Black Christmas
Added How We Rate
- Directed by
- Bob Clark
- Written by
- Roy Moore
- Produced by
- Bob Clark, Findlay Quinn
Why it’s HorroRated
That phone is the scariest thing in the house. Clark layered several actors' voices into the caller, so every call lurches between snarls, whimpers and filth, and the sorority's nervous jokes curdle a little more each time it rings. The camera prowls the halls from the killer's side, the bloodshed stays sparing, and Olivia Hussey's Jess holds the center with a quiet stubbornness, while Margot Kidder's foul-mouthed Barb, a role that won her a Canadian Film Award, gets the sharpest lines. A few comic detours with a clueless desk sergeant date it, but the twinkling lights and carols set against that voice make it a December essential for anyone who likes dread better than gore.
Synopsis
Shot in Toronto from a Roy Moore script, Black Christmas (1974) is Bob Clark's Canadian slasher about a college sorority house plagued by obscene phone calls as Christmas break begins. Olivia Hussey plays Jess, the student who keeps answering, with Margot Kidder as her hard-drinking sorority sister Barb, Keir Dullea as Jess's volatile boyfriend Peter and John Saxon as the police lieutenant who starts to listen. Released in the US as Silent Night, Evil Night, it came out four years before Halloween (1978) and set down much of the slasher formula, nine years before Clark made the holiday comedy A Christmas Story.
Filed under
Where to watch Black Christmas
- Subscription
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- Free
- Prime Video · Tubi · Pluto TV · The Roku Channel · Fandango at Home · Kanopy · Fawesome · Shout! Factory TV +3 more
- Rent or buy
- Prime Video · Apple TV · YouTube · Google Play · Fandango at Home
Streaming in the US changes often. Listings from JustWatch via TMDB, checked November 10, 2026.See every option
Quick facts
- Release date
- October 11, 1974
- Runtime
- 1 hour 38 mins
- Country
- Canada
- Language
- English
- Content rating
- R
- Entry type
- Movie
Content notes
- Stabbings and suffocation
- Obscene, sexual phone calls
- Lingering corpse imagery
Tags
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