The film still manages a good slice of old-fashioned suspense.
Comment
06/24/06
Black Christmas (1974)
64
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:14
Rotten:8
Average Rating:5.9/10
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: The few remaining residents of a Canadian sorority house are celebrating the onset of Christmas vacation when a thirteen year-old girl is found dead in the park. Soon, it is discovered that one of... [More]
Starring: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon
Director: Bob Clark
Reviews for Black Christmas
Top CriticA whodunit that begs the question of why it was made.
05/09/05
Top Criticits progeny would improve quite a bit on the formula
11/24/02
No review available.
08/12/05
Click to read the article
02/28/02
No review available.
07/26/02
Perhaps frightening in 1974, it really doesn't hold up today unless you can forget the 12,000 films exactly like it, which is difficult.
07/23/07
If nothing else, Black Christmas will always be remembered as the inferior older brother to Clark's other Christmas flick, the Tito of the Jackson clan.
12/01/03
Only Marian Waldman as the house-mother comes across with any life.
12/27/06
Top CriticAlthough strictly standard fare, the material is elevated somewhat through Clark's skillful handling of such plot devices as obscene phone calls from the killer to the girls via the upstairs phone and a nicely handled twist ending.
12/04/06
Top CriticGenerally heralded as the first of its kind, Black Christmas may actually be one of a kind.
12/05/08
...a sporadically effective slasher...
12/30/06
Cold, classy, and straightforward, Black Christmas also has the advantage of good acting by the female leads played by Margot Kidder and Olivia Hussey.
12/08/02
This dark holiday classic ranks as one of the screen's very first slasher flicks.
05/26/06
Like Carpenter, Clark avoids graphic gore, focussing instead on suggestion and using careful mise-en-scene, editing and use of music to build suspense.
12/12/03
Confused and confusing, but creepy
10/02/02
No review available.
10/23/02
It's guaranteed to put you in the 'ghoul-tide' spirit.
02/13/01
Corrodes jolly yuletide cheer with some cruel prank calls, sexual tension and sorority girl slayings.
02/16/06
Latest News for Black Christmas
December 25, 2008:
Further Reading: Seasonal Slaying - The 12 Horrors of Christmas
Thanks to Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol, the Yuletide season has long been associated with ghost stories -- often with hard-won uplift at the end, like Scrooge being... More...
April 04, 2007:
"Christmas Story" Director Bob Clark Dies In Crash
Bob Clark, director of "A Christmas Story," "Porky's," and many other works in a career that spanned four decades died in a car crash early this morning in... More...
December 28, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "Dreamgirls" Hits The High Notes; "Black Christmas" Gets A Lump Of Coal
This week at the movies, we've got the rise and fall of a girl group ("Dreamgirls," starring Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, and Eddie Murphy) and some yuletide splatter... More...
December 20, 2006:
RT's Top Holiday Thrillers -- Christmas Countdown, Day Three
Welcome to Day Three of RT's Five Days of Christmas Countdown, in which we serve up a different list each day of the best holiday flicks around. Today, we've got the... More...
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