Bob Clark
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Connections, in both directions
Friday the 13th may have lifted its gory riffs from Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood (just as Carpenter looked back to Bob Clark’s Black Christmas ), but it was Halloween that paved the way for its blockbuster success.
Even if this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Ralphie's profanity slip in 1983's "A Christmas Story," it still comes off as the doing of a corporate head rather than a specific creative choice on Dougherty's part.
Along with some unconscious echoes of the similarly crude Tenacious D In: The Pick Of Destiny, the film embraces the edgier comedies of the early 1980s like National Lampoon's Animal House and Porky's (especially with the vintage Columbia logo that opens the film, and the hilariously retro title sequence), as well as Apatow's fabulous (if little-seen) 1999 TV high-school drama 'Freaks And Geeks'.
These whimsical asides feel inspired by Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ (1983) or perhaps even Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story (1983), where Paul’s mental images take over the screen.
The first time we see Buddy (played by “A Christmas Story”-cute newcomer Jude Hill), he’s sword-fighting a happy swarm of other kids in a frenzied street scene that doesn’t evoke Northern Island so much as it does Neverland.
The cynical take would point out the stylistic similarities to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma and consider Branagh’s attempt to be an attempt to translate his own life into Oscar gold, but in spite of a similar penchant for portraying an autobiographical past in stark monochrome, Belfast shares much more cinematic DNA with A Christmas Story than any of its contemporaries.
But as far as thematic storytelling goes, this is like if A Christmas Story was directed by Richard Linklater with a dash of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing ; it primarily centers on nine-year-old Buddy in a series of snapshot vignettes doing child-like activities, such as playing, having first crushes at school, and getting into trouble.
Because of this, high school comedies have been a major force in the film world since their propagation in the 1980s on the back of John Hughes, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Porky’s.”
The fact that the film was directed by a woman, was written by four women, and is told entirely from the perspective of two female characters immediately sets it apart from the typical teen comedy, but what is curious is how closely it hews to the conventions of a genre made famous by adolescent male hijinks—from American Graffiti (1973), to Porky’s (1982), to American Pie (1999), and Superbad (2007), the latter of which it most closely resembles in plot, tone, and sentiment.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011)
Directed by David Bowers
influenced by A Christmas Story (1983)
Themes
Last year's original was a surprise hit, turning Jeff Kinney's popular series of kids' books into a bouncy screen version that seemed born in wry memories filtered through fond reminiscences like those in "A Christmas Story" or "The Wonder Years."
It reminds me of Ralphie in A Christmas Story (1983) desperately decoding his ring to reveal the answer, "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."
Have we time-traveled back to the 1980s, when movies like Porky's reigned supreme?
It's also because Hollywood has given us some pretty dismal pairings in the past: Jay Leno and Pat Morita in Collision Course, of course, but also Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi in Red Heat, Gene Hackman (oh, Gene...) and Dan Aykroyd in Loose Cannons ... the list goes on.
A treacly narrator ( Patrick Stewart ) describes a Christmas that reminds us of a " A Christmas Story ," except for the jolts of four-letter words and anti-PC one-liners.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Directed by Michael Chaves
influenced by A Christmas Story (1983)
Characters
Their efforts to shed the devil from Master David Glatzel (Julian Hillard), who sort of resembles Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) from “A Christmas Story” or Ray Boyd (Jonathan Lipnicki) in “Jerry Maguire” (1996), are successful but not entirely.
3. Producer and former child star Peter Billingsley ("A Christmas Story").
During the 1980s, teen movies predominantly splintered into two categories: John Hughes "dramadies" and the raunch of Porky's.
But the 1980s began with giggly sex comedies like Porky’s and Fast Times, and then John Hughes took over, imbuing high school narratives with an earnest kindness and “be yourself” messaging.
Just as Sherlock Holmes did in "Murder by Decree" and "A Study in Terror," the inspector finds a connection to the growing list of victims, a ritualistic aspect to the crimes, and clues that lead him to the gates of Buckingham Palace and a grand government conspiracy.
While such a critique holds true with some later slasher films, in both Halloween and Friday the 13th (as well as Bob Clark’s often undervalued but deeply influential 1974 film Black Christmas) it is clearly used as a means of concealing an identity, similar to Hitchcock’s use of the extreme high angle when Mother comes out of the bedroom to meet Arbogast at the top of the stairs.
There are a number of other touches that could have played well had it have been for a few more drafts: his hometown, his inner conflict, his best friend who’s like if Ralphie from A Christmas Story was a Nazi in training (Archie Yates).
There are two holiday comedies I pretty much have to watch every year: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story.
But a helping of familiar holiday schmaltz and some poor visual effects nudge "Elf" off the must-see list reserved for essentials like "Scrooged" and "A Christmas Story."
Anime director Satoshi Kon, who gave us last year’s marvelous “Millennium Actress,” has created a work of art that should become a staple for Christmas holiday viewing a la “A Christmas Story,” “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Scrooge” (the 1951 Alistair Sim version of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carrol”).