Movie Review – Black Christmas (1974)

“If this picture doesn’t make your skin crawl . . . it’s on TOO TIGHT.”

That’s the tag line for Black Christmas, a 1974 Canadian independent horror film that takes place on a college campus during Christmas break.  This film has also been known by alternate titles such as Silent Night, Evil Night and Stranger in the House.

Directed by Bob Clark, Black Christmas stars Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder as two of the sorority sisters.  Supporting them are Keir Dullea as Peter Smythe, and John Saxon as police Lieutenant Kenneth Fuller.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

Black Christmas begins one night at the start of Christmas break on a college campus.  As the sorority sisters drink and have a good time, we watch the point-of-view of a disoriented man as he climbs up the trellis on the side of the sorority house and enters the attic.  Shortly later the girls receive an obscene phone call.  Instead of being disgusted or scared, Barb Coard (Margot Kidder) provokes the caller, to which he replies that he’s going to kill her.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

This spooks fellow sorority sister Claire Harrison (Lynne Griffin), and she heads upstairs to pack her clothes.  Her father is scheduled to take her home tomorrow for the Christmas break.  While packing her clothes, Claire hears Claude the cat and goes to investigate why he’s meowing.  Claire is suddenly attacked by a man and choked to death by a plastic sheet wrapped around her head.  Her dead body is then taken upstairs to the attic and then carefully placed in a chair by a window.  The other sorority sisters are too engrossed with their party to hear the attack taking place upstairs.

Later, we see Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) make a phone call to her boyfriend, Peter.  She needs to talk to him in person about something important, but she won’t say why over the phone.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

The next day Claire’s father, Mr. Harrison (James Edmond), arrives on campus to pick up his daughter, but she’s nowhere to be found.  He’s given directions to Claire’s sorority house, and he goes there to look for his daughter.  Mr. Harrison meets with Mrs. Mac (Marian Waldman), the house mother, at the sorority house, but she hasn’t seen Claire, either.  Mrs. mac suggests that Claire is with her boyfriend, Chris, over at his fraternity house.  She offers to take him there as she’s heading to that side of the campus anyway.

Meanwhile, Jess meets with Peter Smythe (Keir Dullea), her boyfriend, and tells him that she’s pregnant.  While Peter is thrilled at the news, Jess informs him that she does not want the baby.  She wants to get an abortion.  This infuriates Peter and he insists that they’re not finished discussing it.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

After doing more searching on campus and talking to more of Claire’s friends, there’s still no sign of the girl.  Mr. Harrison goes to the local police station along with Barb and her sorority sister, Phyllis “Phyl” Carlson (Andrea Martin), to report Claire’s disappearance.  Sergeant Nash (Doug McGrath) doesn’t seem to be too concerned about the missing girl as she’s probably out with a boyfriend or lover, something that he claims happens about 90% of the time.

Jess finds Chris (Art Hindle) and informs him of Claire’s disappearance and Sgt. Nash’s unwillingness to cooperate.  Infuriated, he returns to the police station and speaks with Lieutenant Kenneth Fuller (John Saxon).  Lt. Fuller was in the process of listening to a mother reporting her missing daughter when Chris made a scene in the police station.

That evening, while Mr. Harrison is having dinner at the sorority house, Barb gets drunk and speaks her mind.  She accuses others of blaming her for driving Claire away after the way that Barb talked to the obscene phone caller the previous night.  She thinks that Claire might really be dead.  While that’s taking place we see Peter destroy a piano to help vent his rage about Jess’s decision to have an abortion.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

Later that night there’s a search party to look for both Claire and Janice, the girl recently reported missing by her mother.  The search party combs through a park and eventually finds Janice’s dead body.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

While the search party is looking for the missing girls, Mrs. Mac is packing her clothes back at the sorority house.  As usual she’s also drinking and having a rather festive time despite the circumstances.  The house mother then hears a strange noise upstairs, and she goes to investigate.  After climbing the ladder into the attic, the killer swings a heavy hook at the woman’s head and kills her.  Mrs. Mac’s dead body is then hauled into the attic and placed near Claire’s body.

After returning from the search party, Jess is back at the house when there’s another obscene phone call.  This spooks Jess and she picks up the phone to call the police.  Suddenly she’s spooked when Peter is standing right behind her.  He mentions that he was sleeping upstairs in the house while Jess and the other girls were outside with the search party.  Jess calls Sgt. Nash and reports the obscene phone calls.  She then has another talk with Peter about aborting her pregnancy.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

At the police station, Lt. Fuller is speaking with Mr. Harrison, Chris and Phyl when Sgt. Nash informs him about the phone calls at the sorority house.  In that area of town a young girl was recently found murdered.  A sorority girl has also gone missing, and the sisters at her sorority house are receiving obscene phone calls.  There’s not enough evidence to these being linked, but Lt. Fuller proceeds with a phone tap on the girl’s house.  If the strange person calls again, then his department can go after him.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

Lt. Fuller goes to the sorority house along with a technician to tap the house’s phone line.  He learns that most of the girls are away for the holidays and the house is mostly quiet.  When asking for a listing of the other girls’ phone numbers, he learns about Mrs. Mac, the house mother.  It turns out that Mrs. Mac has a separate phone line, but Lt. Fuller isn’t concerned about tapping it as the obscene phone calls are only arriving on the main house line.  The technician informs them that the police department’s phone will ring whenever the sorority house phone rings.  He’ll be at the phone company to trace the calls whenever anybody tries to call the house.  It’s a mechanical system and may take a few minutes to be able to trace the call.  Lt. Fuller then informs the girls that a police officer will be stationed outside of the house all night.

As Lt. Fuller and the technician drive away we see Peter standing by a tree and watching them leave.

Jess and Phyl are scared, but right now they can only sit in the house and wait for the obscene person to call them again.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

We then see the killer climb down the attic stairs to the second floor of the sorority house.  He then enters Barb’s room and stands by the sleeping woman.  Jess hears Barb suddenly gasping for air, and she runs upstairs to investigate.  Barb wakes from her sleep and claims that she had a nightmare of a man being in her bedroom.  Barb then settles down and falls asleep.  Some children are then heard outside singing Christmas carols.  As Jess stands at the door and watches the children, the killer returns to Barb’s room and uses a unicorn figure to stab her to death.  The killer looks very similar to Peter.

After the children leave there’s another obscene phone call.  Near the end of the call Jess hears the other person say, “. . . just like having a wart removed.”  She takes this as a reference to having an abortion, something that only she and Peter know about.  When Lt. Fuller calls her a moment later and asks about that part of the phone call, Jess claims to not know anything.  The lieutenant informs Jess that they were unable to complete the trace.  The next time this person calls, she’s going to need to find a way to keep him on the line for a little bit longer.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

There’s another phone call not too long later, but it’s Peter.  He’s in tears as he tells her not to abort the baby.  Peter quickly ends the phone call before it’s traced.  Lt. Fuller calls Jess and asks her about this phone call with Peter, and she reveals her pregnancy and decision to have an abortion.  She just told Peter about it today.  Lt. Fuller thinks that Peter might be neurotic, but Jess claims that her boyfriend is not that way.  Nonetheless, it’s implied that Peter might be the person making the obscene phone calls.

However, when Lt. Fuller asks about Peter’s whereabouts, Jess remembers that Peter was there in the house when the first obscene call arrived today.  It was just after she returned from helping the search party.  Therefore Peter couldn’t have been responsible for the phone calls.  She’s relieved at this discovery.

Jess and Phyl then have a visit from two armed men still searching the town for the disappearance of Claire.  After talking to the two men, both of the girls realize that that door is the only door that’s locked in the entire house.  They quickly go around securing the doors and windows.  While Phyl is upstairs locking the windows, she goes to check on Barb.  There’s no answer so Phyl enters Barb’s room.  Phyl is standing inside of the dark bedroom when she turns around and notices a person standing in the room.  The bedroom door quickly closes and that’s the last we see of Phyl.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

Another obscene phone call arrives at the sorority house.  This time the trace on the call is complete.  They’re originating from the sorority house.  Lt. Fuller thinks that it’s incorrect until he remembers that there are two phone lines in the house, one of them belonging to Mrs. Mac.  The lieutenant tries to use his radio to contact the police officer stationed outside of the house, but that officer is dead.  His throat has been slashed.

Lt. Fuller contacts Sgt. Nash and has him contact the sorority house and have Jess simply walk out through the front door.  She’s not to know that the madman is there in the house.  When Nash does so, Jess insists on checking on Phyl and Barb first.  He yells at her over the phone, telling her to get out because the phone calls are coming from inside of the house.  Still, Jess heads upstairs to investigate when none of her friends answer her calls.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

Jess arms herself with a fireplace poker and cautiously heads upstairs.  On the second floor of the sorority house she forces open the door to Barb’s room and finds both Barb and Phyl’s dead and bloody bodies.  Jess then spots the killer standing behind a door.  Only his eye is visible as he begins whispering to the woman.  Jess suddenly smashes the door against the man and then runs down the stairs to the lower level of the house.  She then makes it to the basement stairs and locks the door behind her.  The killer tries to break open the door but fails.

While hiding in the basement, Jess watches as the killer creeps from window to window, looking for a way into the partially underground room.  Just then Peter appears at one of the windows.  He calls to Jess, asking if she’s okay, but she remains quiet.  Peter then breaks the window and crawls into the basement.  When he finds her hiding in a corner, Jess uses the fireplace poker to attack and kill him, thinking that he’s the killer.

The police arrive at the house and find Jess in the basement with Peter.  He’s dead and she faints as soon as the police arrive.  They take her upstairs and place her in her bed.  Everything points to Peter as being the killer.  Barb and Phyl’s bodies have been removed and taken to the morgue.  The police briefly mention that they still need to search the rest of the house including the attic.  They then leave the house to take care of the dead bodies and notify their next of kin.

Black Christmas (1974) – (c)Ambassador Film Distributors / Warner Bros.

As Jess is asleep in her bedroom, the camera pans and we see some blood still on Barb’s bed.  The camera then pans to the attic’s opening and we hear somebody’s voice from up there.  Just then a light turns on in the attic.  We then see both the bodies of Mrs. Mac and Claire still propped up in sitting positions.

Black Christmas ends with a phone ringing during the start of the film’s credits, implying that the real killer is still out there.

So is Black Christmas a good horror movie?

While Black Christmas isn’t a major Hollywood blockbuster with a large budget and famous stars, nor does it have much blood or acts of violence, the film does work as a psychological horror film set around Christmas.  Some people even claim that Black Christmas is one of the first slasher films.

It’s believed that the film Black Christmas may have been based on the urban legend of The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs.  Originating in the 1960s, the urban legend tells a story of a babysitter looking after some children while receiving a series of menacing phone calls, each one becoming more threatening.  The babysitter eventually calls the police, and they trace the calls and warn her that the person is calling from a second line inside of the house.  Some versions of the urban legend have the killer actually killing the children, while in other versions the police catch him before he can kill anybody.

It’s unknown if Black Christmas was really based on the urban legend, or it it was instead influenced on a series of murders that took place in Montreal, Canada, around Christmas.  Roy Moore, the writer of Black Christmas, died before being interview about this cult classic film.

Black Christmas starts out strong with the Christmas party at the sorority house and the quick murder of Claire, but the film tends to drag after that point.  The characters of Mr. Harrison and Chris just feel like background noise, and we should have seen more of Jess and Peter’s relationship.  If he’s being blamed as the killer, it would have been nice if we saw more evidence of it.

One has to remember that this is a relatively low-budget horror film created by an independent company.  Taking that note, Black Christmas is a pretty effective psychological horror film.  Change a few small parts here and there, add a little more detail in some places, and this could have been an outstanding film.  But as a whole, this film still works when creeping out the audience.

Black Christmas (1974) – movie trailer

You’ll probably have to watch Black Christmas twice to catch all of the story.  The first time I saw this film I was pretty bored until the ending.  Knowing how it ended and confirming my suspicions about the connection to the urban legend, I was able to better enjoy the film while watching it a second time.  I could focus on certain characters and events and see how it fit into the story.

The Killer – “I’m going to kill you!”

——————-

Sergeant Nash – “The phone company’s on the other line sir, they say they got a trace on this one.”
Lieutenant Kennet Fuller – “Yeah, let’s have it!”
Sergeant Nash – “He says the calls are coming from #6 Belmont Street.”
Lieutenant Kennet Fuller – “For Christ’s sakes, Nash, you got it wrong, that’s where the calls are going into.”
Sergeant Nash – “That’s where they’re coming from too, sir.”

——————-

Sergeant Nash – “Jess, the caller is in the house. The calls are coming from the house!”