Historical slasher with John Saxon, Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder

It’s the Christmas season at a sorority house in the Northeast wherein an ambiguous psycho hiding in the attic makes crank calls to the girls and slays them one-by-one. John Saxon plays the local detective.

“Black Christmas” (1974) obviously influenced “Halloween” (1978), e.g. the closet scene, but was influenced itself by psycho slasher flicks like “Psycho” (1960), “Dementia 13” (1963) and “Silent Night, Bloody Night” (1972).

Honestly, the 2006 remake has a more absorbing story which, to me, is the best indicat... read the rest.

Black Christmas is what happens when a director decides to make a slasher but also decides to make a good movie.

Each character has a purpose. By that, I don't mean simply to drive the plot along. Each character is a person, and they each have their own unique personalities and motivations. Barb isn't just the drunk and morally abrasive stereotype; she's driven by her jealousy and likely by issues from her childhood. Each character feels about as deep as her, at the least.

The only character who isn't fully explained is Billy, and that's for the best. Billy isn't a character we want exp... read the rest.

One of only two films in my adult life to have been in any way involved in giving me a sense of genuine fear.

Final rating: ★★★½ - I strongly recommend you make the time.

Black Christmas decorates traditional festivities with blood, suffocation and disturbing phone calls. Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! And have a slashin’ good time! The slasher sub-genre was most proficient during the mid-to-late 70s, with ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘Halloween’ and a plethora of spicy Argento features to add a worldly aesthetic. However, one film that innovated the tropes and traits commonly found in the aforementioned titles, was Bob Clark’s Black Christmas. A horror “slasher” (if you can classify it as that...) where an anonymous serial killer remains secluded in a sorority hous... read the rest.

I suppose a sorority can be used to host a multitude of characters, so that's what Bob Clark does here as he puts four quite different girls into an house supervised by the likably dypso "Mrs. Mac" (Marian Waldman). The house has, for ages now, being getting crank calls from a guy they call the "moaner". Some get upset by his behaviour, others laugh it off but when one of their number "Clare" (Lynne Griffin) disappears and the police are called in by her boyfriend "Chris" (Art Hindle), the sense of menace ratchets up a notch. As we get to know these characters, there are quite a few suspects an... read the rest.