Have you found yourself walking on campus late at night, shivering, looking over your shoulder one too many times and wondering what might be hiding in the shadows?
Well, Black Christmas is the perfect movie to watch in order to feed into all your worst fears.
The film begins with a group of girls throwing a Christmas party in their sorority house, full of excitement for the upcoming winter break. Then, the phone rings.
The girls all gather around it as a man begins to speak on the other line — or rather, there’s a series of gargles, murmurs, laughter and snorts, followed by proclamations of all the heinous things he will do to the sorority girls if he gets his hands on them. It’s quite possibly the most disturbing thing you could imagine hearing upon answering the phone.
It’s not the first time he’s called the sorority house either. The girls have developed a name for him: The Moaner. Barb, one of our main sorority sisters with a big mouth and a tendency to overdrink, takes the phone and begins to provoke the man on the other line.
It probably wasn’t her best idea, considering he ends the call by saying, “I’m going to kill you.”
Soon after, another sister, Clare, heads to her room to finish packing before returning home for winter break. She is then attacked inside her closet and suffocated with a clear plastic garment bag.
And thus begins the unknown killer’s slow and methodical rampage of terror throughout the sorority house.
One of the most effective techniques used in the film are POV shots. Throughout the first 15 minutes or so of the film, there are several shots filmed from the killer’s perspective. We watch through his eyes as he climbs his way up the side of the house and into the semi-abandoned attic.
Does it sound at all like the opening of Halloween? That would be because director John Carpenter has cited Black Christmas as a major influence on his own 1978 slasher classic, particularly these POV shots.
Black Christmas, released in 1974, is often credited as being one of the first key influential slasher films. It’s a masterclass in building tension and suspense by concealing the identity of its killer — you’re constantly trying to piece together clues to determine who the killer is.
And throughout the entirety of its runtime, Black Christmas stays true to its title’s promise of being a Christmas movie. Scarcely any time goes by without seeing some sort of Christmas decoration on the screen, while snow covers every inch of ground outside and the characters never leave the house without proper winter attire. Which makes sense, considering it’s also a Canadian film.
Black Christmas was filmed in Toronto, including on the University of Toronto campus. However, the setting is never overtly stated in the film and American flags are seen in the police station. Director Bob Clark (also known for the wildly different Christmas classic, A Christmas Story) has stated that the ambiguous setting was a deliberate choice to appeal to a wider audience.
The story itself is inspired by the urban legend of the babysitter and the killer upstairs. It’s also reportedly inspired by a series of murders committed by a 14-year-old boy in the Westmount neighbourhood of Montréal in 1943.
The film also explores the subject of female autonomy. Early in the film, Jess, another one of the main sorority sisters, tells her boyfriend, Peter, that she is pregnant and wants to have an abortion. He strongly disapproves of her decision, yet Jess holds strong. Peter’s desire for control over Jess’s body is similar to the killer’s violence against the women of the sorority house, with Jess’s resistance being representative of the larger struggle women face against men taking ownership over their bodies.
Overall, Black Christmas strikes the perfect balance between being a horror movie and a Christmas movie. While the focus of the film is clearly on the horrors brought upon the women of the sorority house, its distinct Christmas setting brings a small sense of holiday cheer to its dark conclusion.
So, if you’ve ever found yourself wishing that there was a Christmas movie that was a bit scarier than a traditional family-friendly flick, don’t be afraid to queue up Black Christmas this holiday season.
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