Black Christmas
Director: Bob Clark
Writer: Roy Moore
Cast: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Marian Waldman, Andrea Martin, Lynne Griffin
Part of: /slash Filmfestival Christmas Special

Plot:
Christmas is just around the corner and the Pi Kappa Gamma sorority house is emptying. Only Barb (Margot Kidder), Jess (Oivia Hussey) and Phyl (Andrea Martin) are staying behind with their house mother Mrs Mac (Marian Waldman). But before everybody leaves, they are having a party which is rudely interrupted by an obscene phone call. The caller – Billy – has been calling for a while, but this time, Barb talks back. And then all hell breaks loose as girls start disappearing around and in the sorority.

Black Christmas is a slasher/stalker classic and that for a reason. It has some excellently creepy moments and a fantastic Margot Kidder to keep you engaged.

Black Christmas has the disadvantage of time and a genre that is probably very much built on it, and might have surpassed it in popularity (I’m thinking, for example, of When a Stranger Calls). So, especially the ending but also some other things that were probably quite shocking and unheard of at the time, now feel pretty cheesy and clichéd.

But fortunately, only part of the film relies on the shock of suprise. The much bigger and stronger part of it are the parts from the killer’s perspective (which reminded me of Maniac though it should probably be the other way roudn) and they are really well-made and extremely creepy. They are the film’s centerpiece.

The other thing that makes the film very much worthwhile are the girls. Of course, there is still the troubling dynamic of the innocent girls being hunted and to an extent very much controlled by the evil killer, but it is counteracted by the fact that the girls themselves all have a personality and problems and a live outside of being hunted down. Plus, they are barely sexualized in the film.

To round things off, the film even manages to get a couple of jokes in and you get Margot Kidder in a frankly delightful role that made me wish she was on screen much more than was the case. Perfect entertainment.

Summarizing: Excellent.