Welcome to the Movie Club! Today’s movie is Bob Clark’s influential early slasher film Black Christmas!
Black Christmas is both one of the earliest examples of a slasher film and a good example of a Christmas horror story. It is set in and around a sorority house during Christmas break, where a killer taunts the sorority sisters and starts to pick them off one by one.
Black Christmas was first released in Canada on October 11, 1974, with a wider release in the US throughout 1975. According to Wikipedia it made $4 million against a budget of $1.3 million, but it’s hard to find concrete sources on its financial information. Critics were apparently mixed on the film on its initial release, but over time its reputation has grown as it currently has a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes and is now seen as a major influence on the slasher genre.1
Trivia:2
- It was originally released in the US in 1974 as Silent Night, Evil Night but bombed in the US under that title. It was later rereleased under its original title and was much more successful.
- The house the film was shot at is at 6 Clarendon Crescent in Toronto, Ontario. Bob Clark scouted out the location himself.
- The script was inspired by both the urban legend where a babysitter receives creepy calls that are coming from inside the house they’re in, and a real murder spree that occurred in the Westmount neighbourhood in Montreal.
What did you think? Share your thoughts below!
Up Next: Back to our regularly scheduled programming! Our next movie will be Damien Chazelle’s epic period piece Babylon. We will meet to discuss it on November 14th at 12PM EST. Check out the trailer and where it’s playing below (far less options than last week lol):
USA
- Stream: Paramount + (also via Prime Video or The Roku Channel)
- Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Google Play, YouTube, Spectrum (Rental only)
Canada
- Stream: Crave
- Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Amazon, Cosmo Go
UK
- Stream: Nada!
- Rent or Buy: Google Play, YouTube, Amazon, Sky Store, Curzon, Rakuten TV (Purchase only), Apple TV (Purchase only)