Black Christmas 1974 123movies

Watch: Black Christmas 1974 123movies, Full Movie Online – It’s time for Christmas break, and the sorority sisters make plans for the holiday, but the strange anonymous phone calls are beginning to put them on edge. When Clare disappears, they contact the police, who don’t express much concern. Meanwhile Jess is planning to get an abortion, but boyfriend Peter is very much against it. The police finally begin to get concerned when a 13-year-old girl is found dead in the park. They set up a wiretap to the sorority house, but will they be in time to prevent a sorority girl attrition problem?.
Plot: During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger who leaves them threatening phone calls.
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Ratings:

	7.1/10 Votes: 41,356
	71% | RottenTomatoes
	65/100 | MetaCritic
	N/A Votes: 576 Popularity: 22.335 | TMDB

Reviews:

One of only two films in my adult life to have been in any way involved in giving me a sense of genuine fear.

_Final rating: ★★★½ – I strongly recommend you make the time._

Black Christmas decorates traditional festivities with blood, suffocation and disturbing phone calls. Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! And have a slashin’ good time! The slasher sub-genre was most proficient during the mid-to-late 70s, with ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘Halloween’ and a plethora of spicy Argento features to add a worldly aesthetic. However, one film that innovated the tropes and traits commonly found in the aforementioned titles, was Bob Clark’s Black Christmas. A horror “slasher” (if you can classify it as that…) where an anonymous serial killer remains secluded in a sorority house, gradually picking off the girls one by one. Just in time for Santa to come down that warmly lit chimney and deliver them coffins wrapped up in cute little bows.

To say that Black Christmas was revolutionary and a blooded sprout for the blossoming sub-genre to come, would be an understatement. A nameless unknown killer that exhumes mental instability? Check. An expendable cast of characters that stupidly investigate ominous sounds by themselves? Check. Excruciating tension with every camera movement? Absolutely! Surprisingly, now that I’ve witnessed various films during the conception of a horror movement, it’s incredibly easy to see how influential Black Christmas is. Not for its innovative concept, as other simpler thrillers utilise slashing techniques with efficiency (‘Psycho’), but rather for its technical proficiency.

Clark’s direction, whilst unpolished, is solid throughout. Taut camera pans to explore the darkened hallways of the sorority house. Minimal sound editing to heighten the suspense. Excellent use of shadows to illustrate the antagonist’s anonymity. Sublime POV perspective to place the viewer in the shoes of the killer. And a ramped up conclusive act that will have anyone watching perched on the edge of their seats eagerly anticipating to unwrap the plot twist, even if that narrative turn was predictable from the offset. The camera can be visible on specific occasions, mostly through reflections in picture frames as it glides through hallways. Emphasising that unrefined quality of Clark’s novice-like direction. It does give the feature some flavour, perhaps not the jolly festivities one was yearning for. More egg nog than champagne.

Yet what really injected some holiday spirit into the story, were the characters. Uniquely all acquiring a distinguishable personality that made them different and relatable. The shady drunk friend or the intellectual gal who has all the common sense (that is until she goes wandering by herself…!). The point is, they were all memorable, and that’s a rare achievement in slashers. The second act, where the campus police become involved, does stagnate the overall pace with minimal storytelling momentum. Fortunately the third act immediately picks it back up for an explosive bauble of…slashing.

So despite the lack of actual slashing, overall unrefined quality and inconsistent pacing, it’s an extremely enjoyable horror flick that takes a gentle holiday season and turns it into a crazy murder-sesh. Perhaps my new annual Christmas film? We’ll see…! I am sadistic after all!

“If this movie doesn’t make your skin crawl… then it’s on too tight!”
Released and ignored in 1973, “Black Christmas” became a forgotten classic. The Canadian shocker was eventually re-released as “Silent Night, Evil Sight” in order to avoid confusion with the blaxploitation films of the time, but it bombed once again. In the early 80s, it was broadcast on cable as “Stranger in the House” in order to snatch up some rantings. Right when the movie seemed dead, NBC decided to cancel a prime-time airing of it because it was deemed “too scary” for network television. This was all film-buffs needed to go back and discover the wonderful “cool movie that you never heard of” that is “Black Christmas”.

Before I go on, here it goes: “Black Christmas” is one of the scariest (and finest) horror films ever made. Major credit must go to director Bob Clark (who went on to direct the epic “Citizen Kane” remake and because of legal reasons had to change it’s title to “Porky’s”) who like John Carpenter in “Halloween”, is able to create a current and simplistic creepy atmosphere. “Black Christmas” is indeed very similar to “Halloween”: Both movies are themed with a particular time of year, both movies feature a killer with breathing problems who loves POV shots, and both movies have a long and slow build-up that makes the audience care for the characters that are about to get slashed. The difference is that “Black Christmas” does it much better, in fact, I think it is a superior film.

The movie begins with a shaky POV shot of a stranger who decides to sneak inside a sorority house in order to get some fresh meat. That’s it! Plain and simple. There is no “your father killed my cousin’s cat” motive, the killer wants to kill because he simply wants to. Isn’t it much scarier like that? No motive at all?

The cast is not your usual teen slasher stereotypes: There is the not-so-virginal sweet leading lady Jess (Olivia Hussey) who is having trouble because she wants to have an abortion. Her boyfriend Peter (Keir Duella) eventually disagrees. In the sorority house there are many other odd characters, including chain-smoking, foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking Barb (ironically played by Margot Kidder) who steals the show with the much-needed humor. Unlike the countless other slashers out there, “Black Christmas” takes time for the audience to get used to these characters and actually care for them. Unlike in “Halloween”, the entire top-notch cast in “Black Christmas” give excellent performances. Olivia Hussey is perfect as not-so-innocent Jess, Keir Duella is scary and misleading as her deranged boyfriend. And of course, Margot Kidder steals the show with an excellent and amusing take playing herself. Also noticeable is cult star John Saxon as Lt. Fuller who many years later started showing his personal love for “Black Christmas” on interviews.

The well-balanced doses of drama and comedy connects the audience to the characters on screen so strongly that they sometimes we forget it is a horror movie. And when something scary eventually happens, it comes as a total shock. Bob Clark eventually became famous for his comedies, and you can sense his upbeat sense of humor though the entire film. Recent movie audiences lost their patience, so movies like that can’t be made anymore. And there is a good reason “Black Christmas” is currently labeled as a comedy at the IMDb, it is really funny. So many memorable quotes here: “These broads could hump the Leaning Tower of Pisa if they could get to top of it!” or “I’m a drunk? Here we have the queen of vodka herself!” and of course, the whole Fellatio address.

But isn’t this a horror film? It really lives up to it’s tagline. To begin with, the killer is not a silent invincible maniac on a Santa Claus costume. Instead, he is never seen. Most of his moments come from POV shots and dark takes. He is confined to the sorority house’s attic for most of the time. How is that scary? Sound comes to play. The killer calls the sorority girls though the phone many times (early shades of “Scream” and “When a Stranger Calls”) and uses some of the most disturbing voices you will ever hear. He imitates pigs squeaking, perverted dirty talk, animal noises, screaming, heavy breathing, and many other weird sounds. Does it work? Of course. This guy makes Norman Bates look like Richard Simmons.

These disturbing elements are all put together though the brilliant cinematography by Reg Morris, who is able to capture the silent Christmas atmosphere perfectly with the wonderful use of silent snow-covered streets and decoration. Let’s face it, Christmas is a bit creepy, isn’t it? It certainly will be after watching this flick. The piano score by Carl Zittrer is simplistic and effective as well. The repetitive use of Christmas carols also add up to the tension.

Ignored over the years and unknown outside the cult horror fans, this is an underrated classic that deserves much more attention that it ever got. Everything is perfect in this Canadian chiller: The atmosphere, the music, the overall spooky look, and one of the scariest villains in history. No gore (although the killings are so disturbingly shot they don’t really need any) no sex, no nudity, just plain old-fashioned horror. This is “Black Christmas”: Snow-covered silent streets, creepy Christmas carols, spooky use of lightening and color, scary atmosphere and the overall look of the plastic bag suffocated victim in a rocking chair staring from the attic window. Trust me, you will never go to your attic the same way again.

“Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, a creature was staring…”

Great film for both fans and regular film goers.
This film was really great to watch when I saw it last Christmas. I was expecting more of a “Halloween” type film, except the fact that the always brilliant Margot Kidder was in it. So I was into it from the start. The film follows a sorority house on the days proceeding Christmas when a psycho stalker starts getting into the house and, quite frankly, under the girls skin. Then the murders begin. The

setting has been seen before, and so have the P.O.V. shots, but who cares?

This film was scary anyway.

Olivia Hussey is terrific and tense as the lead sorority sister, Jesse, who has the burden of dealing with all the other sisters’ crisis problems. She looked really great too! And in the finale, she really played her role out for all it was worth.

Kier Dullea was descent. A little too humble for the role, and not as, well,

intimidating as he could have been. His scenes here are played out like a play. if not Broadway style, more conservative.

Margot Kidder, being as good as she is, was not surprisingly fabulous! Her

character was the rough tough stuff sister who drinks, swears, and is the only one of them who has the guts to show off some glitz.

The rest of the cast does just fine, particularly Andrea Martin as the soft spoken sister, John Saxon as the police chief who only wants to find the answer, and the actress who played Mrs. Mac was certainly worth the view too!

Writing wise this film was greatly and adroitly planned. The central theme of this film is that you can’t trust anyone, friend or foe, and the scares are genuine, and come psychologically, instead of in your face like “Halloween” or “Friday the 13th.” Bob Clark is in love with his actors as he photographs them in bright

exuberant colors, while his killer is photographed in jaundiced, grainy colors.

All in all, a very artistic film and very creepy to the bone. Great atmospheric music too!

Other Information:

Original Language en
Runtime 1 hr 38 min (98 min)
Budget 620000
Revenue 4053000
Status Released
Rated R
Genre Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Director Bob Clark
Writer Roy Moore
Actors Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder
Country Canada
Awards 3 wins & 2 nominations
Production Company N/A
Website N/A

Technical Information:

Sound Mix Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.85 : 1
Camera Panavision PSR R-200, Panavision Standard Prime Lenses
Laboratory Quinn Labs, Toronto, Canada
Film Length N/A
Negative Format 35 mm
Cinematographic Process Spherical
Printed Film Format 35 mm