I've always wanted to see the movie that spawned the phrase "the calls are coming from inside the house!", and this is it! Well, close enough. That exact line is never said, but we get the idea.
It's Christmas time, and at a Sorority House, the girls are getting obscene phone calls. And then they start going missing, as one by one they position themselves in such a way as so they can be attacked but everyone else is diverted at the time and doesn't hear them being killed. Useful! Anyway, events build up until the killer is killed... or is he?
I'm going with the director that this is more psychological horror than slasher, but it, back in 1976, did help form the trend. But as a horror movie, it works well. We the audience sometimes aren't entirely clear as to if a certain person is the killer or not (and if not, how did he know to look in the basement? That's what I want to know). It can get a little ridiculous just how the girls can be isolated and killed off, but it's not like people are dropping dead left, right and centre.
We do get a few names in this. Margot Kidder is in the house! As is John Saxon. We also get a very menacing performance from Keir Dullea, looking nothing like Dave Bowman, and Olivia Hussey being the star, who is no stranger to horror roles.
Decent movie. Why is it that we need to go back to these old flicks to find them?
[END]
Tuesday 24 December 2013
The Blackest of Christmas
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I thought the quote comes from the film "When a Stranger Calls". Which also had the Have you checked the children line in it (I had to google the name of the film. Saw it on video in my teens & could only recall the have you checked the children/the calls are coming from inside the house lines & it relating to a babysitter. Pretty sure I'd not seen Black Christmas)
Don't know about the children line, but When a Stranger Calls was 1979 whereas Black Christmas was 1974. Stranger Calls might be the more popular movie people know?
Post a Comment