ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - October 11th
"BLACK CHRISTMAS" premieres in Canada in 1974
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When a group of sorority sisters spending Christmas together start receiving increasingly threatening phone calls, little do they realize they are being stalked by a menacing intruder who is closer then they think, in Bob Clark's cult horror film Black Christmas!
While most of the girls of the sorority house Pi Kappa Sigma, that is administrated by the the booze swilling Mrs. Mac (Marian Waldman), leave for the Christmas holidays, a few of the girls remain behind to have a Christmas party, including Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey), Barb Coard (Margot Kidder), Phyllis "Phyl" Carlson (Andrea Martin), Clare Harrison (Lynne Griffin), and several other girls. As the night progresses, the house receives the latest in a string of obscene phone calls from who the girls call "the moaner", but who identifies himself as "Billy". Jess doesn't like the calls, but others like brash Barb are somewhat amused by the calls. The calls are just the latest trouble for Jess, who is pregnant and who doesn't want to tell her sensitive but volatile boyfriend, music student Peter Smythe (Keir Dullea). When "Billy" calls again later, Barb provokes the caller, to which he replies "I'm going to kill you" before hanging up. Clare immediately goes upstairs to pack, but she is strangled and suffocated by an unseen assailant with plastic wrapping, who then drags her into the attic and sits her body in a rocking chair. The next morning, they discover Clare is missing when her father arrives to take her home for the holidays, and Mr. Harrison, Barb, and Phyl go to the police to report Clare's disappearance to Lt. Kenneth Fuller (John Saxon). That evening, while Mr. Harrison, the sorority sisters, and Clare's boyfriend Chris (Art Hindle) join the search party to look for Clare (and another missing girl, Janice), Mrs Mac remains at the house, and stumbles across Clare's body in the attic - before she is hooked in the neck by the killer and dragged up! When Jess returns to the house, she talks with Lt. Fuller about the phone calls, when he offers to place a "bug tracer" on the line. As the girls all return to their rooms later that night, one-by-one the killer sneaks into their rooms and murders them, all the while still making threatening calls to Jess. Finally, Jess manages to keep the caller on the line long enough for the police to trace the call, and is terrified to learn that calls are coming from someone already in the house. Getting no answer when she calls out to her friends, Jess finally realizes that she is alone in the house with a psychopath!
The Killer: [Quietly singing] Little baby bunting/Daddy's went a-hunting/Gonna fetch a rabbit skin to wrap his baby Agnes in.
Top: Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) starts to receive increasingly threatening phone calls;
Above: Although she is unaware the caller is watching her from inside the house!
Screenwriter Roy Moore took inspiration for the story from an actual series of murders that took place in Montreal, Quebec around the Christmas season, along with the urban legend "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs". Partially typed and partially handwritten, Moore approached producer/director Bob Clark with the script, who later made several changes, including adding more humor and changing the original working title from Stop Me to Black Christmas (Clark later stated that he liked the irony of something dark occurring during such a festive holiday). It was also Clark's suggestion to tone down the more graphic death scenes originally scripted, believing it would be more effective if the murders were toned down and made more subtle on screen. While writing the script, Moore and Clark could not decide whether or not to have Jessica killed off or let her live and so they decided to write two alternate endings to the film, one where she dies and one where she survives. Neither ending was ever filmed and so they decided to leave the ending and Jessica's fate ambiguous and stuck to this ending despite future interference from Warner Bros.
Cast as heroine Jess Bradford, Olivia Hussey was excited to be in the film as she had never done a horror movie before in her career (even though she does not watch because they scare her too much) and this would have been her first film since giving birth to her son. Clark later said in a later interview that Hussey's decision to take the role of Jess was based upon advice given to her by a psychic. According to Clark, Hussey said her psychic believed that the film would be successful and a wise career choice for her. Margot Kidder, who plays Barbara Coard, remembers that Hussey, "was a bit of an odd one. She was obsessed with the idea of falling in love with Paul McCartney through her psychic. We were a little hard on her for things like that." The role of Lieutenant Fuller was originally supposed to be played by Edmond O'Brien, but due to failing health from Alzheimer's he had to be replaced. John Saxon (who was also considered for the role before O'Brien was cast) was contacted by Black Christmas' composer - and Saxon's friend - Carl Zittrer about filling in for the role of Lt. Fuller at the last minute. Bette Davis and Malcolm McDowell were offered the roles of Mrs Mac and Peter Smythe respectively, but both turned the offers down. Keir Dullea would eventually play the role of Jess' boyfriend Peter, and remembers only working on the film for a week, never meeting Margot Kidder and barely meeting John Saxon, but the film is edited in such a way that he appears to be present throughout the film.
Interestingly, none of the actors portraying teenagers in the film were actually in their teens. In fact the oldest actor to portray a college student was Keir Dullea who was 38 years old at the time, while Lynne Griffin and Olivia Hussey were the youngest actors on set, being 22 and 23 respectively. Yet despite its ominous themes and plot, Hussey reassured that the set was a very light and happy place between takes stating everyone got along with each other very well (although she believed Margot Kidder was rather distant from cast/crew during the filming). Kidder herself actually became good friends with co-star Andrea Martin during the production.
Cast as heroine Jess Bradford, Olivia Hussey was excited to be in the film as she had never done a horror movie before in her career (even though she does not watch because they scare her too much) and this would have been her first film since giving birth to her son. Clark later said in a later interview that Hussey's decision to take the role of Jess was based upon advice given to her by a psychic. According to Clark, Hussey said her psychic believed that the film would be successful and a wise career choice for her. Margot Kidder, who plays Barbara Coard, remembers that Hussey, "was a bit of an odd one. She was obsessed with the idea of falling in love with Paul McCartney through her psychic. We were a little hard on her for things like that." The role of Lieutenant Fuller was originally supposed to be played by Edmond O'Brien, but due to failing health from Alzheimer's he had to be replaced. John Saxon (who was also considered for the role before O'Brien was cast) was contacted by Black Christmas' composer - and Saxon's friend - Carl Zittrer about filling in for the role of Lt. Fuller at the last minute. Bette Davis and Malcolm McDowell were offered the roles of Mrs Mac and Peter Smythe respectively, but both turned the offers down. Keir Dullea would eventually play the role of Jess' boyfriend Peter, and remembers only working on the film for a week, never meeting Margot Kidder and barely meeting John Saxon, but the film is edited in such a way that he appears to be present throughout the film.
Interestingly, none of the actors portraying teenagers in the film were actually in their teens. In fact the oldest actor to portray a college student was Keir Dullea who was 38 years old at the time, while Lynne Griffin and Olivia Hussey were the youngest actors on set, being 22 and 23 respectively. Yet despite its ominous themes and plot, Hussey reassured that the set was a very light and happy place between takes stating everyone got along with each other very well (although she believed Margot Kidder was rather distant from cast/crew during the filming). Kidder herself actually became good friends with co-star Andrea Martin during the production.
Clare Harrison: [about the obscene phone call] Could that really be just one person?
Barb Coard: No Claire, it's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir making their annual obscene phone call.
Top: Barb (Margot Kidder) insults the caller, which scares her fellow sorority sisters (Above) Jess, Clare (Lynne Griffin) and Phyllis "Phyl" Carlson (Andrea Martin)
Filming of Black Christmas began in early 1974 over an 8-week time
schedule in Toronto, Ontario, with several scenes being shot around
Annesley Hall National Historic Site. Due to the surprisingly light
snowfall, the snow seen outside of the sorority house was actually fake.
A foam material that was provided by the local fire department was used
for snow on the lawn and according to cinematographer Albert J. Dunk
the substance actually caused the grass on the lawn to grow greener than
ever the following spring. Dunk was also responsible for the films
signature "killer's POV" shot by creating a special cameras rig and
mounting a camera onto his back while creeping around the house; he
crawled up the housing trellis in the beginning of the film as well. For
the filming of the threatening phone call scenes, the actresses were
actually just reacting to dialog being spoken from off-camera by Clark.
Minimal vulgarity from the phone calls were initially scripted, however
stronger coarse language was later looped in post-production for a
stronger reaction. In fact, there were three voices used for the
frightening phone calls; Clark, actor Nick Mancuso, and actress Ann
Sweeny (although Clark himself could not remember how much or little
Sweeny contributed to the film). In order to get the the proper creepy
and raspy voice for Billy, Mancuso would stand on his head to compress
the thorax in his neck and make his voice sound more demented. Adding to
the tension, composer Carl Zittrer said in an interview that he created
the bizarre music score for the film by tying forks, combs, and knives
to the strings of his piano so the sound would warp as he struck the
keys. Zittrer also said he would distort the sound further by recording
audio tape while putting pressure on the reels of the machine to make it
turn slower.
During preparation in 1975 for the film's American release, Warner Bros. studio executives asked Clark to change the concluding scene to show Claire's boyfriend, Chris, appear in front of Jess and say, "Agnes, don't tell them what we did" before killing her, however, Clark insisted on keeping the ending ambiguous. Premiering in Canada on October 11th, Black Christmas was officially released in the US on December 20, 1974. During its initial release, the film had garnered mostly mixed reviews, with The New York Times awarding the film a 1 out of 5, calling it "a whodunit that raises the question as to why was it made." Yet Black Christmas was a surprise hit at the box office, grossing over $4 million against an estimated $620,000 budget.
During preparation in 1975 for the film's American release, Warner Bros. studio executives asked Clark to change the concluding scene to show Claire's boyfriend, Chris, appear in front of Jess and say, "Agnes, don't tell them what we did" before killing her, however, Clark insisted on keeping the ending ambiguous. Premiering in Canada on October 11th, Black Christmas was officially released in the US on December 20, 1974. During its initial release, the film had garnered mostly mixed reviews, with The New York Times awarding the film a 1 out of 5, calling it "a whodunit that raises the question as to why was it made." Yet Black Christmas was a surprise hit at the box office, grossing over $4 million against an estimated $620,000 budget.
TRIVIA: Was Elvis Presley's favorite horror movie. His tradition was to watch it every Christmas. Now, his family keep the tradition alive and watch in his memory.
Top: Lt Fuller finally realizes the calls are coming from inside the house!;
Above: The killer displays his first victim in the attic of the sorority house!
Almost three years later, Black Christmas - under the new title of
Stranger in the House - was set to make its network television premiere
on NBC's weekly "Saturday Night at the Movies". However, two weeks prior
to its premiere, the Chi Omega Sorority House on the campus of Florida
State University in Tallahassee was the scene of a horrible murder in
which two Chi Omega sisters, asleep in their beds, were bludgeoned to
death by the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. A few days before the
movie was set to premiere on network television Florida's then-Governor
Reubin Askew contacted NBC President Robert Mullholland to request the
movie not be shown due to its all-to-similar theme as the murders of
sorority sisters by an unknown madman. NBC-TV therefore gave several of
its affiliates in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, the option of showing
an alternate movie, Doc Savage...The Man of Bronze, in place of Stranger
in the House.
In the years following, Black Christmas eventually gained a cult following and is notable for being the first seasonal slasher film (a horror movie taking place during a holiday) in horror movie history and would later be followed by Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), Prom Night (1980), Mother's Day (1980), Graduation Day (1981), My Bloody Valentine (1981), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) - which is another Christmas horror movie - and April Fool's Day (1986). And while it is considered one of the first slasher films (along with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre released the same year), Clark considered his film to be more of a psychological horror film than a slasher film.
There were several attempts over the years to produce a sequel for the film. The most notable attempt was from John Carpenter (a huge fan of the film) who originally conceived Halloween as a sequel to Black Christmas, before the project became a stand alone film. A remake of the film was eventually produced in 2006, with Glen Morgan (director of the 2003 remake of Willard) and executive produced by Clark. Loosely based on the original film, the remake contained more graphic content and a focus into the past of Billy. Morgan's re-imagining of Black Christmas was poorly received by critics, Clark began work on the sequel before he tragically passed away on 2007, ending any possibility (for now, anyway) of another film in the Black Christmas series.
In the years following, Black Christmas eventually gained a cult following and is notable for being the first seasonal slasher film (a horror movie taking place during a holiday) in horror movie history and would later be followed by Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), Prom Night (1980), Mother's Day (1980), Graduation Day (1981), My Bloody Valentine (1981), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) - which is another Christmas horror movie - and April Fool's Day (1986). And while it is considered one of the first slasher films (along with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre released the same year), Clark considered his film to be more of a psychological horror film than a slasher film.
There were several attempts over the years to produce a sequel for the film. The most notable attempt was from John Carpenter (a huge fan of the film) who originally conceived Halloween as a sequel to Black Christmas, before the project became a stand alone film. A remake of the film was eventually produced in 2006, with Glen Morgan (director of the 2003 remake of Willard) and executive produced by Clark. Loosely based on the original film, the remake contained more graphic content and a focus into the past of Billy. Morgan's re-imagining of Black Christmas was poorly received by critics, Clark began work on the sequel before he tragically passed away on 2007, ending any possibility (for now, anyway) of another film in the Black Christmas series.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 64%
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