| ◄ | Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (2000) KILL COUNT | Black Christmas (1974) KILL COUNT | Black Christmas (2006 Remake) KILL COUNT | ► |
Black Christmas (1974) KILL COUNT is the thirty-ninth video of The Kill Count.
Overview[]
An unseen man climbs the exterior of a sorority house, where a Christmas party is being held, and enters the attic. The house phone then rings. Sorority sister Jess Bradford answers to discover it is an obscene phone call from a person who has called before, whom the sorority has nicknamed "The Moaner." Jess and the other sorority members listen as the caller rants and screams in strange voices, referring to someone called "Billy", before abruptly threatening to kill them. Upset by the call, a younger student named Clare Harrison decides to leave and goes upstairs to her bedroom to pack her suitcase. There, unbeknownst to the rest of the sorority, Clare is attacked and asphyxiated by the intruder.
The following morning, Clare's father arrives, saying that she failed to meet him at a train station. Housemother Mrs. MacHenry offers to help Mr. Harrison look for her. Later that day, Jess informs her boyfriend, Peter, that she is pregnant and plans to undergo an abortion, much to his disapproval. Meanwhile, Harrison and two other sorority members, Barb and Phyl, attempt to report Clare's disappearance to Sergeant Nash. Nash does not take them seriously until Chris Hayden, Clare's boyfriend, barges in angrily later in the day and demands something be done about it.
A search party is held that night for Clare, in which Harrison, Chris and most of the sorority gets involved. Meanwhile, Mrs. MacHenry discovers Clare's body in the attic before the killer murders her with a crane hook. Shortly after, Jess answers another obscene phone call and decides to file a report with the police. Lieutenant Fuller arrives with a telephone lineman to tap the phone, so that the police can determine the identity of the caller.
After Fuller leaves, a group of Christmas carollers appear at the front door. As Jess watches the singers, the killer sneaks into Barb's room and stabs her to death with a glass unicorn figurine, with her cries for help being drowned out by the carollers. Jess then receives another obscene phone call, in which the caller emulates parts of her argument with Peter. Fuller calls her to say the attempt to trace the call failed, and they both begin placing suspicions towards Peter. Jess and Phyl decide to lock every door and window in the house. Shortly after, however, Phyl is murdered by the killer after finding Barb's body.
Jess receives yet another obscene phone call, which is successfully traced by the police. Nash instructs Jess to leave the house immediately, as the calls are coming from inside. Jess goes to alert Barb and Phyl, only to discover them dead. Jess sees the killer's eye staring at her through a door crack, before she slams the door against him and flees. The killer chases after her, and (unable to open the front door) Jess runs into the basement, locking it behind her. Shortly after, though, Peter breaks through the basement window and slowly approaches Jess as he worriedly asks if she is okay. In a state of panic, Jess beats Peter to death with a fire poker and police find her barely conscious as she cradles Peter's body.
Believing that Peter was the killer, the police put Jess to bed and leave her sleeping alone in her bedroom, with a police officer standing outside the house. Shortly after, the killer's voice is heard from the attic, where Clare and Mrs. Mac's corpses remain undiscovered. The attic hatch opens before the house's telephone begins to ring.
Deaths[]
Counted Deaths[]
- Clare - Strangled / suffocated w/ plastic bag - 11 mins in
- Mrs. Mac - Hook to the face, dragged into attic & killed - 41 mins in
- Janice Quaife - Unknown (body found offscreen) - 43 mins in (body found)
- Barb - Stabbed at least 4 times w/ glass unicorn horn - 1 hr 5 mins in
- Phyl - Killed offscreen - 1 hr 16 mins in
- Officer Jennings - Throat slit offscreen - 1 hr 20 mins in (body seen)
- Peter - Killed offscreen by Jess w/ firepoker - 1 hr 30 mins in (body found)
Non-Counted Deaths[]
- Claude MacHenry - Presumably Killed Offscreen by Billy Lenz
- Jess Bradford - Fate Unknown
Trivia[]
- This is the first 1974 movie covered on the Kill Count.