Black Christmas (1974)

A Canadian film starring Margot (Lois Lane) Kidder and Olivia (Juliet)Hussey.
All I knew before watching was that this film pre-dates Halloween and Friday 13th and is sometimes referred to as the first slasher.

Set in a sorority house and based on an archetypal horror story the film hangs together quite well. It's not as gory as its later counterparts and the body count is lower but there are plenty of creeps provided by the 'prank' phonecalls being made to the girls at the house.

These phonecalls include mumbling, squealing, screaming, panting and schizoid voice changes with an unnatural urgency. If I was getting these calls? I would be sleeping with on eye open.

The tension in the house escalates when one of the girls goes missing and another is found dead in a local park. Pretty young Jess (Hussey) seems to be bearing the brunt of the calls and after she upsets her boyfriend he begins to behave erratically causing the finger of suspicion to point his way.

The film takes its time. It's not just a sequence of murders strung together. Despite the patchy acting, some of the characters are quite interesting and Hussey is oddly watchable. As we approach the climax I do actually care - who is the killer? What's the twist? Did the boyfriend do it??

We see the inevitable call from the police. Having traced the prank calls they tell Jess that they've been coming from...inside the house! Shock!  Horror! Jess knows she should leave the house but her friends are still upstairs, what to do? She narrowly escapes and hides from the monster awaiting the final showdown. In the whole film to this point we have yet to see this psychotic maniac killer.

The close is perfect, some will disagree, but I liked it. Beautifully subdued and quiet. Open ended in the way of a good scary story (before the franchise era made us groan at the end of every sequel).

I enjoyed it but it didn't move me so it's getting a 6/10.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow 1981

Starring: Charles Durning
Director: Frank De Felitta

Not to be confused with the 1995 film Night of the Scarecrow, this review is about the 1981 TV movie which was only recently released to DVD.

Ostensibly this is a stalk n slash movie but instead of a group of hapless teens the film casts a group of middle aged men as the victims/protagonists. The film begins with them giving into their fear and suspicion of a developmentally stunted man and his relationship with a little girl. When the girl has an accident the men take action against harmless Bubba whilst he is hiding disguised as a scarecrow. Following this, each of the vigilantes is plagued by guilt and tormented by visions of the scarecrow before they meet their demise.

I must admit that the story set up (in particular the way the men escape legal consequences) takes some suspension of disbelief; but from there on it is a chilling excercise in suspense.

When one of the men sees the scarecrow in his field for the first time it's a very unnerving moment. Dark night, drunk man, an unseen threat and dangerous farming equipment - it's a winning combination! The end of this sequence also segways beautifully into breakfast the next morning as a dollop of rasberry jam splashes onto the plate. Delicious.

The film is given credibility throughout by solid performances all round and the suspense is created by the growing fear shown by the men being stalked. I also loved that they try to use logical actions to understand their predicament. Their reactions are plausible and but though they act rationally they are still unable to avoid the inevitable making the film even more scary.

Finally, despite the inventive deaths there is zero gore in this movie. There isn't even a drop of blood until the climax. Usually that would be a problem for me because I love a good splatter fest but in this case it is just not needed. Interestingly enough though, despite the lack of gore (or sex or swearing) this film was given an 18 certificate on its UK release.

I would definitely recommend this hidden gem.7/10.