A holiday slasher classic with an unusual killer and secret silent kills. 

• Scare factor: ★★★☆☆
• Slasher factor: ★★★★☆
• Gore factor: ★★☆☆☆
• Social commentary factor: ★★★★☆
• Christmas factor: ★★★☆☆

Black Christmas is a classic slasher that tells the story about a sorority house for girls who get killed off one by one without even knowing it, by an unknown killer. It stars Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin, John Saxon, Marian Waldman. Directed by Bob Clark and written by Roy Moore.

Duration 1h 38m.

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Plot

Someone is watching the Sorority house from outside, inspects it from all sides and climbs up the wall into the attic. Once inside he sneaks into the house and eavesdrops on the girls. The girls are having a party with their boyfriends and it’s time to go home. After the boys have left the girls get a strange phone call with weird noises and obscene sounds and nasty comments. They are getting a lot of these strange calls lately and they feel threatened. 

When Clare goes to bed early to pack because she leaves tomorrow morning, she is killed by the unknown killer, without anyone knowing. The following morning her father, Mr. Harrison is waiting for her at the station but she doesn’t show, so he goes to the sorority house. Nobody has seen her since last night. They search the house and even the fraternity where some of the girls are volunteering for a charity Christmas for children. When they can’t find her, Barb, Mr. Harrison and Phil go to the police, but they aren’t believed. But when they go back to the police with Chris, Clare’s boyfriend, they find out that a 13-year-old girl is missing and a search party is set up. 

Meanwhile one of the other girls, Jess goes to see her boyfriend Peter who studies at the conservatory to be a pianist, to tell him she’s pregnant and doesn’t want to keep the baby. Peter gets very upset. That evening they talk about it more and Peter threatens her if she has an abortion. 

While the missing girl is found dead, other murders take place inside the house. And the creepy phone calls keep coming. Lieutenant Fuller takes the girls seriously and comes to their house to tap the phones. Jess has to keep the creep talking until they can locate where he is calling from. That night the famous words: The calls are coming from the house! are spoken.

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Short Review

It’s a classic slasher that is considered one of the earliest slashers and has a major influence on the slashers to come. Where the next slashers revolve around a masked killer that hunts its victims, who run for their lives and he eventually is taken down by the final girl, this slasher has a different style. Now we don’t see the killer at all. We see his silhouette, we sees glimpses of him and we see his eye peeping through the door, which is very creepy. We don’t know who it is, why he is doing it, why he’s killing the girls and if that sorority house has special meaning to him. His threats and creepy comments on the phone are very disturbing and make it seem like he’s a very deranged person. He imitates a pig, uses different voices, that of a woman and a little boy. He refers to himself as Billy and he is therefore known as Billy, but that’s all we get. 

That he is an unknown killer who from our point of view kills without a motive, adds to the horror. While he is on a killing spree inside the house, the girls aren’t even aware that there even is a killer on the loose. They are focused on the creepy caller and on the missing girl. They are slaughtered one by one and don’t even get the chance to run and hide or fight back. Each of them is taken by surprise and none of them stand a chance. And the end makes it all the more terrifying. All of this makes this a unique slasher.

This premise is terrifying, but the film has more to say than just to scare. It discusses themes like feminism and being in charge of your own body. While Mr. Harrison, seems like a nice enough man, he is very conservative. He is shocked that his daughter is drinking, that she has a boyfriend and he’s shocked by the posters on her wall, which Mrs. Mac is trying to hide from him, which is a very funny scene. The women in this sorority are feminist and free-spirited. Barb is a though girl who doesn’t take crap from anyone and has a big mouth. Jess doesn’t want to keep the baby and get married like Peter does, but she wants to finish college and have a career and wants him to have that too. 

The female characters are all outspoken and while Mr. Harrison and Peter a quite conservative, Chris and Fuller are men who take sides with the women. 

The shots of the killer and the kills, especially when the shots are taken from his perspective, as if we are looking through his eyes, are very eerie and disturbing. The killer feels inhumane even, like pure evil, disturbed and deranged. While the story is simple, it’s very effective with strong characters, an original slasher narrative and with a Christmas vibe in the background.

Black Christmas is as disturbing as its killer and the ending leaves you with a very uncomfortable feeling.