Black Christmas [Collector's Edition] [Blu-ray] [NTSC]

I watched this for the first time recently and was so impressed i've rewatched it several times - not something you can say very often with a 'slasher' movie. I had heard that Halloween had been partly inspired by this movie, released in 1974, some 4 years before Halloween. But when you watch this film, if you haven't seen it before, the similarities with Halloween are really obvious. The opening scene, with the POV shot from the killer as he goes up to the house and climbs the trellis up to the attic, will immediately remind you of that famous sequence in Halloween. Even the guy and girl kissing and agreeing to call each other later. But I found this movie quite disturbing overall, and actually more intelligent and provocative than Halloween, since it doesn't just rely on shocks. We never really know who the killer is, and yet he is a demented, obsessive and obscene phone caller. It's interesting that this film came out not long after The Exorcist, and when the first call is heard, the caller sounds quite similar to the devil in that earlier movie, complete with the use of profanities and the 'c' word, and appearing to adopt different voices. I think the director is really clever in exploiting the unknown as a source of terror and suspense. There is very little explicit gore, but he leaves just enough to your imagination to make you feel genuinely uneasy. I love the way the tension builds towards the end, when John Saxon - played brilliantly as always - the local sheriff tries to tap the call and trace where the killer is located. This is a really underrated movie - and with some great acting (and humour) from the lead actresses Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder, and am surprised it isn't shown more often. Has John Carpenter ever publicly acknowledged his debt to this Canadian gem? The influences seem obvious - Carpener obviously decided he was on to something by moving the drama from Xmas to Halloween - and tapped into box office gold as a result. Watch this film together with Halloween and make up your own mind. Both are undeniably classic greats, but to me this one is the more memorable, original and really quite disturbing IMHO. It lives on with you, afterwards.

This 1974 psychological horror [aka: Silent Night, Evil Night, aka: stop me, aka: Stranger in the House] follows a group of sorority sisters who during the festive season are receiving threatening phone calls, while being stalked and murdered. But how many will have to die before the police really become interested? Very much a modest budget movie of its time this has wobbly titles and is actually one of the earliest slasher films. The sorority ‘babes’ are ‘normal’ girls in everyday clothing, so the beer and popcorn brigade may be a little disappointed, but as a horror the film is better for it. Creating a great atmosphere, the superb soundtrack raises this above the usual dross. Marian Waldman as Mrs Mac is superb and the dry sitcom humour is always present when she’s on screen. Opening directly to main menu offering play, 2.0 or 5.1, scene selection. Extras [audio commentary, Black Christmas revisited and all through the house, art & photo gallery, trailers and tv spots] and trailers. With lots of bad and inappropriate language [including the C and F words], blasphemy [well it is Xmas!], lots of drinking and smoking [Xmas!] scenes of murder and adult topics such as abortion and child murder, this is an obvious 18 rating. An excellent xmas movie for those looking for something departing from the usual festivities and an all round is unsettling in its realism and is a ***** recommendation.

I first saw Black Christmas at the cinema, more years ago than I care to remember. I bought it on Amazon as a christmas gift to myself last year and even after all these years it still has the capacity to shock and entertain me. Aside from middle of the night screenings on Channel Four this film hardly ever appears on either terrestrial or cable. As a shocker it is 100% original, it pre dates both Halloween and Friday the 13th yet hardly anyone seems to have heard of it and even fewer people seem to be aware the effects it had on its far more illustrious and in my opinion slightly inferior shocker relatives. The cast are excellent John "B movie king" Saxon, Margot Kidder and Olivia Hussey are all standouts. Black Christmas will make you laugh, shudder and jump in equal measures. If you are a fan of ground breaking, CGI free original and pure horror this is the perfect film for you. After being at the upper end pricewise it has come down significantly in price. So buy now to avoid disappointment but only if you enjoy being scared.

This slasher pic is a little gem from the 70's, sharing much of the same DNA as the likes of Halloween and Friday the 13th although it predates both of those. The set up is beautifully simplistic, as the best of these horrors often are - in the run up to Christmas, a group of girls in a sorority house are being stalked by an unseen, unknown killer. In the best tradition it all starts with freaky phone calls and escalates from there. Most of the action takes place in the sorority house itself, giving it a nice claustrophobic feel as the stalker does his/her stalking. There's a relative lack of actual bloodshed with slayings often happening off screen with much left to the imagination. There's a few stylistic touches from director Bob Clark to enhance the mood - including the technique of having the camera shoot the POV of the killer at certain creepy moments. A technique that John Carpenter would later use to such brilliant effect in Halloween. The film has a keen (although dark) sense of humour, particularly in the early going. The acting is good for the most part, including a drunken, loud mouthed turn from future Lois Lane, Margot Kidder. As I write this, Christmas has just been and gone (sigh) but the film works pretty much all year round I think despite the wintery setting. Overall then, a fine example of this type of flick - by turns amusing, atmospheric and unsettling. Good stuff.

One of the best horror films I have ever seen can thoroughly recommend it.🥴

A Classic Canadian horror film. I'm not going to go into plot details other than it's a slasher set in a sorority house. It might be a bit dated nowadays for some people with hardly any blood at all and most of the murders happening off camera but I really love it. This film is all about the atmosphere to me, It was made a few years before John Carpenter's Halloween and both have a similar feel. One of the best things about the film to me is that you never really see the killer, almost all the scenes involving the killer is filmed from his point of view and is very creepy and well done. The music is effective and adds to the atmosphere. Starring Margot Kidder (The Amityville horror), John Saxon (A nightmare on elm street), Art Hindle (The Brood) and the beautiful Olivia Hussey, Olivia is great here and blimey does she let out an ear shattering scream near the end. It won't please everyone, especially fans of gore but if you like old horror films you should definitely check it out. The US blu ray is region free and picture quality is decent, not great but it looks better than dvd at least and has some nice extras including interviews with the cast.

Firstly, the movie is an absolute classic! One of the creepiest scariest horror movies ever made that still makes my skin crawl when i watch it. I was so looking forward to this having its debut Blu-Ray release here in the UK, but after viewing, it just makes me want to purchase a multi-region player so I can get the scream factory edition from america. The transfer on this compared to other releases of movies the same age or older is not great. Some of the scenes look like i am watching it through a sheet of cling film. The grain is very very high all the way through. It is an improvement over my Tartan dvd from 2006, but I was expecting this to look way better in HD than it does on this 101 films release. On the plus side, the sound is really clear and the soundtrack is phenomenal. Some good bonus material makes this worth getting, tho unfortunately we have none of the commentary tracks that appear on the U.S release. It's good that classic horror movies like Black Christmas are receiving Blu Ray releases, I just think another company such as Arrow or Indicator could have done a much better job at giving the UK fans a more definitive edition. I have the same issues with the recent Studio Canal release of The Howling, although at least with that, the transfer is amazing. Nice reversible sleeve though, and I guess for £7.99 on pre-order I shouldn't complain too much. Just feel that if a 2k remaster has been scanned, why would a company release an older inferior transfer for a debut release?

Although the setting and tone of this movie may seem very dated by modern standards it was one of the progenitors of the 80's slasher genre, many of which borrowed heavily from Black Christmas. Without this film we wouldn't have got so many of the slasher films (of variable quality) in the 80's (the Golden Age) or the early 90's. Even now mid-way through the 2020's I notice influences from Black Christmas in horror films so it is one of those films which has definitely stood the test of time. Obviously the Italian Giallo films were the first to do what Black Christmas did (and many did it better) but from a Western (Hollywood) perspective Black Christmas was there at the beginning of the slasher genre. The strange thing is now that I'm 50+ years of age I'm not really interested in the slasher genre since I've moved on to obscure European films and Arthouse but Black Christmas is essential viewing for anyone who loves the slasher genre.