On B List of Movie Reviews

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Black Christmas (1974)

Rate: 9
Viewed: 10/14, 12/19

Bxmas
10/14: Black Christmas is regarded as one of the earliest slasher films made that's highly influential in the making of Halloween and Friday the 13th.

The acting is quite good which keeps the tension taut throughout. Of the cast, there are four standouts: Olivia Hussey as the poor Jess, Margot Kidder as the unfettered Barb, John Saxon as the neo-noir detective, and Marian Waldman as the whiskey-loving housemother.

The last fifteen minutes of the detectives trying to trace the calls is terrifying. Oh, how the obscene phone calls are that won't stop coming. They're so bizarre that the feeling of terror is doubly heightened. Many times, slasher pictures have a whodunnit angle to keep me guessing until the killer is finally revealed. But not in Black Christmas. I'll never know who did it, and it's such a great film this way.

All in all, Black Christmas is high on suspense but low on redundancy that has plagued many slasher films.

12/19: Before there were Scream, Friday the 13th, and Halloween, there was Black Christmas that's the granddaddy of them all in the slasher genre, having been forgotten as an infuential horror film.

It's full of suspense with a terrific whodunnit mystery. Nobody knows who did it. I think it's either Peter or he had a partner, but it couldn't be him the whole time. Whoever made the calls must have lived in the house and had bad childhood memories that was filled with sex abuse. At any rate, ambiguity is the chief reason why Black Christmas gets the respect it deserves.

The cast is fantastic save for Margot Kidder who tries to ruin things by playing a brazen character. For me, it's Olivia Hussey who makes the film work. John Saxon is her equal on the other side to amp up the terror. The weird obscene phone calls are unforgettable, setting the tone. By the way, the actor who plays Peter is Keir Dullea aka Dave Bowman from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

All in all, subtle and effective, Black Christmas is among the greatest scary movies made.