Black Christmas (1974)

I won't be watching any more movies that make me gay.

I believe there have been a few threads. They played it on TCM last holiday season.

I live in Toronto, and I tried to find the house where it was filmed but apparently it's a gated-off community and you can't even find it on Google Maps.

Margot Kidder was a scene-stealer. Her character is a total DLer.

All these types of movies are designed to turn me into something that I am not. I refuse to watch them.

This is one of the few higher profile films Olivia Hussey did post Romeo & Juliette.

I think she had agoraphobia (or at least a bad agent.)

I’m offended, OP.

The term “Christmas of color” will suffice.

This is a classic, one of my favorites. Both remakes were hot garbage. If you haven't heard already, it's from the same director - Bob Clark - who went on to make A Christmas Story.

It really does have great atmosphere. it feels like Christmas with an undercurrent of danger.

It has terrific cinematography. All those beautiful Christmas lights in '70s film stock looks nice in HD

OP, we assumed you knew.

This is why I loathe all remakes and think they should be illegal. I remember thinking that when they remade The Fog.

What if some clueless person hears about the horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or Black Christmas or Psycho, and they end up watching the remakes by mistake? I can hardly think of anything worse happening.

It’s a great film. Truly creepy.

[quote] If you haven't heard already, it's from the same director - Bob Clark - who went on to make A Christmas Story.

And also… PORKY’S!

But do also check out Deathdream AKA Dead of Night from 1972. It uses the Vietnam war as a backdrop for a kind of zombie tale. It’s surprisingly heartrending, too. Forget about the inexplicably better known Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things—that’s just silly garbage for the most part. Both of these movies were directed by Clark but written by Alan Ormsby.

I love this movie. It deserves more recognition.

When they turned all the simple women into angry lesbians? Is that this movie?

It has a cult following and is considered a classic. It had enough recognition to get two remakes.

Neither being good though.

R4 she rejected most mainstream roles and only did this one because her psychic told her she should, it would be good for her to do it. She wasn’t gonna do it otherwise.

She’s been offered a lot of roles in horror films and is considered one of the first “Scream Queens” but she won’t do them as she hates horror films.

It’s considered a classic of the horror genre, a proto-slasher too.

It’s also the first film to use the “the calls are coming from inside the house!” trope.

Terrified by it as a kid in the '70s. And the poster was the stuff of nightmares.

I just read it’s one of the very first films to ever use the cuss “cunt”. It must be a DL favorite with that kind of language!

[quote]R14 She’s been offered a lot of roles in horror films and is considered one of the first “Scream Queens” but she won’t do them as she hates horror films.

Well, she did “Psycho IV”

I think she had a manager that absconded with a lot of her money : ( I hope her autobiography brought something in.

R12, no that's the 2019 remake.

She also did “IT” in 1990.

But she really does hate horror films. She must have needed the money. She also has a fear of crowds which keeps her from doing those conventions, which a lot of other cast members from the film do all the time.

In May a fan made short film sequel was released. It follows Jess’s granddaughter.

I fucking love the drunkard house mother. My god, what a gay icon.

Gawd, just seeing the video cover (the dead girl suffocated with the plastic laundry bag) in the 80s/90s was enough to scare the doodoo out of me. Watched it once I was an adult and fell IN LOVE. Now, it's a yearly tradition. The scariest prt is when Hussey gets grabbed by the hair toward the end, holy jesus. This film truly does have everything...except male nudity. I'd give it 10/10 but for that, haha

[quote] The scariest prt is when Hussey gets grabbed by the hair toward the end, holy jesus.

Yes!!

The film has no nudity. The Director made sure to have no nudity of anyone, especially the women.

R13 R15 But it still doesn’t receive as much recognition as Halloween.

Had no idea there was a Psycho IV or that cutie pie Henry Thomas was in it!

[quote] What if some clueless person hears about the horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or Black Christmas or Psycho, and they end up watching the remakes by mistake? I can hardly think of anything worse happening.

Mary!

When TCM aired it last year, they left the C word in.

R4 I always wondered that about hussey. How did she maintain any lifestyle after Romeo & Juliet, by all accounts she wasn’t well paid for that break out role and then she didn’t work much after on anything that would have paid her much. Was it just through marriage to Dean martin’s son?

[quote] This is one of the few higher profile films Olivia Hussey did post Romeo & Juliette.

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

Margot Kidder was a hoot in this. It's a shame that her career never took off.

[quote] Margot Kidder was a hoot in this. It's a shame that her career never took off.

??

Ummmm she was in Superman which was a blockbuster. Her career didn’t take off because she went nuts.

And she was in more than just the first Superman (1978). Didn’t she do one or more of the sequels as well?

She worked steadily through the 70s and her career peaked with the Superman films, but then yes she suffered from bipolar disorder and also had a drinking problem. Even still, she continued to appear in things here and there. Even after she went FULLY nuts, and disappeared for a few days—she still got roles! God love her.

She was almost cast in the 2006 Black Christmas but they went with Andrea Martin instead.

She never stopped working and was in all 4 Superman movies and The Amityville Horror. She was a household name after Superman. But reports started coming out about her erratic and nutty behavior and she became more known for that than anything else and she became someone doing guest spots on TV and straight to vhs/dvd type B films in the 90s.

Superman was a massive hit, making $300 million worldwide in 1978, which is equivalent to $1.262 billion in 2021.

Kidder was a much better Lois than Amy Adams

Margot Kidder was wonderful in everything she was in.

So "When a Stranger Calls" totally ripped off the concept that the call was coming from inside the house?

I always thought they started it until I saw this film last year.

Anything with Andrea Martin in it is GREAT, but I kept expecting her to morph into Edith Prickley at any moment.

They look like the mothers of college students.

Let’s not forget to mention the beautiful Keir Dullea, whom one lucky Datalounger allegedly got to fellate at an adult video store in Manhattan some years ago.

R43 oh please. Most likely fiction.

He did have beautiful eyes though.

A true horror classic. It was phenomenal, and holds up beautifully. The final 20 minutes are incredibly creepy. Movies today lack that.

Death by glass unicorn. Classic!

Margot’s death was self inflicted on 2018. It breaks my heart. They believe she intended to die.

R40 this movie influenced When A Stranger Calls. They came up with it after seeing this.

The den mother always reminded me of a drunken Mrs. Garrett from The Facts of Life, even though the movie came out long before that show did. She hid a freaking flask in the toilet tank!

R41 This skit cracked me up back in the day

Sophia Bath Oil

I may be in the minority, but I felt this was ugly without there being any pay-off. We never learn who the killer actually is, and the characters are dispatched in a trivial way. Love Margot Kidder, but her character is developed as a hate sink so we don't have to care what happens to her. Unfair to her and to the character she is playing.

I love horror films, but this seemed a cop-out.

Having no resolution just makes it creepier and adds mystique.

R2, I've seen a few people post pictures standing in front of the house. I don't think it's in a gated community.

Doesn't Kidder call her mother a gold-plated whore or something? Such a DLer.

Kidder was my favorite! Most people I know love Barb and do not want her to die r51. She was an enjoyable character who added sass and humor to her scenes. I loved her bluntness.

The ending is what made the film a classic. The fact there was no clear ending was new then and really got a reaction. The studio (WB) kept interfering and were at battle with the Director, who refused to change the ending. He wouldn’t budge. Of course today he would be fired but they ended up saying if this backfires it’s his career and allowed him to keep his ending. To their surprise, his ending made people talk and the film became a hit.

r29 TCM doesn't censor anything in the films they show.

The filmmakers wanted Bette Davis for the part of the housemother. As terrific as Marion Waldman is, you can't help but think how Davis would have said some of those lines.

Bob Clark was a really good director until post X Mas Story when he went to Hollywood and started turning out shit like Rhinestone and Baby Genuises. But his output up until X Mas Story is strong.

[quote]But reports started coming out about her erratic and nutty behavior and she became more known for that than anything else

What hindered Margot's career was speaking out against the producers of Superman, because she was pissed over Richard Donner's firing. The Salkinds punished her by reducing her part to a glorified cameo in Superman 3, and the fourth was a shitty movie. I love her Letterman interview, where you can tell she knows it was a piece of crap, but only came on because another guest cancelled at the last minute. By the time of the hiding in the bushes incident, her career had already peaked for about a decade.

Honestly, most people didn't even know she had mental problems until then. She wasn't Britney or Lindsay.

You didn’t know about this, OP? What are you, twelve?

The other thing about Kidder’s career slide was that she kind of didn’t give a shit. Maybe her mental illness or other problems played until that, but she was very cynical and kind of “over it” by the time her peak success had passed. In later interviews, she was always extremely down-to-earth and as unromantic about the movies she’d made as a person can be. She definitely did not believe in the mystique of Hollywood or moviemaking or really care to try to sell it.

That’s evident in the interview she gave for Scream Factory’s (ugh) blu ray of this film. It’s also apparent in Olivia Hussey’s interview! The young man who interviews them is such a dork, and it’s evident he’s really into the idea of Black Christmas and its characters, like he wishes it had turned into a whole franchise somehow. He wants Hussey to explain to him her theory of the killer, his motivations, etc. She indulges him, but it’s embarrassing to watch. That kind of horror movie fan is pathetic.

[quote] Maybe her mental illness or other problems played until that,

*played into that

“Best known as Superman's favorite person, Lois Lane. Her much publicized behavior in 1996 was due to manic depression. She was living in a state of paranoia, convinced that her first husband was trying to kill her. Kidder was at one point homeless. She narrowly escaped being raped, and wandered about the streets of Los Angeles (barely recognizable after cutting her hair off and removing some of her dental work) before hiding underneath a family's porch that was located near the studio where Superman (1978) was filmed. Fortunately, she got her life back on track after having faced the "demons" of her condition.”

“After living in the US for 34 years, she became a US citizen in August of 2004 so she could vote against US President George W. Bush as part of her protest against the war in Iraq.”

Why did she take so long to become a citizen?

I always liked Kidder. She was always very pro gay rights and outspoken about that, dating back to the 70s when that could be a career killer to even suggest. She gave no fucks.

Wasn't Kate Jackson available?

Yes, Bette Davis was offered the role but she rejected it. Her and Hussey starred in a film together later and hated each other.

[quote] Wasn't Kate Jackson available?

To do what exactly?

Who could have watched that movie in 1974 and thought that Andrea Mitchell would become the biggest star of the cast. I certainly wouldn't have pegged her as a great comic performer from watching this movie.

Karen Allen owes much of her career to Margot's downfall. I feel like most of the roles that Karen got would have gone to Margot if not for her personal problems. Margot was certainly the more talented and charismatic actress.

Soundtrack was suitably creepy as well.

Opening credits : Silent Night arranged by Sir David Willcocks sung by Kings College Cambridge.

[quote] and thought that Andrea Mitchell

Yes, news reporter Andrea Mitchell was very good in Black Christmas.

[quote] Who could have watched that movie in 1974 and thought that Andrea Mitchell would become the biggest star of the cast.

In which universe did that happen?

"Who could have watched that movie in 1974 and thought that Andrea Mitchell would become the biggest star of the cast. "

It's not often an actress goes from movie making to news correspondent. I wonder what made her pursue that particular line of work?

Probably not getting many roles

R65 Probably too close to when Kate was wrapping up her "Satan's School for Girls" project with soon to be fellow angel Cheryl Ladd.

R66 Olivia was playing some sort of new age chanting every morning from what I remember reading. Perhaps bette just didn’t have any patience for this nonsense

Karen Allen once said that people would get her, Margot Kidder, Brooke Adams, and someone else (whom I can't remember) mistaken for each other all the time. They used to joke to each other that they should all do a movie together.

Brooke Adams was a cutie.

R40, TBH, I really liked Black Christmas but I think When a Stranger Calls actually makes better use of the "calls coming from inside the house" thing. The first 30 minutes of the latter movie will never be topped by another horror movie.

I never liked When A Stranger Calls or it’s remake

I liked the remake but the original is a classic.

It’s overrated and lacks atmosphere

Thank you, Op, i have always wanted to see this but somehow never managed until now. It is as creepy as it is overacted. It has moods in spades.

Margot Kidder steals the show, even if her character (as someone said above) is underdeveloped. Actually, that is the story of ,most of her career.

Olivia Hussey sounds insufferable. I almost rejoiced when ‘Billy’ pulled her hair (for a moment at the end I thought she was the killer as well).

Suck my juicy cock, R81.

R81 disagree. It’s all atmosphere.

I jumped and my heart began to race when Billy caught her by her hair. I got so nervous and anxious

Would love to now what R81 thinks of Silent Night Deadly Night.

R81 is billy, still in the attic, using a pencil to make the creepy phone calls.

who was billy?

What are you talking about, R51? Margot's character is the only one I cared about in the entire movie -- other than the drunken house mother. I wonder what Shelley Winters would have done with that part....

I saw this one recently and really liked it too. It had a good atmosphere and was quite a well rounded film, being about more than just the murders.

Margot Kidder was like some redneck lady. Weird she was ever popular.

She wasn’t a redneck. You must know nothing about her r91. Don’t speak about what you don’t know.

I just watched this on Peacock for the first time in many years and it's gotten even better with age. I just love the atmosphere and the way the Christmas lights give an eerie, yet warm glow to the movie. It's just the perfect movie to watch on a cold night under a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate.

Bette Davis was offered the role of the house mother but turned it down. She and Olivia Hussey would later work together on Death on the Nile. Apparently they didn't like each other.

It is so chilling the way he screams when Jess pushes the door in on him and when he bangs on the basement door like a madman. Ugh, still creeps me out every time.

Olivia Hussey overacted in this but it works.

I miss those big old phones and their piercing rings (available only in black, tan or white). You were always tied to the wall like a leash.

My dad was always on call with his job so we couldn't talk if he was home because he might miss the Dispatcher. There was no call waiting, *69, answering machines or holds... for decades.

And we couldn't talk if it was raining out because mom said lightening can come through the lines and electrocute you.

The drunk is an icon - "CLAUDE?!?" clink-clink.

Kidder is everything in this - and a complete DataLounger. Lines like "You're a real Gold-Plated WHORE mother" and "Darling, you can't rape a townie" are pure DataLounge.

I'm a fan of horror movies (good ones, not trashy ones) but somehow I never got around to seeing BC. I decided it would be just the thing to watch this holiday season. I liked it. I especially liked the looks of the sorority house; I liked the way the camera focuses on the house that looks so warm and inviting and pretty with all the glowing Christmas lights. It's so creepy when you consider all the horror that goes on inside the pretty Christmas decorated dwelling.

SPOILERS. Two things bother me, though. First: during all the crazy goings-on NOBODY, not the police, not anyone, thinks to look in the goddamn attic? Seems to me after the first girl's disappearance a thorough search of the house would have been done. And Jess, poor, traumatized, in shock Jess, is sedated to the gills and left alone in a room of the house, with only a policeman standing outside as protection? Why was she not taken to a hospital? Those two things didn't make sense to me. But you can't expect a lot of common sense in horror movies.

I thought "Black Christmas" was entertaining and quite creepy in places. It's well worth watching. Don't watch the remakes, though. They're both godawful, as remakes tend to be.

The original is a classic. I hated both remakes and I can't believe Andrea Martin agreed to be in the 2006 version.

It’s Christmas season, so this is a must watch.

God, I miss Margot Kidder. She brought such spark, humour and intelligence to her roles. She was perfect as Lois Lane. I loved how her Lois was ambitious and resourceful but was still a hopeless romantic. I can't believe any exec thought that Kate Bosworth would be a worthy Lois. She was like a blank slate.

And Kidder makes the most of her time in Black Christmas.

I love the cinematography in Black Christmas. It's like a cozy slasher film.

Kidder was great as Lois Lane but I remember most people not liking her because she wasn’t traditionally “beautiful”.

R51 I felt that was the beauty of the movie. The movie is almost 50 years old and we still don’t know who Billy is. Bob Clarke knows and he died.

R88 Only Bob Clarke knows.

But my interpretation was he’s someone who’s mentally ill and had a schizophrenic episode.

I don’t think Billy is actually Billy. In the phone calls, I think he’s reenacting the last family he murdered. Because at the end, he puts on Billy’s voice. He says “baby’s alright Mommy”. Billy sounds slow like he has special needs.

I think he was in a family’s attic and killed them one by one and Billy was a brother and Agnes was the baby. I think the killer killed a little girl who she had mistaken for Billy.

Billy wasn’t his intended name, it’s the name fans gave him so that’s another reason why I don’t believe Billy is Billy.

Like I believe if they had made a Black Christmas 2, Billy would reenact everything he heard in the sorority house and maybe we would have heard the name Peter (Jess’s boyfriend).

R104 so you think he’s schizophrenic? Because the only way to have a schizophrenic episode is to be schizophrenic. Mental illness isn’t being schizophrenic. That’s a specific mental illness that one has no control over.

Also, what we see of Billy aren’t signs of schizophrenia.

[quote] This is why I loathe all remakes and think they should be illegal. I remember thinking that when they remade The Fog.

Because nothing could ever compare with Adrienne Barbeau trying to explain the manifestation of evil to her listeners and then climbing the roof of the lighthouse tower?

R106 Yes I think he was schizophrenic and I think he was having an episode.

The 2006 remake has him escape from an institution. But I don’t believe he escaped from anywhere there wasn’t anyone looking for him.

I think he was someone who lived alone and when he had episodes, he’d break into peoples houses and murder them. And like I said, I think what we hear on the phone is the last family he murdered.

Because if you listen to the phone calls, there’s no evidence he’s actually Billy.

OMG someone put together all the phone calls on YouTube.

So yes if you listen at 5:35 that’s Billy’s voice.

At 2:40 I think this is his “real voice”. He’s reenacting what he said after he strangled someone.

And he gets upset. Remember when he has the mental breakdown in the attic and starts trashing everything.

He’s just really disturbed.

R108 his behavior wasn’t of someone with schizophrenia.

Black Christmas is a better movie than Halloween. It has more depth and better acting. It's also the first film to come up with the holiday horror theme, and the "Call is coming from inside the house" concept.

It's not as scary, since Halloween is a straight up horror film, while BC is more of a thriller.

I think it's clear that Keir Dullea is the killer. BTW, when did he turn into Alan Alda?

I actually think BC is just as creepy, if not more, at times. It builds a very creepy atmosphere, while also maintaining this warm Christmas vibe.

Movies.

Pfffft.

Sir David Willcock's 1969 arrangement of Silent Night and sung by The Choir of Kings College Cambridge used in the soundtrack.

A bit of a dark edge to the arrangement -those parallel 5ths in the intro setting the mood.

The glowing red wreath on the front door is one of my all-time favorite movie props.

I love both Black Christmas and Halloween, but the grittiness of Black Christmas gets under my skin more. It also has that eerie and unsettling open ending, which Halloween also had to some degree, but the difference is that Black Christmas didn't have 4,000 sequels and reboots to chip away at its scariness. Unlike the Halloween series which took many opportunities to try to explain Michael Myers, his evil, and why he does what he does, Black Christmas leaves "Billy" out there in the night with all of his crimes left unsolved. It's a very scary, uncomfortable place to leave an audience.

Both remakes were disasters, missing everything that made the original so effective in the first place. The one from 2006 was a mindless gore fest with too much silly backstory on Billy and a female cast that looked so similar that it was hard to tell them apart. The latest remake might as well have been called something else since all it carried over were murders on Christmas at a sorority house and a threatening phone call or two. It didn't have a lick of suspense or a single scare and all of the characters were whiny and hard to relate to.

Yes, knowing that Jess is left in the house, asleep, with Billy never captured is unsettling. And then the phone starts to ring, letting the viewer know Billy is still in the house.

It’s very scary.

The 1977 short film the Sitter was the direct inspiration for When A Stranger Calls. I think they bought the rights.

Obviously, BC precedes both of them. But The Sitter is basically the famous first part of WASC.

Urgh... didn't post the link correctly...

R111 He’s not the killer.

The film studio wanted him to be the killer and Clarke said no. The studio hated that the killer was never identified.

R117 According to Olivia, there were 2 endings, 1 where Jess is killed but they didn’t film it.

Billy’s calm “I’m going to kill you” during the early phone call is bone chilling.

It is, R122. It's the change of tone from obscene pervert to "normal". Like he is done joking around and means it.

I want the original book that came out after this movie but it hasn’t been in print for decades.

R120, Bob Clarke said the killer could be Dullea, or someone else. He wanted the viewers to decide for themselves.

Dullea's meltdown during the piano recital sure mimicked the killer's meltdowns. We also know that he was upstairs in the house when some of the murders took place. And then there's the ending where it implies that he's the killer.

R125 Yeah but Billy had shaggy hair in the shadows and Peter had that Ramones bob (I don’t know what it’s called)

I just opened Facebook and look what one of the first posts on my feed is… I had to show DL this blasphemy

R127 HAHA! What a piece of shit! So bad, the trailer didn’t even pretend not to give it all away (because it’s so obvious). I like whoever renamed it ‘Woke Christmas’. Christ, it’s an embarrassment. To filmmaking, feminism and basic intelligence.

128 posts and no one has mentioned the always present sound of the howling winter wind? Although unrealistic, it's what really creates the creepy vibe.

I was 10 when this came out and thus unable to see it, but as a horror fan I was transfixed by the creepy ad for this I would see on the movie page in the local paper.. "If this movie doesn't make you're skin crawl, it's on too tight!"

A bunch of interviews. I love behind-the-scenes stories.

Can someone please explain the Margot Kidder line: "Nobody rapes a townie." What does it mean?

I'm watching it right now, and, yes, Barb must be a DLer based on the fact that she gave the little boy liquor at the underprivileged kids' party.

[quote]Can someone please explain the Margot Kidder line: "Nobody rapes a townie." What does it mean?

Can't rape the willing, sweetheart!

And local girls are always down for collegiate cock!

Surely Mrs. Mac and Clare started to smell a little not-so-fresh after a while.

R132 The line is "Darling, you can't rape a townie" implying that townies are all wanton sluts who'll sleep with anything.

R135, doesn't the film take place over a day or two? There probably wasn't enough time for them to get too ripe.

Watched it Saturday night. Still a brilliant movie. I prefer it to Halloween. My problem with Halloween is, aside from Laurie, the characters are unlikeable. I can’t stand Annie and Lynda.

The first time I saw it was in a theater that had bad audio, and I couldn't understand at all what "Billy" was saying on the phone.

But once I heard it with proper audio, I realized how brilliant his little monologues are. The weird description of his relationship with "Agnes" is so unsettling.

[quote] 128 posts and no one has mentioned the always present sound of the howling winter wind? Although unrealistic, it's what really creates the creepy vibe.

It's not "always present."

It's there whenever you have shots from outside the house, but it's the dead of winter on a windy night. It's [italic]sometimes[/italic] present indoors, but it's supposed to be a very old house built at a time when insulation was not always great, and drafts seeped in. I remember old houses from that time when you could often hear the wind outside because of bad insulation and cheap windows.

The new 4K looks great. Even better is that the original mono track is restored, so it adds to the eeriness of the film.

R140 has spoken!

Speaking of the (bad) Halloween remake of the '00s, Margot Kidder plays Laurie Strode's therapist in the sequel, that is, the Rob Zombie Halloween II of 2009. She only has one scene, but still, a star of one of the foundational slashers has a foot in the Halloween franchise too.

[quote] She only has one scene, but still, a star of one of the foundational slashers has a foot in the Halloween franchise too.

Link?

[quote]Link?

Bette Davis would have ruined the movie. I doubt she would have said half of the lines. Marian Waldman was sublime in the role.

R141, I agree! The new mono restoration sounds fab (it was a painstaking overhaul, unprecedented in the methods used and the lengths gone to), and the new 4K scan/master looks stunning. All that beautiful, tiny grain. I’m so glad I bought it and watched it before Christmas. I’ll likely watch it again before the holiday is over.

R147 It’s amazing that we finally (?) have the definitive version available, looking and sounding as it should without hideous changes. If only every movie could get this treatment (I’m thinking of The Exorcist)!

Oh gosh, don’t get me started on The Exorcist. I dread the new 4K UHD coming from Warner. I highly doubt they’ll undo the horrid BLUE color timing they added to the last ~30 minutes.

R149 Are you me?!!!

Just watching this for the first time now!

"You can't rape a townie!"

"I didn't send my daughter here to drink and pick up boys.....tough shit..."

I just watched it for the first time, too. Obscene phone calls seem so quaint now.

It wasn't as scary or tense as I expected, maybe because a lot of the action takes place outside the house and it never feels very isolated either.

I fucking loved the day-drinking matron and her filthy mouth though.

What's the remake like?

If you wonder why Olivia Hussey might have been freaked out, she was the first tenant to live at the Cielo Drive Sharon Tate murder house, just months after the murders. How could you not have lingering nightmares?

R156 I thought she was freaked out because she's an actress in a slasher movie? And it was her choice to move in there after the murders, wasn't it? Is she going to sue for trauma?

R6- I didn’t know Dick Clark had a brother.

Olivia Hussey never made a more horrifying film than this one.

Hussey played Mary in Jesus of Nazareth in 1977. A highly rated NBC mini-series.

R160 I hope she kept her tits covered that time

The house it takes place in is so great--authentically creepy.

The hardest thing about the movie for me is that whoever plays the killer is almost impossible to understand when he's on the photo making the scary crank calls, even though he reveals important information.

The house is supposed to be at 6 Clarendon Crescent in Toronto, not far from Casa Loma. You can't see it on google street view.

Sometimes certain streets are closed to cars (other than residents, of course) but you can walk down them. Maybe this is why people have been able to photograph the house.

Hussey is going to star in the new sequel this year

R166 didn't the killer get her in the end when the cops left her alone?

Marian Waldman, who played the house mother, was only 60 when she passed away. One website (Dread Central) says she died of breast cancer but who knows if that's accurate.

R168 she was hilarious and delivered the best lines

True, R169. She gave a fun performance.

I know r169 r170 I love an old bitch in film

Black pussy. Thoughts?

I always open my Christmas in July Film Festival with this

What else do you watch at the festival R173?

Bad Santas, hate watch ALL the hallmark trash, Elf, the Homicide For The Holidays (true crime series)

Hussey is an evil murderess. She's trigger happy with a fireplace poker.

Wouldn't the girls think it was odd that the house mother's suitcase was half-packed and left behind?

At least he didn't hurt the cat 😺

Spoiler alert

R125, Keir Dullea couldn't be the killer. When Jess is sedated at the end of the movie, the people in the room with her say that Dullea is dead. After everyone leaves, we hear the killer talking in the attic and the phone rings in the house. Hence, it's not Dullea.