Black Christmas

Episode 165: Black Christmas (1974)

Theme: Holiday Horror Month Finale
Hosts: Oz & Curtis

This week, Oz and Curtis unwrap Black Christmas — the 1974 proto-slasher that blends When a Stranger Calls, Nightmare on Elm Street, Sorority House Massacre, High Tension, and the title of Dredd (but none of the actual movie) into one deeply uncomfortable holiday package. It’s 50 years old, Canadian as all get-out, and still sharp enough to slice through your eggnog. From obscene phone calls to attic aerobics to a housemother with a hollowed-out booze encyclopedia, this one keeps the yuletide cheer at an absolute minimum.

Join your two favorite “the calls are coming from WHERE?” scholars as they inspect:

• The killer’s POV shots that make you feel like you’re riding piggyback on John Cryer in Hot Shots! during walleye vision.

• How Jess’s very normal life dilemma turns Peter into the sweatiest, angriest piano major in film history.

• Mrs. Mac — a woman who has more hidden liquor stashes than the cops have functioning brain cells.

• Barb, Phil, Claude the cat, and the world’s least attentive police force attempting to solve two disappearances while doing almost nothing.

• The third-act tension bomb: carolers outside, carnage upstairs, and an eyeball through the door that has permanently altered Christmas for everyone involved.

From attic rocking chairs to adobo-smeared throat slashing, from Nash’s legendary incompetence to John Saxon smelling like sawdust and regret, Oz and Curtis break down a slasher that proves sometimes the scariest part of a horror movie is the police work.

It’s grim, it’s cold, it’s brilliant, and it leaves you with one final gift: a ringing phone and absolutely no closure.

Final Verdict

Oz — 8 obscene phone calls
Curtis — 90 Billy Idols
Both — Still furious that the cops tucked Jess into bed… alone… in the murder house.