(Ladies, some advice: next year, go home)
CAST: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Art Hindle, Andrea Martin, Lynne Griffin, Marian Waldman, Doug McGrath, James Edmond.
DIRECTOR: Bob Clark
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and disturbing Yuletide shenanigans straight ahead…
A sub-genre of the Horror Genre is the Holiday/Event-Themed Slasher Flick. Films in this sub-genre have four immutable characteristics: (1) young (young-ish) characters celebrating a holiday or event; (2) an isolated location; and (3) a mysterious killer knocking them off by one-by one; and (4) a motive tied in to the holiday or event. Early classics of this sub-genre include: HALLOWEEN, FRIDAY THE 13th, PROM NIGHT, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, TERROR TRAIN, NEW YEAR’S EVIL, GRADUATION DAY, THE PROWLER, APRIL FOOL’S DAY. Latter day entries include the recent remakes of the first five mentioned above, as well as VALENTINE, URBAN LEGEND, and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.
Most folks think of HALLOWEEN as the Grandfather of the Holiday/Event-Themed Slasher Flick. While that classic was indeed terrifying and well-made, and certainly put this type of movie on the map and inspired dozens of clones and rip-offs (most substandard), it doesn’t really deserve that title. See, four years earlier in 1974, a Canadian horror film was released, scared the living shit out of critics, and made a decent showing at the box-office.
Unfortunately, because the film’s respectable box-office take was nowhere near the astronomical amount HALLOWEEN would rake in four years later, it kind of faded into the background. That movie was BLACK CHRISTMAS, and it is the true Grandfather of the Holiday/Event-Themed Slasher Flick. Unfortunately, that fact is often overlooked because of HALLOWEEN’s mega-success later on.
BLACK CHRISTMAS set the tropes that HALLOWEEN’s success would cement. It also predates WHEN A STRANGER CALL’s gimmick of “the calls are coming from inside the house!!!” by about five years. Which SCREAM and its sequels promptly used and updated for a new generation. Suffice to say, BLACK CHRISTMAS was a trend-setter in many ways.
By now, the plot isn’t exactly original. Back in 1974, though, it must have been positively Byzantine: a mysterious killer sneaks into the attic of a sorority house during Christmas Break, and proceeds to make a series of threatening phone calls from a second phone line to the few sisters who have stayed behind over the Holidays. Then he starts killing them one by one, all the while going undetected in the attic.
The imperiled characters include: (1) Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey), stunningly gorgeous brunette who’s having relationship problems with her potentially unstable boyfriend; (2) Barb Pollard (Margot Kidder), profane and perpetually-drunk ballbuster who downplays the threatening phone calls; (3) Phyl Forgetting-Her-Last Name (Andrea Martin), mousy and bespectacled future hausfrau who is perpetually whining; (4) Clare Harrison (Lynne Griffin), virginal goodie-two-shoes who hates Barb’s guts; (5) Mrs. Mack (Marian Waldman), wacky housemother who is just a little bit less of a lush than Barb is.
Who is the killer in the attic? What does he want? And what thoroughly fucked-up story is he trying to tell with his bizarre calls? Who will become his victims? Clare? Barb? Phyl? Mrs. Mack? Jess? Will any of these ladies survive? Is the killer really Jess’s boyfriend, Peter (Keir Dullea)? Is it Phyl’s boyfriend, Patrick (Michael Rapport)? Is it Clare’s boyfriend, Chris (Art Hindle)? Is it the detective (John Saxon) trying to help the ladies trace the calls? Or is it… someone else? Will our lovely ladies ever realize that the threatening phone calls are coming from right inside their house? When they do, will it be too late? Why didn’t they just all go home for Christmas? Why? WHY???? WHY?????
Any housemother who wants to clear the sorority house out for Christmas break just needs to have a screening of BLACK CHRISTMAS to clean the place out in record time.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Put simply, BLACK CHRISTMAS is near-perfect horror film. It relies on atmosphere, dread, and the threat of the unseen to wrap a clammy sense of doom around the viewer. The killer is truly unsettling, and the fact that very little is revealed about him makes him all the more terrifying.
Director Bob Clark, who would go on to do PORKY’s and A CHRISTMAS STORY, is in expert control of the story. He’s not afraid to use the “slow burn” approach to creating terror. The tension builds to almost unbearable heights as the threatening calls continue, with Jess and her friends completely unaware that the danger is hiding right upstairs. And when they begin to disappear one by one, we’re actually concerned because the script has taken the time to develop them as distinct characters. It also helps that the women are played by some talented actresses.
Olivia Hussey, is not only one of the most beautiful actresses ever, but also one of the most expressive. She turns Jess into a cool, confident, and strong example of a woman who knows what she wants - but is never less than gracious. The character feels refreshingly ahead of her time, and we root for her survival. The high degree of suspense generated during BLACK CHRISTMAS’s final chase/attack scene involving Jess and the killer has just as much to do with Hussey’s performance throughout the film, as it does with Bob Clark’s expertly terrifying staging. Same goes for that famous (or infamous) ending. Hussey makes us want to see Jess make it past the end credits.
Andrea Martin, Lynne Griffin, and Marianne Waldman are all very good as, respectively: (1) the mousy Phyl; (2) the shy Clare; and (3) the hilariously quirky (and profane) Mrs. Mack. Each of these actresses leaves her mark on her role, which helps considerably in making them distinct from one another. Contrast these characters and their performers from BLACK CHRISTMAS with the ones from the awful 2006 remake. In that thoroughly misguided and ill-conceived flick, I could barely tell the sorority sisters apart. It had just as much to do with the uniformly bland performances as it did the terrible writing.
The showiest role, though, is that of Barb Pollard. Margot Kidder takes ownership of the character and makes her a memorable one. Barb’s the kind of sorority sister I imagine every sorority has: outspoken, crazy, fun-loving, profane, but also a little fragile. All great horror films or thriller need some humor to balance out the fear, and the funniest bits in BLACK CHRISTMAS come from Barb’s interactions with the other characters. The scene where she and Phyl go to the police station to report Clare missing, and then she leaves the sorority house phone number with sergeant-on-duty, is side-splitting. Especially during the pay-off scene later on. Trust me… you’ll see.
As the various men who may or may not be the killer, Keir Dullea, Art Hindle, Michael Rapport, and John Saxon are all solid and provide able support to the main quintet of female leads. Dullea, in particular, is quite good. Especially in his various confrontations with Jess.
So… who is the killer? Well, all I’ll say is this: once you watch BLACK CHRISTMAS, you will never sleep with your bedroom door unlocked ever again. And you’ll always wonder if that strange phone call you just got might be coming from somewhere close by.
