The first of the series of Black Christmas came out December 20, 1974. It hit the box office with a total of 4 million dollars from the movie.
Summary
This movie starts off with the killers POV looking into the sorority house as they celebrate the beginning of Christmas break. The killer has gotten inside the house and already claimed his first victim just minutes after the movie starts . Claire had gone upstairs after arguing with her sorority sisters over obscene phone calls they kept receiving. While Claire is upstairs she approaches her closet and is then suffocated by the unknown killer. The killer then brings Claire’s body to the attic and places it in a chair by the window where she sits dead looking out the window for the rest of the movie. Claire’s father comes frantically looking for her the next day because she is nowhere to be found. The sisters of the house and Claire’s dad go to the police. The police, who originally showed no interest in helping, eventually then gather a search party.
The Sorority sisters are being killed off one by one in several ways as the movie continues on. One of the prime suspects was the boyfriend of Jess. He lived in the house where all the girls were being killed. She had just told her boyfriend, Peter, that she didn’t want to marry him and wanted to abort their baby that she had. Shortly after the police discover the calls were being made from inside the house to the house.
During this time, the police try and warn Jess to run out of the house, but she doesn’t listen and runs upstairs. She comes across the killer and now is trying to hide from the killer in the house. She ends up unconscious and they thought they had found the killer. Peter was alongside with her when the police found her. The movie then cuts to the attic where the killer is hiding. This shows that you that still no one knows who he is and what he did as the movie ends.
Review
Black Christmas was the original and first Black Christmas that came out, prior to the more recently one that came out just this year. This movie includes the killers POV throughout the movie which is also seen in other slasher films. Although it is set during the Holiday season where it’s all about being jolly this movie shows you the creepy and scary things that still go on. Suspense is maintained throughout the movie with each of his victims. An eerie feeling was stuck with me as I watched the whole movie. Especially, after hearing those disturbing phone calls the sisters would receive. Since the point of view switches into the killer sometimes, it adds an interesting perspective into the movie.
The author made it that in the audience knew where the killer was staying and where Claire (the first girl killed in the movie) was. However, the characters in the movie didn’t. I feel like it added more the movie because it makes more suspenseful to see if the characters in the movie will find out the information that we know as the audience. Overall the movie was well developed and in the end they left us wondering who the killer actually was.
