Black Christmas
Directed by Bob Clark
During a festive Yuletide party, a group of sorority sisters receive a creepy call from someone who claims he’s going to kill them all. The girls soon realize the threats were serious, when one by one, they each fall prey to the mysterious maniac. After directing two relatively ignored horror flicks which later became cult classics (CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS & DEATHDREAM), a Christmas miracle made Bob Clark’s 1974 classic a hit. A huge influence on John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN, BLACK CHRISTMAS is frequently credited with helping spawn the slasher subgenre.
This horror classic about a killer stalking sorority girls on Xmas helped spawn the slasher genre.
Cast: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder
Member Reviews
The guy who brought us A Christmas Story is the same guy who did this film?! Holy shit, I would've never put these two films in the same boat but now I just have to, for continuity's sake. This film was entertaining the entire watch-through, not once getting boring. Lately, it seems most films I watch get boring somewhere in the first 30-40 minutes but this was a relief. To be able to not experience boredom with a film! Yes! The acting was great and the characters, at least our main characters, were likable. "The Moaner" is definitely a frightening villain. The myriad of voices you hear with every phone call feels more diabolical than it is psychotic. The simple tone when the caller says to Barb that he's going to kill her is horrifying, not just in the terms of context but literally the way the words are spoken feels terrifying and blood-curdling. The film feels more akin to Carpenter's Halloween throughout most of the film but once Jess slams the door into "Billy", that entire scene amplifies itself with tension, creating a scene just as terrifying and scary as the opening scene to I Saw The Devil (which is one of my favorite foreign horror films). The profane and obscene conversations "Billy" has with our characters and with himself within each phone call is reminiscent of the dialogue spoken by a possessed Reagan in Blatty's The Exorcist. Notice, how each of the films I'm referencing in this review are all 70s films. That must say something about this decade in horror. (Well, that is in exclusion to I Saw The Devil which is from the 2010s lol) So yeah, that about sums up my review for 74's Black Christmas, a film I've been wanting to see for years and have finally gotten around to doing so. This is certainly a film I will be rewatching every holiday season as well as whenever I'm in the mood for it. And you can count on me for putting this film on and then following it up with A Christmas Story every Christmas season. So yeah.
Loved it! This was my first time seeing this classic and there's certainly a reason why it's considered a classic. Big fan
The absolute greatest in Slasher movies and truly what I believe to be the first. The original calls are coming from inside the house and some truly creepy moments. Scream Queens Margot Kidder - Olivia Hussey - Lynne Griffin & Horror Great John Saxon.
Unrelenting. Massive influence on the slasher genre. Recommended.
cannot be understated how important this movie is