Black Christmas (1974)

Director: Bob Clark
Writer(s): Roy Moore
Starring: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon

The first time I saw Bob Clark's Black Christmas was a few year's back, when I was going through one of my “blood and gore” movie phases. Even though I'm not a huge fan of slashers in general, my friend loves them, and this is one of this favorite movies of all time, so I wanted to see what it was all about. While our tastes in movies differ quite frequently, I figured it couldn't be that bad; considering the movie's almost complete lack of blood and gore, I walked away from the viewing with the bad taste of severe disappointment in my mouth. It also ruined our friendship, as we refused to speak to each other over the incident for several months (okay, this part didn't really happen, but it could have).

Flash forward to 2019: I was in the mood for both a Christmas movie, as well as a horror one, and after browsing for far too long, eventually settled on a re-viewing of this one. This time, I would be accompanied by my lovely wife, who had never seen it before; I was also accompanied by an open mind, eager to give the film a second chance that everyone deserves...and boy am I glad I did.

The plot is actually a near-masterpiece in simplicity, with most of the action taking place entirely in one location: as the all-female residents of the Pi Kappa Sigma sorority house party down with one another for the holidays, an unseen killer hides in the shadows of the attic, coming down only to spy on—and eventually kill—the unsuspecting women, and ratcheting up the tension by placing obscene calls after each kill.

I can definitely see where the younger me was disappointed, because even by slasher standards, the gore is very weak, confined mainly to post-murder shots; considering a big part of the attention it receives, even today, is as an early example of the popular subgenre, it really heightens the expectations of gruesome and gory set-pieces. Instead, the kills in Black Christmas play second fiddle to the atmosphere, which is brilliantly ratcheted up between the intentionally-muted murders, thanks to some genuinely creepy stalking scenes (watch for the killer's shadow in the background of some shots); an excellent, atonal score from frequent Bob Clark collaborator Carl Zittrer; vulgar phone calls that pull no punches; and a gutsy ending that intentionally leaves a plethora of questions unanswered.

It's only during the times the story is forced to wander outside the house that it loses some of its momentum, and a large part of its claustrophobic atmosphere, something that's required with more frequency as the body count grows and the number of survivors starts to dwindle. One gets the feeling that the scenes outside of the house are there strictly for padding, an idea at least partially given some credit by director Bob Clark himself, who admitted that the drama between Jess and her boyfriend over what to do with an unborn child was only inserted to give the characters something to do between kills. With that kind of admittance, it's not hard to believe that virtually every other scene and character not affiliated with the sorority itself was given the same lack of attention.

Fans of traditional slasher movies and/or blood and gore will be no doubt disappointed, as I was on my first viewing, but those willing to go into the movie with Mr. Clark's own mindset—that this is a tale of psychological horror rather than a “body count” movie—will find a deliciously evil treat for the holidays.

RATING: 7.5/10

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