Black Christmas is a movie I watch every Christmas season because I think the holiday season can be scarier than Halloween. This movie was directed by Bob Clark, who also helmed the family-centric Christmas movie A Christmas Story.
Bob Clark has a very interesting film history to his name. He was not a one specific genre kind of director. Rather, he enjoys directing across different genres, and if you look up his filmography, you will see what I mean.
Black Christmas starred Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon. It is about a sorority house receiving these obscene and creepy prank calls that lead to a killer who starts killing the ladies in the house.
Roy Moore, who wrote the script, incorporated some real-life situations and mixed them with the urban legend of the babysitter. I first heard about this urban legend when I was a child. I later found out that it is an older urban legend that started around the 1960s. (Source: Wikipedia) It is a cautionary tale about a girl who goes to babysit a neighbor’s kid, a friend’s parents’ kid, or a teacher’s kid. It is the first time they are babysitting and left alone in a stranger’s house. Later in the evening, the babysitter starts getting weird, creepy phone calls asking her about the children she is taking care of. She calls the police, only to be told that the bizarre phone calls are coming from inside the house. The end result is that when the babysitter checks on the children, the children have met a fatal demise, and the caller has left the house. Although this urband legend does have some truth behind it. It is loosely based on the unsolved murder of Jannett Christman, who was found dead in the house that she was babysitting at.
Although there was some discussion of who committed the murder, no one was ever charged with the crime.
The script was also inspired by various murders around the Westmount neighbourhood in Montreal, Quebec, during the Holiday Season. And was also inspired by the crime and killing spree of serial killers William Heirens and Edmund Kemper. Roy More’s script was initially titled “Stop Me,” but personally, I am glad they changed it to “Black Christmas” instead.
Some Fun Facts about the movie: The snow about the sorority house was not real and was foam that was given by the local fire department.
Despite it being a horror movie, Olivia Hussey said it was a lighthearted time between takes.
There is a novelization based on this movie that explains the characters more and fleshes out their actions.
Most of the actors’ clothes in the film are theirs because the movie had a limited budget.
The main reason Keir Dullea decided to make the movie was that he could visit his parents, who lived close to the location.
Better Davis was offered the role of Mrs. Mac but said no.
Rob Zombie’s favorite movie.
Source: Internet Movie Database, Wikipedia, and YouTube.
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