Black Christmas

Just before Christmas, the residents of a sorority house in snowy Canada are getting ready for the holidays. For days, an anonymous caller has been tormenting them with obscene, deranged messages, which the quick-witted Barb (Margot Kidder) still meets with scorn. But then one of the housemates vanishes without a trace. As Lieutenant Fuller (John Saxon) takes up the investigation, Jess (Olivia Hussey) comes under growing pressure: her boyfriend Peter (Keir Dullea) reacts furiously to her decision not to have their child. And the calls grow ever more menacing. Bob Clark, who later found success with “Porky’s”, created one of the very first slasher films with this Canadian horror film – four years before John Carpenter’s “Halloween”, for which it is regarded as an important model. Subjective shots from the unseen killer’s point of view, the house as a trap and the disturbing phone calls became genre staples. Clark relies less on blood than on suggestion, creating an oppressive atmosphere with black humour and well-drawn characters. At the 1975 Canadian Film Awards, Margot Kidder, the editing and the sound editing all won awards.