Black Christmas
Synopsis
If this movie doesn’t make your skin crawl, it’s on too tight!
A sorority house is terrorized by a stranger who makes frightening phone calls and then murders the sorority sisters during Christmas break.
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It's dated but still creepy.
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Part 7 of my Tell Me What To Watch December - nominated by Len Fearnside.
"I know, it's something dirty, ain't it?
It was certainly interesting watching the utterly awful remake of this a year beforehand. I think in some ways it gave me a greater appreciation for just how good this 1974 original was. Mind you, I really would have preferred not to have suffered through the recent version. Even if it did have Kristen Cloke in it.
What I found especially fascinating about Black Christmas (this one, not the crap one) is that it is widely regarded as being an incredibly influential film in the slasher genre despite the fact that it is still so different to so…
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One of the very first slasher films, and also one of the very best. In fact, it's so good that as much as I love a good slasher film, I hate to label it as such. It really has a lot more in common with the atmospheric subtlety and creepy ambiguities of PSYCHO than it does with FRIDAY THE 13TH.
The inhabitants of a sorority house are menaced by obscene and genuinely disturbing phone calls over Christmas break, unaware that the perpetrator is actually right above them, a deranged killer living in the abandoned attic. The film gets a great deal of mileage out of the eeriness of the largely empty college campus and sorority house, deserted over the holiday…
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Director - Bob Clark
Writer - Roy Moore
Cast - Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Marian Waldman, Andrea Martin, James Edmond, Art Hindle, Douglas McGrath and Lynne GriffinOh look, it’s silly o’clock in the morning… time to watch a classic horror film! Returning to an old favourite, and one that my Mother always tells me is better than Halloween (she’s wrong, by the way…), I decided now was as good a time as any to give Black Christmas another go. I’ve largely ignored this one over the years, despite the fact it’s clearly very good, and I’m not all too sure why. I’m glad I watched it tonight though as it gives me the chance…
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This is pretty much the perfect slasher movie. I had not seen this since I was a little kid and it scared the crap out of me then; years later, after watching countless horror movies and having the world around me crush my soul and make me dead inside, I am surprised at how effective and scary it still is.
The first person view of the killer is very effective when it's used, giving a very creepy perspective on what's happening. The kills are left a little bit off camera and I think that actually makes them more effective. Fortunately there are also some genuinely funny moments, most of which are delivered by Margot Kidder, who I absolutely loved in…
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**Part of the 12 Days of Xmas 2012 project.**
Though less slasher film and more suspense thriller, it's easy enough to see why this picture influenced the slasher movies to come. An unseen killer, girls alone in a big dark house, cops who initially don't believe there's anything wrong, killer's POV shots, slow visits to the closet to see what that noise was, etc. It's all here.
What's not in place are the rules of slasher movies, set so solidly into stone by Halloween and Friday the 13th. So people get killed out of order, which is pretty refreshing. Another plus is the fact that Olivia Hussey is wicked gorgeous -- there's no question why she played both Juliet and…
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Another precursor to the slasher genre, and one which is much more fitting to what would later become standard conventions of the subgenre. Black Christmas is a lovely little festive horror film which delivers on the chills and uses minimal gore, instead opting to create scenes of suspense. It's mostly well acted and features a surprisingly progressive final girl. Curiously, despite being a Canadian film there is nothing overly Canadian (except perhaps a couple of accents) that would give this away - regardless, it's a film I certainly enjoyed.
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It is now my Christmas morning tradition (at least, for the last two years) to watch this movie.
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Okay I had to rewatch this one before I could review it and while it wasn't the awful mess I remembered, it still wasn't very good.
I really liked Hussey and Kidder for the most part, but thought everyone else in the cast wasn't very fleshed out much. And people like Hindle were just no personality bodies basically.
For a slasher film, the body count is almost non existent. And the death scenes are either off screen or shot in a confusing way. Like what the hell happened to Dullea's character?
I still maintain that Billy is an awful villain in this. We have no information on who he is or why he is doing this, we briefly see parts…
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A fun horror film from the beginning of the "slasher" genre.
Olivia Hussey is good as our strong female lead. Margot Kidder is allot of fun as the constantly drinking, smoking, and inappropriate Barb.
The plot involving panting and crazy gibberist phone calls leading to murders inside a sorority house is a bit of an interesting one that leads down the road of a red herring. I'm really glad that this was the case as they were pushing on it pretty strongly in the second half of the film.
I was pretty happy with the ending did play out. This is not to say that it was better than a decent movie though. A few of the girls were strictly… -
Excellent slasher, well set up and it never gives the cast any reason to do anything stupid.
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Gave it a 3 out of 5 when i watched a decade ago, and I see my opinion has not changed. It's an OK movie, but I never found it suspenseful or particularly interesting.
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Director - Bob Clark
Writer - Roy Moore
Cast - Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Marian Waldman, Andrea Martin, James Edmond, Art Hindle, Douglas McGrath and Lynne GriffinOh look, it’s silly o’clock in the morning… time to watch a classic horror film! Returning to an old favourite, and one that my Mother always tells me is better than Halloween (she’s wrong, by the way…), I decided now was as good a time as any to give Black Christmas another go. I’ve largely ignored this one over the years, despite the fact it’s clearly very good, and I’m not all too sure why. I’m glad I watched it tonight though as it gives me the chance…
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Why does it take forever for people in the 70's to hang up on someone?
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Contains several slasher elements that predate Halloween, which at the very least makes this a film to be remembered. Clark shows his versatility and crafts a genuinely creepy atmosphere... the sorority house is a great isolated location. There was a lot of humor that was unexpected, some of which fell flat. Also, the pacing felt a bit uneven, despite the short running time. The film does end on a very strong note... the final two shots are masterful.