A bunch of sorority girls are leaving their dorms for the Christmas holidays. Jess picks up a heavy breather phone call - an event that has been happening in the house a lot recently. Barb takes the phone and yells abuse at the caller, who then threatens to kill her and she puts the phone down. Claire is offended by all of this trash talk and goes to pack. She hears the cat crying and whilst trying to locate him someone grabs her, asphyxiates her in plastic and puts her dead body posed in the attic with a toy on her lap. Her father arrives the next day to meet her but she doesn't arrive at the designated time and he goes to the sorority house to ascertain her whereabouts. Meanwhile, Jess tells her boyfriend she is pregnant and wants an abortion. He finds the idea repugnant. Claire's missing is reported to the police who think she is merely holed up somewhere with her boyfriend until he comes into the station and says he can't find her either. Janice, another girl is also reported missing. A search party is set up, and the boss of the sorority house Mrs Mac finds Claire's body and is immediately killed. After finding Janice's body, Jess goes back to the sorority where there is another obscene call. She contacts the police and they put a bug on the line. She has further time to argue with boyfriend Peter about the abortion. Barb is sent to bed for being too drunk. In bed, she is killed with a unicorn ornament. There is another phonecall for Jess, quoting bits of her argument with Peter, who is now the number one suspect. A girl called Phyl goes up to bed and is killed. Jess receives another call and manages to keep the caller on the line long enough so the police can find out that the call is actually coming from a second line in the house. They tell Jess to get out of the house immediately. Of course she goes and grabs a poker, ventures upstairs, sees the carnage and the attacker assails her. She hides herself in the basement and Peter tries to get in. Jess believes he is the attacker and bludgeons him to death. She gets sedated and everyone thinks they have got the attacker. But after the hullabaloo passes, why are Claire and Mrs Mac not discovered yet? And who the heck is this descending the attic stairs as the telephone begins to ring again? A highly effective little slasher movie which would seem to have been influenced by Hallowe'en but actually predates that film by four years or so. The director - Bob Clark - definitely lives up to the promise he showed on the micro budget, very entertaining, zombie film - Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. Black Christmas effectively exploits the season of Christmas and the setting of the sorority house to come up with a disturbing scenario of college girls being killed off one by one. The constant heavy breathing phone calls are menacing and so is the fact that Claire and Mrs Mac remain undiscovered in the film. Largely neglected in the 1970s, Black Christmas featured some very good acting and good characterisations. These girls are not the usual slasher fodder. They are not big boobed blonds with no brains - they are multilayered characters who are quirky and interesting. This makes the ending so depressing. There are few horror films that can sustain the level of tension and dread in Black Christmas, although it was not popular in its day, its influence on other director's films was immense - especially John Carpenter and Hallowe'en. A horrible remake of Black Christmas was absolute rubbish, and the contrast between it and its predecessor in terms of style, scares and suspense was astounding. Another unnecessary remake.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
