If you're looking for a Christmas film with a scary twist this festive season, look no further. The 1974 slasher film Black Christmas will leave you quivering in your Santa boots. Watch the trailer below:
In this horror classic, a group of college girls remain at their sorority during the Christmas break.
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While this is a very unfortunate situation, what makes it even worse is the fact a killer is on the loose and the unseen murderer is intent on making their Christmas as unnerving and bloody as possible.
Not only is the film extra creeping because it's so old, the screams and grunts, the spooky version of 'Silent Night' playing in the background and the tension makes it a thrilling watch for horror fans.
The terror begins when an unseen man climbs into the sorority house where the girls are celebrating Christmas.
Jess Bradford (played by Olivia Hussey) answers a phone call on the house phone from an obscene man who moans and screams from the other end of the line.
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After alerting the other girls, one of the girls, Barb (Margot Kidder), who is very drunk, insults the caller to which he threatens to kill her.
This ultimately leads to the horrific death of one of the sorority girls shortly after, as the girls are slowly killed off one by one.
Meanwhile, the police are also investigating the disappearance of a high school girl.
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The Canadian film was made on a small budget of $620,000 (£512,653.20 ) but grossed $4.1 million at the box office and it was shot on location in Toronto in the winter of 1973 to 1974.
Screenwriter A. Roy Moore’s inspirations for the film came from an urban legend 'The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs' and a series of murders that occurred during the festive season in Montreal.
The murders, which occurred in 1943, were perpetrated by a boy aged 14 who bludgeoned his family to death, The Telegraph reported in 2016 in an article about Black Christmas’ legacy.
Initially the Bob Clark-directed flick received mixed reviews upon release in October 1974, with The New York Times giving Black Christmas a one star review and calling the film ‘a whodunit that raises the question as to why was it made’.
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But it’s fair to say that Black Christmas was ahead of its time and it wouldn’t take a film fanatic to be able to spot all the copycat films and influence it has had on the slasher genre.
Film historians have hailed Black Christmas one of the earliest slasher films as it predates John Carpenter’s scary classic Halloween by four years and it is now regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made.
Two remakes have been made – one released in 2006 starring Katie Cassidy, best known for her role as Black Canary in Arrow, Oliver Hudson, and Lacey Chabert aka Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls. The other remake was released in 2019 starring Imogen Poots, however, both were panned and failed to make an impact at the box office.
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What are you waiting for, add Black Christmas to your Yuletide watchlist now!
Black Christmas (1974) is available to watch on Amazon Prime.
Topics: Film and TV, Christmas