Black Christmas is kind of a sleeper as far as horror films go. I think its pretty cool but its more a psychological thriller rather than a flat out horror film. Despite the “R” rating on the cover its actually pretty tame aside from some coarse language. I’d seen the 2006 version of this film and it was so shitful I couldn’t even sit through it. So it was with some trepidation that I threw this one into the trusty old DVD player.
THE PLOT
This one revolves around a university sorority house (mostly attractive girls). The girls are receiving obscene phone calls from an unidentified pest. The serial pest is not taken seriously until one of the girls is found dead asphyxiated with a plastic bag in the dorm. Who’s next? And who is the killer? Of course I won’t ruin this one for you. You’ll just have to watch for yourself!
THE VERDICT
Black Christmas bills itself as a pre-runner to the ‘slasher’ film genre. To some degree I agree. It was a few years before Friday 13th and Halloween but for my thinking the jury is still out. I don’t know if I’d really categorize it as a slasher flick. Regardless it was a much better film than the modern remake. It doesn’t rely so much on gore or explicit killings but building an atmosphere, which it does with a fair degree of success. The movie is well shot and the plot is pretty cool with enough twists to keep it interesting. There’s nothing in this film that really lets it down. Basically I’d rate it as a pretty solid watch without being particularly outstanding in any way.
One cool thing about this film is that it stars a very young and attractive Margot Kidder as Barb (who went on to be Lois Lane in the 70s/80’s series of Superman films). I had no idea she’d been acting since the early mid 70’s and a younger John Saxon (Nancy’s dad in A Nightmare on Elm St).
Overall, I thought this was pretty cool as something to watch and I’m quite happy to have this one in my collection!
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