[Yuletide Terrors] Day 20: BLACK CHRISTMAS

Throughout the month of December, we will be highlighting a film a day that has some tie into the holiday somehow. Some titles will be obvious, others won’t be. Some films will be good and, again, others won’t be. However, we think all titles are worth your time whether to give you chills inside your home or to make you drink more eggnog until you puke laughing.

Finals are over and the sorority house is starting to clear out. After a party one of the new pledges, Clare (Lynne Griffin), goes missing. And Jess (Olivia Hussey) reveals to her boyfreind, Peter (Keir Dullea), that she’s pregnant. He’s delighted but Jess has no plans to carry the baby to term. When Clare’s father (James Edmond) shows up the next morning they contact the police, who aren’t too concerned. And with all that going on there’s been a series of lewd prank calls. The police do get concerned when a teenage girl goes missing. And as day drags into night the phone calls are becoming more frequent.

There aren’t many films that are oozing with the dread found in Black Christmas. It starts in the first few minutes, when the audience climbs up a terrace into the attic of the sorority house, and doesn’t even let up when the credits roll. The score from Carl Zittrer and shot composition of Reginald H. Morris contribute much to the atmosphere. Margot Kidder shows up as the group lush, so you know, playing herself.

Released in 1974, same year as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this Canadian export provided the blueprint for modern Horror. An argument could be made that Halloween did it better. The phone calls are still creepy and weird as hell. Instead of watching Bob Clark’s other Christmastime classic, A Christmas Story, for the millionth time, watch this.