The Phone Calls of The Black Christmas Novelization
Okay some of you may have noticed this post already a few times, and that’s because this post just wasn’t showing up in the search results of Tumblr whenever I would check. I think it’s because my account is new (even though I confirmed my email), and because I kept linking the website where you can read the book version of Black Christmas (so I got rid of it for this post). If you wanna check out the novelized version of Black Christmas, check out my last post on Billy Lenz’s personality as I’ve linked it there.
The movie was pretty ambiguous of Billy’s past, but Lee Hays decided to bless the slasher fuckers with more knowledge on the infamous Lenz family dynamic. After jotting down Billy’s phone call descriptions in my handy-dandy slasher fucker notebook, I think I can provide an analysis on who Agnes is, what Billy’s parents were like, and what the hell Billy did to make himself so “nasty”.
Also, here’s a warning for anyone’s who’s light-hearted that the mention/implication of child abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, murder, and vomiting. Yes, it’s a lot of shit, and some of these call descriptions were a bit hard to read.
So with that out of the way, let’s try use Billy’s phone calls to dissect the dynamic of the Lenz Family:
Chapter Ten’s Call Descriptions.
Jess takes a phone call, and hears moaning. The moaning begins to sound like a little girls’ cries.
The voice of the little girl lets out a scream of agony, before gasping for air.
A man’s voice cuts in to say, “Help me! Stop me! Please! Oh, God, please! Please stop me. I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t stop”..
More choking, and rasping noises proceed through the phone.
A woman’s crying cuts in. The woman’s voice explains, “Now, look here! I know he just isn’t capable of such a thing. It must have been, maybe she’s lying. He wouldn’t do that. Why, he doesn’t even know the difference.”
The woman’s voice shrieks in man, as a man’s gruff, deep voice steps in.
The man’s voice shouts, “You bitch! I’ll fix you!”
The sound of a little girl crying and gasping for air appears on the phone once again, before Jess hangs up.
Okay so that was some freaky shit. 1) A little girl is having something awful being done to her, and it seems to be done by a man. A mentally disturbed man who “doesn’t know what he’s doing”. 2) The woman in this scenario is in denial of what the perpetrator was doing to the little girl. The woman claims that the little girl might be lying (seemingly after confessing to being abused), while saying that the perpetrator doesn’t know the weight of what he did (*honey, as if that somehow makes it better?*). 3) A scary man steps in, aggressively confronting the woman in her denial. Calling the woman a “bitch”, and apparently beating her.
Chapter Twelve - With Additional Notes.
When Billy is watching Jess and Barb talk on friendly terms, Billy really wants to join the conversation, likely to talk about his feelings and his trauma. However, Billy shoos these thoughts away, claiming that they’d laugh and say something awful. Billy also says something interesting directed towards himself. From the book: “Nasty Billy does dirty things. Wash his mouth out with soap. Take down his pants. You were bad. That’s what you did. No I didn’t. I wasn’t bad. You were! Say you were! Admit it or I’ll keep hitting you! Admit it. Say it. Say ‘Nasty Billy.’ Bad! Bad! Dirty. Dirty”.
This implies that Billy was physically abused, while growing up. If the line calling for Billy’s clothing to be taken off is anything to think of, it probably means that Billy was also sexually abused before. I would say that this phrase implies Billy’s parents trying to force him into a bath as punishment, but the way that they said “pull down his pants” (specifically where his privates are) just implies that they used sexual abuse to humiliate him. At least to me it does.
In this same chapter, Billy makes the move to murder Barb. However, he makes some very telling comments out loud before he decides to stab her to death.
From the text: “Don’t you tell, Agnes. Promise not to tell. You’ll be sorry. Please don’t tell. Agnes? Promise now. I won’t do it again. I just didn’t know. I wanted to. There now, don’t worry. It didn’t hurt. There’s no need to be upset. Don’t tell, Agnes. I won’t do it again. I couldn’t help myself, but it wouldn’t be fair for you to tell.”
Second part from the text: “Stay still, Agnes. Stay still when I tell you to. It won’t hurt. That’s right. Just lay there. I promise it won’t hurt. Only you mustn’t tell anyone. That’s nice, Agnes. Oh, that’s nice. I told you it was nice. Pretty Agnes. Nice Agnes. Don’t tell. Go to sleep. That’s right, go to sleep. It didn’t hurt, did it?”
During Barb’s final moments of peacefulness as she was waking up, Billy was on top and ready to give her fatal blows using the unicorn glass in his insane hands. As reality sets in for Barb, realizing that a murderous stranger is about to take her life, Billy simply shrieks, “NASTY BILLY!”.
…Um, wow, okay so that was a rollercoaster of monstrosity. But let’s attack this.
We learn that the little girl who was being abused is named Agnes.
Agnes is being abused in a way that’s implied to not entirely be physical, but also sexually.
First of all, Billy is sneaking into Barb’s room, and gets on top of her in the bed and he prepares for an assault. As he’s doing this, he’s describing the act of the perpetrator assaulting Agnes. Bedrooms are highly common areas in which sexual assault takes place.
Agnes feeling pain, while her abuser feels pleasure is eerily like the duration of a sexual assault. The perpetrator takes pleasure: mentally from harming their victim, and oftentimes sexually from the fact that it’s rape. The perpetrators notes that he feels good from this shit, while Agnes was told to stay still for her abuser to “get close”, as she feels unbearable pain from the act.
The way the perpetrator is talking to Agnes is very similar to how a rapist would try to convince the victim that what they did “wasn’t so bad”… For example: “See? That didn’t hurt. It’ll only hurt for a little bit. Aw, don’t cry, see, I’ll relax. Okay you have to keep this a secret. Please don’t tell, you’ll hurt me if you tell”.
Finally, the perpetrator is revealed to be no other than…..Billy. The reason why? You know how I said that Billy being on top of Barb in her own room is a reflection of Billy sneaking into Agnes’ space to assault her? Billy shouts, “Nasty Billy” right as Barb wakes up from her slumber. In my mind, I feel like “Nasty Billy” is actually a popularized phrase from Agnes after fully succumbing to her fear and massive disgust towards him. After finishing his assault, Billy is alerted with Agnes fighting back in her own way. Alerted with his victim calling him out on his atrocious deeds. Alerted with “Nasty Billy”.
Chapter Thirteen: More Call Descriptions.
Jess picks up the phone, and hears the voice of a woman crying.
The woman’s voice, “Stop this! Nasty Billy! Nasty Billy! Nasty Billy! What an evil child” (from the text).
The woman’s voice proceeds to call Billy a “filthy little beast”.
A scream of pain, and wheezing follows.
In a brief moment, Billy begins to vomit. I see this as Billy being so sick and tired of reliving the events from his past, day by day, that he’s actually grown nauseous and fatigued.
The sound of a child being beaten senseless occurs through the phone
A man’s voice, gentle and mature, steps into the “scene”. The voice demands to know the truth of the situation in place, saying that “your mother and I must know”. The “man” asks Billy, “Is this true? Did you?”.
A raspy, beaten up voice speaks out. “You never considered me! You’re selfish, always about yourself, self, self”..
The woman’s voice replies, “It was just like having a wart removed”.
Okay so the man and the woman we were hearing this whole time are finally confirmed to have been Billy’s parents. After they realize what’s happening with Billy and Agnes, they decide to confront Billy (but in a not-at-all healthy way). Judging by the mother’s temperament, we can say that she’s the one beating the mess out of Billy. Although his father tries to get confirmation that Billy did (in fact) abuse Agnes, Billy’s obviously too stressed to really hold a conversation.
However, there is a bold, small conversation Billy and his mother share. Billy confronts his mother about her abuse towards him, despite how he treated Agnes. In a moment of sheer bitterness, Billy voices his distaste for his mother as she’s been a terrible parent towards him. Billy’s mother…just relishes his hatred. She describes the abuse towards her own son as being satisfying…as satisfying as getting a fucking wart removed. Let me repeat: Billy, a human boy in this backstory, is equivalent to a fucking wart in the eyes of his own mother… God this is dark.
I feel that it’s also important to note that Jess, the protagonist in this story, is pregnant and is planning to get an abortion. In a conversation she has with Peter, her boyfriend, she describes terminating her pregnancy like “getting a wart removed”. Peter, against abortion, claims that Jess is fucked up for wanting to “kill their baby”. However, Jess insists that it’s her own body and that he has the right to do what she wants for it (queen-energy). When eavesdropping on the conversation, I feel that Billy had thoughts running through his head. I’m gonna list some reasons why I thought Billy had a reaction to Jess using that phrase:
“Just like having a wart removed” is used in Billy’s childhood, and in Jess’ abortion plans. Naturally, this brought him back to his mother. As his mother discarded Billy, Jess is discarding her pregnancy. This would cause Billy to see some of his mother in Jess
However, because abortion is often phrased as “the killing on an unborn baby”, Billy can also see himself in Jess. The reason for this is because Billy also badly hurt a “baby” (Agnes).
These reasons point back to where Billy’s socially awkward and really wants to communicate with the sorority girls. He wants to confront them because he sees his mother in them, while also relating to them himself. He wants to talk to them, to have some sense of justice for how he was brought up in life. However, he can’t because (again) he’s so damaged from his upbringing that shouting and moaning into a phone is literally his main method of communication..
The interesting thing about this dynamic is that even though both scenarios involve women gaining control and discarding something they believe is worthless, one is discarding what’s essentially a seed with very little brain activity; whereas the other is discarding a fully grown, and highly aware child. While one is throwing something away to benefit everyone involved (let’s be honest, Peter wasn’t father material), the other has broken her son so down that she ended up creating a lunatic that would go on to ruin other people’s lives.
Chapter Fifteen’s Phone Calls.
Another phone call that Jess has to get through. A little girl (Agnes) is crying in terror for her mom to help her. Gagging happens, until Agnes tells Billy to stop, and that he’s hurting her.
A woman’s voice (Billy’s mom) jumps into the scene. “I saw that! He put his hands between her legs! For Christ’s sake! You filthy little animal!” (from the text).
Billy speaks up after struggling with Agnes. “Please don’t tell, Agnes”.
Agnes only replies with “Nasty Billy!”.
This is another case of Billy viciously assaulting Agnes. This time, his mother caught a glimpse of the whole altercation. In another desperate attempt to silence Agnes, he pleads for her to not admit to the abuse he’s putting on her. Agnes refuses, and calls him “nasty” for what he did.
A whispering, pleading voice comes onto the line. The voice begs for someone, anyone to please help him. To please stop him.
Another reminder that his childhood is frequently on his mind, torturing and stressing him to exhaustion and sickness.
Billy’s mother cries out hysterically. “I know what you did!”
A little boy’s voice (younger Billy), refuses that he did anything. “No, mommy, I didn’t”.
His mother replies harshly, “Yes, you did! You put your hand down between her legs and then you killed her! You smothered my baby!” (from the text).
An older male voice comes into the play (Billy’s father). Billy’s father assures the mother that Agnes is just fine, and that she’s probably just in Billy’s room.
Agnes’ voice cuts back on, “Ow! It hurts! Mommy!”. Her voice is then muffled..
Okay so from what I can understand, Agnes has gone missing before Billy’s parents could intervene. Billy’s mother, knowing of what the fuck is happening, announces Billy’s sexual abuse on Agnes, and accuses him of murdering her. Billy denies it, but his mother insists that he killed the poor girl. Billy’s father tries to reassure his wife that Agnes couldn’t have gone missing, and should just be in Billy’s room.. As far as I can tell, Billy didn’t kill Agnes (at least not yet). Instead, Billy just hid her off somewhere in the house to get away with assaulting her even more (evidence by her mouth being muffled).
When Jess is investigating, after learning that the calls are coming from the house, she finds the bodies of Barb and Phyl. In the closet, Billy stands there with big ass, creepy eyes. His words? “Billy’s a bad boy! Billy killed the baby!” So like some English teacher, I feel that this part is another symbolism of Billy’s life. Agnes is constantly referred to as the “baby” of Billy’s family. When Billy got accused of killing Agnes, he refused and said he didn’t. Now, Billy murdered Barb and Phyl. From this, Billy says that he “killed the baby”. Not only does this show that he sees “Agnes” in the women he preys on, but Billy killing the sorority “babies” probably correlates to Billy killing his family’s baby (Agnes) sometime in the future.
Chapter Sixteen, The Final Words of The Story.
Billy’s up in the attic, after getting away with everything he did. “Nasty Billy!” comes about, probably referring to a sense of guilt and disgust for his own actions.
Next is in text: The voice changed to that of a woman saying, “Bruce, where’s the baby? Where’s Agnes? I can’t find my baby!” The little boy answered, “I can find her, Mommy! You wait here. I’ll go get her.” The woman answered him in a relieved voice. “Oh, what a good boy you are, Billy. You’re such a good boy to your mother. Such a nice boy.”
Afterwards, Billy descends from the attic and onto the second floor of the house. A cop outside hears a telephone ringing, but nothing else is stated to happen as this is the end of the story. I think it’s implied that he killed Jess, but hey, this is my interpretation.
First off, Billy’s father’s name is apparently Bruce. I don’t know how I feel about that. Secondly, this fully confirms that Agnes and Billy are siblings. Lastly, I have a theory on what this last Billy conversation in the story means:
When (younger) Billy is telling his mother that he’ll go get Agnes, what he’s actually doing is going to grab a weapon so he can kill his parents.
Remember when I suggested that Billy probably sees his mother, and himself in Jess, while the rest of the sorority girls are “Agneses”? That plays out now. He saw Clare, Barb, and Phyl as Agnes. When it got to the point where Billy took Agnes away from the rest of the family to further his control over her, how he’s doing that in the sorority is by taking Clare away from her family (and friends), and keeping her with him in the attic.
Jess (his mother) desperately just wants to reconnect with her friends (Agnes) and see them okay. Billy takes advantage of this moment of weakness, and promises his mother to go fetch Agnes. But what do we see in the sorority? Billy doesn’t confess about Clare’s whereabouts at all, still having her in his “dungeon” for a sense of control. Instead, he makes his way down to where Jess is. At that point (and in my opinion), Billy takes advantage of Jess (his mother) letting her guard down, attacking her. All the while Clare (Agnes) is STILL in Billy’s possession, a toy for him to abuse whenever he feels like it.
Another reason why I think Clare is a big metaphor for Agnes is the way in which both of them supposedly died. Billy’s mother suspected that he suffocated Agnes to death, and what does he do to Clare? He suffocates her with a plastic bag.
Billy: *gets done sharing the story of his life*
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