Black Christmas – Review

Just before Christmas break a sorority begins getting disturbing and menacing phone calls. As most of the sisters head home for the holidays, the few remaining souls must deal with hair-raising events, as they are stalked by an unseen killer.

This movie is a “typical” slasher, however for its time it was offering some new thrills and chills, many of which still work very well today. The phone calls will always be a source of unpleasant hair-raising sounds, as ominous on viewing now as they were in the 70s.

Some of the acting may be seen as a bit “hammy” by today’s standards, but the script is sharper than it appears at first, offering some mystery and plenty of thrills along with the usual spatter of slasher-type murders. Overall, modern viewers may see this as a timid horror movie, however it still offers a lot of creep and a decent story, despite a now familiar set-up.

None of the subsequent remakes have captured the simplicity of the original’s story, nor the creep-factor of this trend-setting film. Most of the all-too-familiar horror tropes we see today in movie after movie were due to this film doing them first, and doing them right.

While it may not have as many memorable moments as some of the “iconic” horror legend series from the late 70s and early 80s, Black Christmas is a good horror movie that inspired many of them. It is a worthy effort, and remains chilling to this day.