7. Who Was The Killer in Black Christmas? (Black Christmas 1974)
Black Christmas is the original (and in my opinion best) teen slasher film. I could write for days about how dark, creepy and intelligent this film is. One of the best things about Black Christmas is that we are never outright told who the killer is. Before it was popular to have an iconic villain that would slice and dice his way through sequels this Canadian slasher left an open ending. The Final Girl Jess (Olivia Hussey) suspects her boyfriend Peter (Keir) is the killer as his behavior becomes increasingly erratic and aggressive. Throughout the film, however, the audience is privy to an intruder who breaks into the sorority house and spies on the girls. It is suggested that this is an escaped mental patient who is also calling the house with obscene phone calls. Could the intruder be Peter? Or is Peter just an extrovert music student? The God-awful 2006 remake spends the majority of the film building up the back story of the intruder (a la Rob Zombie Halloween) and establishing him as the killer. The uncertainty in the original adds to the fear while not taking away from the plot or themes. At the end of the film we hear noises and whispering from the attic implying that there was an intruder was the killer or perhaps just biding his time.