Black Christmas (1974)
Stars: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder
Runtime: 98 minutes
Synopsis: During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.
Verdict: The original "Black Christmas" is cheesy, sloppy, poorly edited, and kind of dumb. And for all these reasons, I sort of love it. After all, would it really be considered a 1970s slasher film without all these elements?
The movie takes place at a sorority house in which one of the girls goes missing after receiving odd phone calls from a stranger. As her father, friends and police look for her, weird things start to unfold as the phone calls intensify and get even weirder. The movie is certainly campy, but that doesn't mean that it isn't creepy and atmospheric as well. Some of the deaths are unsettling to see and the emotional weight of a father looking for his missing daughter eventually does get to you. Having said all that, I do believe that some of the comedy and transitions didn't entirely age as well as some of the film's other elements, but my biggest issue with it is the fact that the characters aren't nearly as iconic as other slasher films of that era such as "Halloween".
"If this picture doesn't make your skin crawl...it's on too tight!" is the tagline of this horror flick, and I have to say that it resumed my experience with it pretty well. It's definitely very far from being perfect, but I command it for being unsettling and quite honestly...fun.
The movie takes place at a sorority house in which one of the girls goes missing after receiving odd phone calls from a stranger. As her father, friends and police look for her, weird things start to unfold as the phone calls intensify and get even weirder. The movie is certainly campy, but that doesn't mean that it isn't creepy and atmospheric as well. Some of the deaths are unsettling to see and the emotional weight of a father looking for his missing daughter eventually does get to you. Having said all that, I do believe that some of the comedy and transitions didn't entirely age as well as some of the film's other elements, but my biggest issue with it is the fact that the characters aren't nearly as iconic as other slasher films of that era such as "Halloween".
"If this picture doesn't make your skin crawl...it's on too tight!" is the tagline of this horror flick, and I have to say that it resumed my experience with it pretty well. It's definitely very far from being perfect, but I command it for being unsettling and quite honestly...fun.
FINAL GRADE: 6/10
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