# Black Christmas (1974 film)
**Black Christmas** is a 1974 Canadian horror film directed by [Bob Clark](https://www.edgepedia.org/bob-clark), in which a psychopathic killer hiding in the attic of a college sorority house stalks and murders the sisters staying there over the Christmas break. Written by [Roy Moore](https://www.edgepedia.org/roy-moore) and released on December 20, 1974, it is widely regarded as a prototype of the slasher film, predating [John Carpenter](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-carpenter)'s *Halloween* by four years.[1](https://watch.afi.com/movie/black-christmas-1974) • [2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | December 20, 1974 (wide); Canada; English; 35mm color; 98 minutes; rated R[1](https://watch.afi.com/movie/black-christmas-1974) |
| Director / writer | Bob Clark (also producer); screenplay by Roy Moore[1](https://watch.afi.com/movie/black-christmas-1974) |
| Principal cast | Olivia Hussey (Jess), Margot Kidder (Barb), Keir Dullea (Peter), John Saxon, Marian Waldman, Andrea Martin[2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas) |
| Key crew | Cinematographer Reginald Morris, editor Stan Cole, composer Carl Zittrer, executive producer Findlay Quinn[2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas) |
| Alternate US titles | *Silent Night, Evil Night* and *Stranger in the House*[2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas) • [3](https://sightlines.media/film/16938/black-christmas-1974) |
| Genre standing | Established the slasher formula later followed by *Halloween* (1978), *Friday the 13th* (1980), and *A Nightmare on Elm Street* (1984)[2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas) |
| Critical score | Metascore 65 (generally favorable), with individual reviews ranging from 91 to 40[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/black-christmas-1974/critic-reviews/) |
| Remakes | Two Hollywood remakes, in 2006 (directed by Glen Morgan) and 2019 (directed by Sophia Takal)[5](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3644943/revenge-remakes-bob-clarks-black-christmas-vs-glen-morgan-sophie-takals-black-christmas-remakes/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
As winter break begins, the residents of a college sorority house receive anonymous, obscene telephone calls made from a phone inside the house itself. The caller, a heavy-breathing maniac armed with plastic wrap, is hiding in the attic, and one by one the residents are slain. Barb ([Margot Kidder](https://www.edgepedia.org/margot-kidder)) initially eggs the caller on but stops when he responds threateningly; her friend Clare (Lynne Griffin) goes missing, and a local adolescent girl is murdered, leading the sisters to suspect a serial killer is at large without realizing how near he is.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_christmas_1974) • [2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas)
A parallel storyline gives the film its social dimension. Jess ([Olivia Hussey](https://www.edgepedia.org/olivia-hussey)) has discovered she is pregnant and is confused and threatened by her emotionally unstable boyfriend Peter ([Keir Dullea](https://www.edgepedia.org/keir-dullea)), a music student who refuses to let her get an abortion and wants her to support his plans instead.[2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas) The film presents her decision to seek an abortion without condemning her, a treatment that reflects the immediate post-1960s cultural moment around reproductive rights and second-wave feminism and distinguishes it from the moralizing later slashers were often accused of.[3](https://sightlines.media/film/16938/black-christmas-1974)
## Production and style
Bob Clark directed and produced the film from Roy Moore's screenplay, working with a recurring team: cinematographer Reginald Morris, editor Stan Cole, and composer Carl Zittrer, all of whom appear across his filmography.[1](https://watch.afi.com/movie/black-christmas-1974) • [3](https://sightlines.media/film/16938/black-christmas-1974) Clark had earlier made the horror films *Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things!* (1972) and *Deathdream*, and the [American Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-film-institute)'s synopsis notes that where an earlier critic saw dreariness in his style, *Black Christmas* shows a tight, aggressive approach that generates original shocks, particularly its surprise ending.[1](https://watch.afi.com/movie/black-christmas-1974) • [7](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3793812/black-christmas-remains-the-pinnacle-of-holiday-horror-classics-12-days-of-creepmas/)
The film was among the first of the Canadian Tax Shelter films, a program that established budgets to build a Canadian film scene with commercial potential. It was not a hit on release, though the Canadian Film Encyclopedia records a successful box-office run that opened the door for Clark to work with bigger stars and a larger budget on *Murder by Decree* (1979).[8](https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/black-christmas-review-1974-kidder-clark/) • [2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas)
## Influence on the slasher genre
The Canadian Film Encyclopedia states that the film essentially establishes the slasher formula: the psychotic mystery man stalking young women, the prowling subjective camera, and the uncertain death of the killer at the end, followed by virtually every slasher film that came after.[2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas) Its specific devices recur across the genre: the killer's point-of-view shot, later used in the openings of *Halloween* and *Friday the 13th*; the largely unseen killer given little or no backstory; the final girl; and the holiday-set killing, which launched a strand of Christmas horror including *Christmas Evil*, *To All a Goodnight*, and *Silent Night, Deadly Night*.[9](https://www.perisphere.org/2019/12/10/black-christmas-the-godfather-of-slasher-genre/) The A.V. Club's review adds that few later films repeated Clark's tactic of accompanying the violence with the sound of the killer's maniacal shouting.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/black-christmas-1974/critic-reviews/)
The film's antecedents reach back to [Michael Powell](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-powell)'s *Peeping Tom* (1960) and [Alfred Hitchcock](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-hitchcock)'s *Psycho* (1960), which pioneered killer-viewpoint violence, the penetrative weapon, and a largely female cast of victims; scholars identify *Black Christmas* as the point where these elements coalesced into a configuration that inspired *Halloween* and, through it, the slasher subgenre.[10](https://blogs.iu.edu/establishingshot/2023/12/06/merrily-we-go-to-hell-black-christmas-and-the-slasher-film/) It also draws on the Italian giallo (Italian stylized murder-mystery thriller genre) tradition of subjective killer camera and telephone terror, and on the urban legend of the caller inside the house.[3](https://sightlines.media/film/16938/black-christmas-1974)
**The Halloween question.** How much *Halloween* borrowed from *Black Christmas* is debated in horror circles. Bob Clark claimed that a conversation with John Carpenter about a hypothetical sequel seeded ideas [Carpenter](https://www.edgepedia.org/carpenter) later developed; Carpenter has downplayed the connection, so the link is best described as contested rather than confirmed.[11](https://www.theringer.com/2018/10/03/movies/black-christmas-horror-film-halloween-scream) • [3](https://sightlines.media/film/16938/black-christmas-1974) A delayed release in the United States meant that *Halloween* received much of the credit for conventions *Black Christmas* had originated.[12](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3538306/remake-fever-2006-black-christmas-remake-go-wrong/)
## Reception and legacy
On release the film met a mixed and somewhat muted critical reception, hampered by confusing retitlings and the low prestige then accorded holiday horror; it was not immediately recognized as a landmark. Its stature has grown substantially in retrospect, and it is now widely regarded as a seminal slasher prototype and one of the finest Canadian horror films.[3](https://sightlines.media/film/16938/black-christmas-1974) On Metacritic it holds a Metascore of 65, with positive reviews from [The A.V. Club](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-a-v-club) (91) and Slant Magazine (88) and negative ones from [Variety](https://www.edgepedia.org/variety-magazine) and The New York Times (both 40).[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/black-christmas-1974/critic-reviews/) Margot Kidder received a Canadian Film Award for her performance as Barb.[2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas)
In the United States the film circulated under alternate titles, most notoriously *Silent Night, Evil Night* and later *Stranger in the House*, retitlings intended to sidestep the assumption that "Black Christmas" signaled a blaxploitation picture and to hedge against the risk of a Christmas horror release; its widest US cable TV distribution came in the early 1980s, primarily as *Stranger in the House*, to capitalize on the success of *Halloween*.[3](https://sightlines.media/film/16938/black-christmas-1974) • [1](https://watch.afi.com/movie/black-christmas-1974)
The original's standing is confirmed by its remake history. Glen Morgan's 2006 version, released December 25, 2006, holds a 14% Tomatometer score, with the critics consensus calling it a gratuitous remake that pumps out gore with zero creativity.[5](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3644943/revenge-remakes-bob-clarks-black-christmas-vs-glen-morgan-sophie-takals-black-christmas-remakes/) • [13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_christmas) Sophia Takal's 2019 remake, co-written with April Wolfe, reimagined the material as a #MeToo-era story about women fighting back against misogynistic abuse, an approach that critics found uneven and that divided audiences while confirming the 1974 film's status as the template.[5](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3644943/revenge-remakes-bob-clarks-black-christmas-vs-glen-morgan-sophie-takals-black-christmas-remakes/) • [14](https://www.thewrap.com/black-christmas-film-review-2019-blumhouse-imogen-poots/) A remastered DVD was released in 2003, and the film remains a fixture of horror retrospectives and scholarship.[2](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas) • [3](https://sightlines.media/film/16938/black-christmas-1974)
## References
1. [Black Christmas, American Film Institute](https://watch.afi.com/movie/black-christmas-1974)
2. [Black Christmas, Canadian Film Encyclopedia (TIFF)](https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/black-christmas)
3. [Black Christmas (1974), dir. Bob Clark — analysis, influences and similar films, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/16938/black-christmas-1974)
4. [Black Christmas (1974) critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/black-christmas-1974/critic-reviews/)
5. [Bob Clark's 'Black Christmas' vs. Glen Morgan and Sophia Takal's 'Black Christmas' Remakes, Bloody Disgusting](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3644943/revenge-remakes-bob-clarks-black-christmas-vs-glen-morgan-sophie-takals-black-christmas-remakes/)
6. [Black Christmas (1974), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_christmas_1974)
7. ['Black Christmas' Remains the Pinnacle of Holiday Horror Classics, Bloody Disgusting](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3793812/black-christmas-remains-the-pinnacle-of-holiday-horror-classics-12-days-of-creepmas/)
8. [How 'Black Christmas' Changed the Face of Horror, Hollywood in Toto](https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/black-christmas-review-1974-kidder-clark/)
9. [Black Christmas: The Godfather of Slasher Genre, Perisphere](https://www.perisphere.org/2019/12/10/black-christmas-the-godfather-of-slasher-genre/)
10. [Merrily We Go to Hell: Black Christmas and the Slasher Film, Establishing Shot (Indiana University)](https://blogs.iu.edu/establishingshot/2023/12/06/merrily-we-go-to-hell-black-christmas-and-the-slasher-film/)
11. ['Black Christmas' Was the First 'Halloween', The Ringer](https://www.theringer.com/2018/10/03/movies/black-christmas-horror-film-halloween-scream)
12. [Where Did the 'Black Christmas' Remake Go Wrong?, Bloody Disgusting](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3538306/remake-fever-2006-black-christmas-remake-go-wrong/)
13. [Black Christmas (2006), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_christmas)
14. ['Black Christmas' Film Review, TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/black-christmas-film-review-2019-blumhouse-imogen-poots/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Slasher films*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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