Imagine, as a filmmaker, being able to brag about creating not one classic Christmas movie, but two must-watch holiday staples? That's Bob Clark's reality. A Christmas Story is the title most audiences associate with Clark, given how it marathons on syndication for 24 hours every December. But what about his knockout on the other side of the naughty or nice spectrum? Before Clark went on to direct Porky's, A Christmas Story, and Baby Geniuses, he helped popularize the slasher subgenre by introducing viewers to the snow-dusted impurity of 1974's Black Christmas.

Clark's ho-ho-horrific Canadian masterpiece isn't just the best Christmas-themed slasher; it's on the Mount Rushmore of classic slashers. What's achieved through noose-tight tension and unrelenting dread informs an entire subgenre of horror that, in turn, would misunderstand the strengths of Black Christmas and devolve into cheap sleaze. Clark's ability to sustain frigid suspense using perverse phone calls, voyeuristic peeping Toms (inspired by Peeping Tom), and the sorority slasher mold does not relent. Black Christmas is a horrific testament to fear and paranoia, before the slasher genre predominantly became male-gazey skin flicks and sloppy gore romps.

Read our full review here.

There was a time, many years ago, when having a printer at home was as standard as a tablet is today. There was a practical reason for this: The paper-driven bureaucracy. Banks, the government, doctors, and employers all needed you to fill out forms, print them, and mail them. That is definitely no longer the case — thank goodness — and as such printers are as rare as landlines.

But having a printer can bring a kind of device freedom that is well worth its cost in ink. I found this recently when I brought an HP Smart Tank 7300 into my home. Within a few days, I was printing out work and marking it up by hand. I was handing out one-sheeters at community meet-ups so that we all have something to share. And, yes, I’ve written a few early Holiday Thank-Yous and sent them in the mail. The printed pages freed me from so many modern distractions — tabs on the browser, Slack messages waiting, social apps reminding me to come on back. It was small but real breath of non-digital fresh air.

Printer technology might have peaked in its heyday, but setup is easier than ever, the ink lasts longer (from less need to print everything and the extinction of monthly ink subscriptions), and all the old frills are built into even entry printers.

The HP Smart Tank 7300 itself is more than capable — with a scanner, copier, and impressively detailed colors, three years of ink included. I’m probably not going to get my $450 worth if I see it as just a replacement to those times when I really need to print something for work or meet-ups and go to my local library to pay for it. But a printer has given me some surprisingly big steps away from the distraction economy — those pesky tabs on my computer and the soul-sucking draw of apps on my phone. I find that very much worth the price of paper. —Tyghe Trimble