Black Christmas (1974)

Sleeeep in Heavenly Peeeeeace

We're all familiar with the slasher genre. We've all heard of Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and their respective titles. But there are several slasher films that are not as well-known. It is actually confusing as to why Black Christmas is one of the forgetten ones, as many argue it as the first slasher film, without it there would not be a slasher genre in the first place. As a pioneer for it's genre, the film should not be forgotten, which is why I'm glad to do this review.

Like all slasher films, our focus is on a group of teenagers. These teens a women in college to be exact, our main character being Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey), a woman currently dating a slightly ill-tempered musician, and is planning to abort their child. Not out of malicious reasons, but just because she feels she is not ready. Her boyfriend Peter (Keir Dullea) wants to have their child, and he starts going through a bit of a breakdown throughout the movie do to their arguing about it.

Another important character is Barb (Margot Kidder), a drunk do to the fact her mother never really tries to spend time with or talk to her. Barb is a large jerk throughout the movie, but we can relate to her and actually like her. A lot of modern horror movies could learn a lot from her character, you should have a rude and mean character, but you still have to them just as likable as all of the other good characters. Barb is especially important because she is the one who incurs the wrath of the film's serial killer, who may or may not be named Billy.

The killer starts off by making threatening and perverted phone calls to the sorority, and Barb, while drunk, decides to give the killer a piece of her mind. His response is "...I'm going to kill you..." We never see Billy's face, or even most of his body, he is always in the shadows. The one time we see his eye still adds mystery, because the filmmakers refuse to say which actor they used, and as I mentioned above, there is question behind if his name really is Billy. What we do know is that he is a serial killer, and he somehow has to power to distort his voice over the phone, which is somehow even more terrifying than it sounds. You will never forget what Billy says to the women over the phone.

As for a horror film in total, I only need to say this. This is one of the most horrifying films I have ever seen, possibly the most. There are no jump scares, at least none that I felt were jump scares. Everything scary is this movie is done slowly, and emotionally. This movie will scare you, no matter how unflappable you believe you are.

The film is a solid 4 out of 5. If you are even a casual fan of horror, you need to find this film. There is a remake of the film that is nowhere near as good and received poor reviews, so just remember the original is from Nineteen Seventy-Four. It's the earliest slasher movie, and it still out scares a lot of them.