Summary
A sorority is harassed by a strange and sinister caller….
My Thoughts
The 1970s in my humble opinion were the best for horror and slasher films, as the genre was still in its experimental phase, especially coming off of two classic horror films “Rosemary's Baby” in 1967 and of course quintessential horror icon “The Exorcist” in 1973, this time period saw a huge boom of young filmmakers taking part in this horror revitalization, Wes Craven and Clive Barker just to name a couple. In 1974 though audiences were treated to something very different; a Christmas horror movie. Christmas usually coincides with happiness and cheer, but director Bob Clark felt this overly joyous holiday could use some screams and blood, and that's exactly what we get with his cult classic 'Black Christmas' where we follow a sorority house that gets terrorized by a serial killer, it's both funny and tense, and also very flawed but that shouldn't steer people away from the entertainment that unfolds.
The film starts off as most do of this kind, very upbeat and happy, there are quite a few girls in the sorority but we are usually focused on Jess (Olivia Hussey) and Barb (Margot Kidder, “Sisters”) throughout the film, they do most of the communicating with the killer on the phone. What starts out as a holiday celebration of friends quickly turns malevolent when a mysterious stranger calls the large home, to which Jess answers and plays along with the sinister voice thinking it's a game, but as the conversation plays out Jess begins to think differently and hangs up after being threatened to be killed. After that another girl Claire (Lynne Griffin) disappears from the others to go upstairs, and as she does, she is met with a plastic bag to her head, revealing that our killer is in the house, but only the audience and the menace are the ones who know this.
While this concept of thriller isn't new or fresh for this generation, I can only imagine being a young adult in the 70s when this boom of horror films arrived, it would've probably scared the pants off of me. Especially knowing where the killer is the whole time, people must have been screaming from their seats for the girls to get out of the house. Especially in the film's intense climax when Jess is being told to leave the house by law enforcement but she's too worried about her friends on the second floor, she must make that impossible choice to get out or to possibly save her friends. It's a lot of fun for such a silly concept, and it's led by confident direction and some solid scream queen performances. I can't help but think Wes Craven took a lot of inspiration from this for his '96 slasher/thriller 'Scream.'
Despite Black Christmas being a solid slasher film for such an early time, it's definitely not without its flaws, some of them gaping, like why the police didn't search the entire house before declaring anyone missing, to smaller nit-picks, like how in the hell does our killer take a bathroom break, or eat or do any human functions outside of wait and kill. He seems to be upstairs hiding for a good long while, just sitting by the phone, occasionally walking downstairs to provide creepy shadows and atmosphere, which doesn't make sense as someone was bound to catch him. But its flaws can be forgiven for it's sheer ability to entertain, and in some cases even disturb, the voice of the serial killer is truly haunting and unsettling, with loud gurgles and screams, to nonsensical speech, each time ramping up to something terrifying and nightmare inducing. I'll go out on a limb and say the voice of the killer is the scariest voice I've heard in a horror film, it's like someone's throat is being ripped out from them in a constant loop while speaking sentences, it's unnerving to say the least.
Overall it's easy to see and understand why Black Christmas has such a large cult following, not only is it an influential film (see 'Halloween') for the many slasher films to come, but it's also an exercise in minimalism, one of my favorite things about this film is the killer never gets a reveal, it could be anybody, anywhere, how long has it been since you've check the upstairs? It's a spine tingling thriller from a confident director at the top of his game, along side a great cast of scream queens, although they may not all be able to fully save the convienence laden script, there's just a few too many plot holes to make this a true stand out contender, but as a whole Black Christmas will satisfy those slasher cravings in an otherwise slasher-free holiday season.
I give Black Christmas 3.5 stars out of 5
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