmas is in a universe all its own.
It’s about sorority girls who are terrorized by someone who keeps calling them over Christmas break. It’s dark, it’s moody, it’s dripping with terror and sadness. It was filmed in Canada but it could be Chicago, it could be Michigan, it could be anywhere with big old houses nestled in snow and despair.
It’s the joy, the anticipation, and the abandonment that come with Christmas. It’s the beauty of youth and the strength of femininity.
It’s not just one of the best horror movies or best Christmas movies, or the very best Christmas horror movie it’s, just…the best.
It’s a movie we can only watch at Christmas, as you understand, but maybe we should break that little rule and watch it every month and pretend it’s Christmas. We can imagine it’s always 1974 and every girl looks like Olivia Hussey.
But in our re-imagining there is no horror, or violence, or death. But, no matter what we do, there will be some cold Christmas sadness.
It comes with the territory. It doesn’t need a script. --TK
Wednesday, December 22, 2021