Black Christmas

(Canada)

August. Director Bob Clark; Producer Bob Clark, Gerry Arbeid; Screenplay Roy Moore; Camera Reg Morris; Editor Stan Cole; Music Carl Zittrer; Art Director Karen Bromley

Olivia Hussey
Keir Dullea
Margot Kidder
Andrea Martin
John Saxon
Marian Waldman

Black Christmas, a bloody, senseless kill-for-kicks feature, exploits unnecessary violence in a university sorority house operated by an implausibly alcoholic ex-hoofer. Its slow-paced, murky tale involves an obscene telephone caller who apparently delights in killing the girls off one by one, even the hapless house-mother.

The plot has the usual abundant cliches: a drunken girl student, played by Margot Kidder, who goes to her death much too late in the film; a house-mother, who finds her hidden whiskey bottles after much swearing; a 'nice' girl, who finds herself pregnant much to the horror of her psycho piano student boyfriend; and stock dumb policemen.

Only Marian Waldman as the house-mother comes across with any life.

(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1974. Running time: 93 MIN.

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