Home Page

The List • Vote • Voting Results • Message Board • E-mail •

Classic • Dark • Horror • Weird • Campy •

Internet Movie Database • Cult Movie List •  

Movie: Black Christmas

Date: 1974

Category: Horror

Director: Bob Clark

Big Stars: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder

Although Halloween usually gets the credit for starting the slasher genre, Black Christmas was first by a few years and in some ways better than the more popular Halloween. Halloween director John Carpenter even credits Black Christmas for inspiration. Even the third Scream movie borrowed liberally from Black Christmas.Yes, there's oversexed girls in an isolated location, a sorority house. There's an unseen killer. There's bodies piling up, usually discovered in awkward moments. And there's more than a few suspects with the cops unable to catch up.

The girls of Pi Kappa Sig are being stalked by a psychotic killer, unaware that he has taken up residence in their attic. He phones them, using multiple incoherent voices, and describes an incident involving someone named Agnes and another named Billy. "What your mother and I must know is, where did you put the baby, Billy?" the voice says in an ominous tone. The phone segments make little sense and underscore the confusion and dread facing the girls, particularly pregnant Jess (Hussey). The dark comedy and dark tone coupled with the feeling that anyone could die, or be the killer, makes the movie a fun guessing game.

Black Christmas also has one of the best endings in modern horror movies.

It's amazing to think that director Bob Clark went on to direct the movie that started the 1980's teen sex comedies craze, Porky's.