Often cited as the original slasher film, Halloween.
Inspired by the urban legend of “The Babysitter and The Man Upstairs,” Black Christmas tells the story of a group of sorority girls who begin receiving harassing phone calls. Although the calls are initially dismissed as a harmless, if disturbing prank, Jess (Olivia Hussey) grows concerned after one of her friends goes missing. Her fears intensify after the body of a thirteen-year-old girl is found in the park, and the phone calls grow increasingly vulgar and violent. Two more of her friends are murdered before Jess receives the horrifying news that the calls are coming from inside the house.
Threatening phone calls coming from inside the house are a familiar trope in horror, but what makes Black Christmas stand out from stories of this ilk is how the film preys upon the fear of the unknown. doesn’t reveal the killer’s identity, leaving his motives and history deliberately ambiguous. Unlike the films that it would inspire, neither the audience nor the characters ever learn the truth about who is hunting down the girls, or why they’re being targeted. Only a few details about him are revealed over the course of the film - the name “Billy,” glimpses of an eye peeking through a door and hands grasping a hook, and several chilling point-of-view shots. Rather than ruining the mystery, these small moments add to it and intensify the film’s overall unsettling tone. This approach, in turn, helps Black Christmas stand apart from other subsequent slasher flicks while simultaneously laying the groundwork for what made the genre so successful.
Although elements of Black Christmas are left intentionally vague, one thing the film doesn’t shy away from is its portrayal of female characters and the misogynistic world they live in. Their concerns regarding their missing friend are dismissed until Lieutenant Fuller (John Saxon, A Nightmare On Elm Street) begins an investigation, and Jess’ boyfriend becomes increasingly unhinged after learning she plans to have an abortion. In spite of the backlash and casual misogyny that Jess and her friends experience, the girls themselves never feel ashamed of their actions, nor does the narrative condemn them for it. Jess is one of the first final girls, and the frank depiction of her sexuality and bodily autonomy helps to set her apart from her successors, many of whom were seen as virginal good girls. It’s common for slasher films to punish those who participate in activities such as drinking and pre-marital sex, but not in Black Christmas. By having a killer with unknown motives and a sexually active final girl, it manages to avoid the cliches that would dominate the genre in the years to come.
Nearly fifty years after its release, Black Christmas remains an influential piece of horror cinema, inspiring numerous films and spawning two inferior remakes. It was able to establish several tropes and themes of the genre, without being restricted by the conservative rules that later films would follow, making it a timeless and essential horror movie. In all its simplicity, it manages to be both empowering and bone-chillingly terrifying, even several decades after its release.
