Black Christmas (1974 film)

Black Christmas
Canadian theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bob Clark
Produced by	Bob Clark
Written by	A. Roy Moore
Starring	Olivia Hussey Keir Dullea Margot Kidder John Saxon
Music by	Carl Zittrer
Cinematography	Reginald H. Morris
Edited by	Stan Cole
Production company	Film Funding Limited of Canada Ambassador Films
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	October 11, 1974 (1974-10-11) (Canada) December 20, 1974 (1974-12-20) (US)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English
Budget	$620,000
Box office	$4 million

Black Christmas (former alternate titles include Silent Night, Evil Night and Stranger in the House) is a 1974 Canadian psychological slasher film directed by Bob Clark and written by A. Roy Moore. It stars Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin, Marian Waldman and John Saxon. The story follows a group of sorority sisters who are receiving threatening phone calls, while being stalked and murdered during the holiday season by a deranged murderer hiding in the attic of their sorority house.

The film was shot on an estimated budget of $620,000 and was released by Warner Bros. in the United States and Canada. When originally released, the film grossed over $4 million at the box office and initially received mixed reviews. The film was inspired by a series of murders that took place in the Westmount section of Montreal, Quebec, and the urban legend "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs".

Years after its release, Black Christmas has received respected praise and is credited for originating the unsolved ambiguous identity for the killer. The film is generally considered to be one of the earliest slasher films, served as an influence for Halloween, and has become a cult classic. Two years since its original release, a novelization written by Lee Hayes was published in 1976 and a remake of the same name, produced by Clark, was released in December 2006.

A disoriented person climbs up into the attic of a sorority house while the occupants hold a Christmas party. At the party, Jess (Olivia Hussey) receives an obscene phone call from "The Moaner", a man who has been calling the house. Jess allows her sorority sisters Barb Coard (Margot Kidder), Phyllis "Phyl" Carlson (Andrea Martin), Clare Harrison (Lynne Griffin), and several other girls to listen in on the call. Barb provokes the caller, who responds by telling the girls that he is going to kill them before hanging up the phone; Barb and Clare argue over the potential threat posed by the caller. Upstairs, Clare begins to pack and while she investigates a noise, she is suffocated with plastic wrapping by the unseen person before placing her body in a rocking chair inside the attic.