A ghastly sight has terrified horror fans for nearly five decades: a young woman’s lifeless body is propped in a rocking chair—her head wrapped in plastic, her eyes wide, her mouth agape. Lynne Griffin plays this tragic character, Clare Harrison, the first victim in Black Christmas, an early death as iconic as Casey Becker’s in Scream (1996). That haunting image of doe-eyed Clare is the primary focus of the film’s promotional art, and it’s ever-present in the film itself, only visible to the killer and the viewer, a heart-wrenching reminder of the truth as her father and sorority sisters investigate her disappearance.

Griffin returns to the horror genre in Curtains (1983), graduating from first victim to final girl. Her character this time is a stand-up comedian auditioning for the film role of a lifetime at the director’s mansion surrounded by snow and ice. Curtains revels in the art of performance, and Griffin improvises her character’s comedy routine, adding bawdy and biting humor to a bleak and brutal film. She might survive to the end of this nightmarish ordeal, but her fate is unlike that of most other final girls.

She appears in Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils (2023) alongside Amanda Seyfried, she plays Elvis Presley’s grandmother in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla (2023), and she makes a cameo appearance in Eli Roth’s hit holiday slasher, Thanksgiving (2023). Griffin, along with her Black Christmas castmate Olivia Hussey, will soon be joining the cast of the second and final installment of It’s Me, Billy (2021/2024), the acclaimed fan-made sequel to Black Christmas.

FACETS is honored to welcome Griffin to Chicago as a part of her holiday travels. She and her husband, fellow actor Sean Sullivan (Wayne’s World, Back to the Future lll, The Umbrella Academy), will also be celebrating their 29th wedding anniversary during their stay, and Griffin is overjoyed to participate in the conversations following these screenings of Black Christmas and Curtains to celebrate these marvelous films, their chilling atmosphere, their feminist themes, and her unforgettable characters.

PRESHOWS 

This double feature of Black Christmas and Curtains includes brand new animated ad galleries created by Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum, a fanzine exploring classic eras of horror, sci-fi, cult, and exploitation films through vintage newspaper ads.

This double feature is sponsored by House of Monsters and programmed by John McDevitt, FACETS Community Engagement Manager.