Black Christmas (1974)

Work Of Art ! 5 Stars

This movie is pre Halloween by Four years and is really the standard by which all films of it's kind should be judged. Very Very Scary ! This little film has everything going for it... The 2007 Black Xmas Sucks and should never be watched. June 4, 2008

TERRIFYING

terrifying slasher film. the scariest and most intelligent of the genre. the voice of that maniac over the phone crawls under your skin. careful about reading too much info from reviews and other sources about this movie. the plot can easily be ruined. now available in a new special edition release! time to upgrade. February 28, 2008

Excellent slasher film from before the slasher era!

Well I sat through the horrendous Black Christmas remake from a couple years back, and thought to myself "What could have warranted such a terrible attempt at remaking a horror film?". To find out I sat down and watched this 1974 original expecting the worst, only to discover that this original is a real gem!

The fact that the film is set in a sorority house is about the only similarity between this great original and the terrible remake. While the 2006 version attempted to provide some elaborate back story on the killer, he remains a complete mystery here yielding steady tension throughout the entire film. The trouble begins with a slew of obscene phone calls to the house, and soon escalates to murder and disappearances. As the sorority house members are slowly picked off one by one, this tension grows all the more intense resulting in a very unexpected ending.

I did have a few slight gripes about Black Christmas. For one it just took a little too long to get rolling, after the initial murder there is not much else happening in the film until about forty minutes in. There are some relevant plot points contained in this period, but it certainly could have been shortened a little bit for the sake of continuity. The other thing was the flurry of obscenity and crude sexual banter spewing from the sorority member's mouths. I am not offended by any of it, but it sort of came off as weak and stupid attempts at comic relief, and it certainly added nothing to the movie.

All in all these flaws can be easily overlooked considering that the tension and atmosphere of Black Christmas is something that is rarely achieved. I consider this movie a horror classic, and I can easily see how it could have influenced slasher movies to come such as Halloween. See this one at all costs, avoid the remake like the plague. February 17, 2008

creative, creepy, AWESOME!!!

WOW, so glad I finally watched this, the master granddaddy of slasher films. It's easy to realize the influences it had on the genre. I even think it gave some ideas to some comedy films, and I'm not talking about satire. It had the belligerent Santa cussing in front of little kids, plus children given alcohol.
I was expecting way more blood and guts to cover up a weak storyline. I'm glad I was wrong.
This is an amazing script, wonderfully paced, superbly directed, surprisingly well acted, and overall hugely influential. A must own! January 8, 2008

Bob Clark's Other Christmas Movie

Most of you know Bob Clark's famous movie "A Christmas Story," which was released Christmas 1984, but ten years earlier, Mr. Clark tried his hand at a different type of "Christmas" storytelling, and it doesn't require a prococious narrator to get the message across. Forget the silly remake that was released on Christmas Day a couple of years ago, this 1974 shocker is the one to watch. First of all, it doesn't rely on gore and blood to fill in for the lack of script. Partly the reason why remakes usually are inferior (Planet of the Apes, Psycho, Willy Wonka, Halloween), is there determination to make an already great film better, which is nearly impossible. None of the above mentioned films needed to be improved upon, and Black Christmas can be added to that list.

Black Christmas predates John Carpenter's Halloween by four years, but it provides every thrill of that film, plus its characters are witty and more intelligent. Clark makes good use of POV (point of view) shooting to allow viewers to survey the mayhen through the stalker's eyes. The fact that there are so many things unclear about the character makes us watch and listen more intently. The phone calls are truly creepy, and although Kidder handles the perverted caller flippantly, we are genuinely afraid for her and the other soriety girls. As a bonus, the film also includes Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet, It). I always found her to be an underrated beauty. Watch the movie alone with the lights turned down--you will be frigthened, and perhaps a bit tentative to answer the next phone call at your house. December 30, 2007

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