In the realm of holiday horror, it doesn’t get much better than Bob Clark’s Black Christmas. Yes, the man who brought us A Christmas Story also made another must-see yuletide picture, though you won’t find much cheer in this ghastly, bloody ordeal.
As the Christmas holiday approaches, the women at a sorority house deal with personal issues, the usual holiday responsibilities and anonymous obscene phone calls while the police investigate a series of violent crimes in the area. The students have no idea a serial killer is squatting inside their home after sneaking into their attic one night.
Though Black Christmas predates Halloween and the slasher craze, it contains many of the genre's trademarks. The victims are violently murdered, often with a variety of sharp objects found around the house. The killer's targets are primarily young adults who find themselves isolated and their identity is a mystery. You've seen that before/since but key details make this film a little different and much more unsettling than the John Carpenter imitators that came later. We assume the man living in the attic is also making the obscene phone calls to the sorority girls, but the calls started BEFORE he entered. We assume he is also responsible for the rape that happened on campus recently, but it could be a coincidence. The same for the young girl who goes missing early on. It would be more comforting if it was all the work of a single maniac but a general aura of evil can't be ruled out.
You’re not so sure because there’s hardly anyone in the film that could be described as “alright”. The holiday season, combined with the university setting means that when someone's whereabouts are unknown, the police hurriedly say that it’s because they’re off with a boyfriend somewhere, or off partying. It shows how easy it is to get away with something when everyone is as busy as they are during the days leading up to Christmas. The housemother, Mrs. MacHenry (Marian Waldman), has bottles of alcohol hidden all around the house, which is comical but emphasizes that people aren’t as well-collected as they seem. When Mr. Harrison (James Edmond) comes to pick up his daughter and finds her missing, a quick tour of her room shows him there’s a lot more going on in the house than he expected. Your feelings of security are shaken. The most obvious example of normalized wrongness is the relationship between Jess (Olivia Hussey) and Peter (Keir Dullea). The stresses of the university are getting to him when he learns she's pregnant and planning on having an abortion. Despite his increasingly unhinged disposition, we know Peter can’t be the killer because Jess received a phone call while he was in the house… but then again, who’s to say they’re being committed by the killer?
Largely inspired by a well-known urban legend (you’ll know which one once you start watching), the film shows you exactly enough and not an ounce more. What we see of the killer couldn’t be more chilling. The uncertainty of his identity makes the final minutes feel like a ticking time bomb and the final shot is diabolically subtle. The character development makes the people we follow feel like they have lives beyond these events, which makes you care about who will live and who will die. Margot Kidder as a drunken sorority sister has a memorable role and is an example of the sprinkles of humor found here and there. Black Christmas is a little slow to start but the wait is well worth it. This is a memorable, suspenseful slasher film you’ll enjoy returning to. (On Blu-ray, December 23, 2021)
