Black Christmas (1974)

People are voting emotionally.

Am I Missing Something?

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

First off I want to say the remake is totally lame but this one is awesome! It's a fun slow burn horror film and this is before John Carpenter HalloweeN film came out. The story is good, the acting is great, and the script is good. The phone calls are down right disturbing like it's better than the remakes phone call. Yeah this movie is a pre Scream world at the time but it's effective still. The kills are creative but the sad part about this movie is that it's forgetable like not alot of people know this movie. This is my review on Black Christmas (1974), a forgetable underrated classic.

Over the years the "Halloween" "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm St" films have become the Monster Movies of the late 20th century. Instead of having "Dracula" "Frankenstein" and "The Mummy" we had "Michael Myers" "Jason Voorhees" and "Freddy Kruger". Well a few years before those movie villains hit the screen there was another killer who packed a powerful punch his name was Billy and he was terrifying in the 1974 film "Black Christmas". To me he is the scariest man in movie history.This 1974 film is not well known. It is however 10x better than most other horror movies pf the 1970's and 1980's! This film has many things that seemed to of inspired "Halloween". The opening shots and set up were almost identical to "Halloween" which was released 4 years later. In this film As winter break begins, a group of sorority sisters, including Jess (Olivia Hussey) and the often inebriated Barb (Margot Kidder), begin to receive anonymous, lascivious phone calls. Initially, Barb eggs the caller on, but stops when he responds threateningly. Soon, Barb's friend Claire (Lynne Griffin) goes missing from the sorority house, and a local adolescent girl is murdered, leading the girls to suspect a serial killer is on the loose. But no one realizes just how near the culprit is.This film developed a cult following and was later remade. The original however is still an edge of your seat thriller! If you like horror films then get this. You will love it!

This weeks entry is something special. For starters it is directed by none other than the genius behind one of the most beloved Christmas classics in the history of Christmas classics, A Christmas Story (1983). Yes, the man himself, Mr. Bob Clark. I bet you're thinking to yourself, "Self, I bet the movie this week is going to be a sweet, fun filled romp that will transport me back to when Christmas was chock full of magic and wonder." Well, you'd be wrong. Instead, The Mock Films Blog is proud to present the one, the only (unless you include the lack luster remake from 2006) Black Christmas (1974).Why, you may ask, did I choose a horror film for this joyous holiday season? Well, honestly, if we can call Die Hard (1988) a Christmas movie then we can do the same for this one. (Merry Christmas. On with the blog.) The film revolves around a group of happy-go-drinky sorority sisters getting ready for Christmas break. Little do the naive ladies know, someone other than Santa will be paying them a visit this year.What makes this film so great is that it's as funny as it is scary. Clark puts his signature subtle humor that we saw in A Christmas Story and applies it to this much earlier work. Margot Kidder as the loose cannon is really amusing, along with the booze hound house mother played by Marian Waldman. But for all of its goofiness, the scares are just as strong. From the creepy POV of the killer wandering through the house unnoticed, the disturbingly graphic prank calls made to the sisters, to the solid gore effects,this is a nasty little jump scare flick. Although, it might be a rough watch for those who are bummed out easily during the holidays (go watch A Christmas Story marathon. Bob Clark thought of you too).—

It's the night before Christmas Eve at a campus sorority house when the phone rings. The muffled breaths of the caller can be heard on the other end. Soon, heavy breathing turns into lascivious outbursts, cries that egg on Barb (Margot Kidder) while unsettling the rest. Soon, nobody can find Clare (Lynne Griffin), which leads her father (James Edmond) to contact the police, lead by Lt. Fuller (John Saxon). With the disturbing calls continuing into Christmas Eve, and Jess' (Olivia Hussey) boyfriend upset, it soon becomes evident that there's more to the night than just carol's and Christmas lights.When an unsuspecting world received Black Christmas, the term and sub-genre slasher wouldn't insert itself into the mainstream canon for another 4 years. Pre-dating John Carpenter's Halloween, the aforementioned cannonball to the eyes of American cinema, our film aptly embraces the first person perspective alarmingly introduced with such films as Peeping Tom and Psycho. While the former, Michael Powell's compellingly voyeuristic tale, ultimately ushered in the perspective that would end up widely used in the genre, it wasn't until Bob Clark's holiday slasher that we would see its use popularized in film.What Black Christmas does exceptionally well is assert an uncomfortable gaze over its viewer, one that helps peel backs its grainy, exploitative layer with a razor sharp masculine fixation on the female body. We witness the sorority house from afar, only getting closer as our peeping tom does. Even when we're invited in before he climbs through an upstairs window, it's always through the perceived eyes of our voyeur. The masculine gaze controls much of our perception as he slowly preys on the sorority sisters, a light cascading across a peering eye. When Claire is strangled, her body is propped up by a window with her eyes peering out and mouth agape, echoing the sexually deranged moans of our caller.It's these perverse and sexually driven calls that push our film forward, filling every frame with tension on what we already know. Bob Clark frames the horror with staircases, doorframes and windows, utilizing these as the eyes of our killer. While we don't know who it is, we know where he is; yet this understanding only adds increased value to the terror that presses down on us. It's a pressure that weighs so heavy it rests in our stomach, a feeling Jess carries with her as she tells her boyfriend Peter (Keir Dullea) of her pregnancy and impending abortion. When he tells her what she can and cannot do with her own pregnancy, he stares at her with the same fixation as our killer.Writer Roy Moore plays between the killings and a male-dominated state of mind with a juxtaposition that reverberates even more so today. Peter tells Jess that she can't kill the baby, while she never implies that it's a baby nor uses the word kills. We then shift back to the sorority house, a home that is devoid of male governance, save for the looming eyes of our intruder. The dominating male gaze echoes the dominating male voice that pushes Jess away, further into our place of murder. These transitions spur on the ominous dread that hangs in the air as each kill unfolds, our now final girl clinging to a hope we know doesn't exist.The world that Bob Clark and Roy Moore bring to life is reminiscent of its time, yet mirrors those that we live in today. Its morally strong lead, and similarly dueling views, both literally and symbolically, helped usher in the sub-genre that films like Silent Night, Deadly Night and Night of the Demons would inevitably destroy in the years to come. Black Christmas works as a powerfully affecting, unsettling piece of pre-slasher filmmaking that establishes itself as an important piece in horror cinema.