Why the Original Black Christmas 1974 is Worth the Watch
The movie starts with an unknown person stalking the sorority’s house. We then see inside the sorority house with the sorority sisters holding a party.
As the sisters enjoy the party, the unknown stranger enters the attic. This movie's beginning sets the tone and is an exceptionally executed scene.
The central horror movies in the 1970s were Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974 and Halloween in 1978.
I watched both and can’t help but imagine that Black Christmas was, at its time, unconventional and was one of the most influential horror movies of all time.
Every slasher film after Black Christmas followed the same recipe this original 1974 masterpiece cooked up.
But no one ever mentions it because the movie has been remade two other times, once in 2006 and 2019.
I watched both remakes, and they both try to pay homage to the original, and they ultimately fail.
Somebody might ask why I should waste my time watching this old movie when I watched the remake, which is precisely alike.
The answer is that 2006 and 2019 are two movies that try to be exactly like the original, but they are not.
Like the fact that Billy doesn’t have a storyline in the original, but he did in 2006. The movie might not have a background story for the antagonist, but that could be good.
Anyone who has watched slasher flicks can tell that the slasher’s victims have more dialogue and background than the person killing them.
I feel that this brings a great deal of purpose for most slasher flicks because if the murderer most likely does have a storyline, then we are supposed to feel bad for him, not his victims, and that is the main takeaway for me as to why this movie does not get enough attention as it should.
I want to remind horror movie fans that the film was made almost fifty years ago, and there were not that many quite like Black Christmas made then.
The first murder of the sorority sister
When you watch the murder of Clare, the killer is still not known or shown at all. The events later on in the movie are set in place after this murder takes place.
There is so much at stake in finding out who the real killer is and what has to happen for the killer to be identified.
This puts any audience on the edge of their seats and to watch the whole movie until the end.
The Ending
The film’s ending has a major cliffhanger as Jess is the only sorority girl alive after the police find the killer making the calls in the house, her boyfriend Peter breaks in, and Jess assumes he is the killer and kills him.
The police believe Peter was the killer and Jess killed him in self-defense.
But the biggest question of all was where is Billy, as he was never caught, and the phone begins to ring again after the police leave Jess in a room at the sorority house by herself.
To mean she is left to fend for herself as the killer is never caught and is still in the place.
I give this movie four out of five possible stars.
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(If you want to watch this movie Black Christmas 1974, you can watch it on Tubi for free)