THE FOLLOWING FILM CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The holidays are meant to be a time to unwind, but sometimes it doesn’t apply for everyone.
PLOT
1974’s Black Christmas follows the Canadian sorority of Pi Kappa Sigma get harassed around holiday season via phone calls by a crude individual they call the Moaner who threatens to kill them all. Little do they expect the killer has begun his spree with one of their sisters, Clare Harrison via asphyxiation. By morning, her father Mister Harrison (James Edmond) would arrive on campus of the University of Toronto and reach out to the sorority that her daughter never met her at a train station he was planning to pick her up from. He gets the help of Housemother MacHenry to look for her and during the day, fellow sorority sister Jess Bradford tells her boyfriend Peter Smythe that she’s pregnant and plans to abort it which he doesn’t approve. On the other hand, other sorority sisters, Phil & Barb report Clare’s disappearance to Sergeant Nash (Douglas MacGrath) but the latter doesn’t take it serious until her boyfriend Chris Hayden (Art Hindle) demands an investigation of her disappearance. By night, the sorority and Chris join Mr. Harrison in a search party for Clare but Misses MacHenry gets killed in the attic by the Moaner via crane hook. As the search goes on, they end up finding the body of another woman named Janice Quaife who is confirmed to be murdered. At the sorority house, Chris tries to convince Jess to keep the baby but she refuses to change her mind. Another call from the Moaner happens after this argument and this time, she reports it to the police. This inspires Lieutenant Fuller to tap the phones so they can trace who is harassing the house. After a telephone lineman sets up the tap, Jess is greeted by Christmas carolers. And as that happens, the killer sneaks in to kill Barb with her own unicorn figurine. She cries for help, but they are all drowned out by the carolers. When another call from the Moaner happens, Fuller overhears and expects Peter to be the perpetrator based on emulating parts of his previous conversation with Jess. While she and Phyl lock up the doors and windows, the latter gets killed by the killer when finding Barb’s body. The next call is able to be traced and Fulelr confirms the calls to come from inside, which he insists Jess to leave immediately for her sake. When Jess alerts the others, she finds them dead and flees when seeing the eyes of the killer through a door crack. With the front door jammed, she hides in the basement until Peter breaks through a window and slowly approaches her. As he sees her and worriedly asks if she’s okay, she presumes him to be her tormentor and kills him with a fire poker in a state of panic. When Fuller reaches the house, he finds one patrolman on stakeout killed at the front of the house. When he heads into the basement, he finds Jess cradled to Peter’s body. With no evidence to back up Peter could be innocent, the lieutenant believe Smythe to be responsible for the recent chain of events and leave Jess to her bed before dealing with reporters and Chris helps another officer take Mr. Harrison to the hospital when he collapses upon the discovery. As she is left alone, the real killer’s voice is heard from the attic where the bodies of Clare and Mrs. MacHenry remain unfound. The film ends with the attic hatch opening before the house phone rings again.
THOUGHTS
In modern times, everyone identifies with Christmas as the most wonderful time of the year. Before making the holiday classic, A Christmas Story, director Bob Clark made a 180 on how grim it can be for some. This is a slasher flick that was accurately all over the place because that’s the kind of feeling you’d get during such a season and I think the cinematography by Reginald H Morris nails the feeling. Considering that slashers were still experimental in the 70s, the Moaner is honestly the most unconventional because we don’t know the hell it is. This is a whodunnit where the mystery isn’t solved. Each graphic kill that is depicted, you’re stunned because you don’t know why this is happening and don’t know what solution can be done other than trying to survive. That’s the kind of dread that is incredibly effective because this domestic terror was off the charts relentless whenever it happens. The phone call dialogue done by Clark himself and actor Nick Mancuso who was the stand-in for the shadowed antagonist is so intense because you’re so stunned of the crudeness that it’s hard to fathom why would that be said. The fact this story happens in the holidays makes it all the more intense because there have been tragedies around this point of time and that makes it believable of a narrative. Considering that hope felt lost by the end, you would have a second thought that maybe there is no one to root for if they’re doomed. I believe that is proven wrong when you start connecting with some of them once it starts. And as you watch them try getting through one crisis after another, I think they all expressed the important conversation that your opinion and your choice are what matter in your life because if you don’t decide and speak for yourself, you won’t be satisfied. Margot Kidder & Andrea Martin make great friends out of Barb & Phyl because they’re the loud spoken when it came to looking for Clare and if they didn’t care, I don’t think Chris would. Marian Waldman was also cool as MacHenry because when not being laidback, she was still caring to the sisterhood and her dying with the other sisters was devastating off of the fact alone they’re so innocent compared to the many slasher films that came after. John Saxon is also a great leader as Fuller because as a man of the law, he knows better than anyone no one deserves to be harmed if they don’t deserve it. That motive is what drives him to help the sorority as much as he did even if the truth wasn’t yet revealed. The true scene stealer for me though is Olivia Hussey who was so captivating as the final girl Jess. To this day, this role speaks volumes because she is a level headed figure who is wise enough to do something for herself. Abortion is extremely taboo because the action of it is technically taking away an unborn life. If you’re in Jess’ shoes, you honestly can’t blame her for wanting to go through it because parenthood is something she isn’t ready for and to her, the decision is better than risking the baby being put in a foster family that won’t love it properly. She has plans for her life and she doesn’t want to be held back from it. When you look at how Keir Dullea plays Peter, you don’t want to see him as a bad guy since he is willing to raise the baby, but he still comes off selfish not caring on how it will affect Jess. And when he cries on the phone about it, it was easy to suspect him to be the perpetrator until we were all proven to be horribly wrong. Jess was able to defend herself in final girl style, but you just wish she was able to defeat the accurate target. Because of this, we have to pray she gets out of it alive. In short, Black Christmas is a fantastic horror film for showing how chaotic things can get during the holiday season. If you’re searching for something to watch during such times, see this now.
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