45 Fun Facts About Black Christmas Movie

Black Christmas (1974) was produced and directed by which filmmaker, who later made A Christmas Story?

Bob Clark never revealed the killer's identity, and held out when Warner Bros. pressed him for an ending that explained more.

In which Canadian city was the original 1974 Black Christmas filmed?

Toronto saw so little snow during the shoot that the crew had to fake the wintry exteriors with foam.

Roy Moore's script reached the director of Black Christmas (1974) under which working title?

Stop Me was the title on the script when the director took it on; he then toned down the killings and decided the murderer would never be shown.

Which urban legend inspired the plot of Black Christmas (1974)?

The babysitter and the man upstairs gave the film its twist, calls traced to inside the house, five years before When a Stranger Calls, the film it is often credited to.

In Black Christmas (1974), what nickname do the sorority sisters give their obscene phone caller?

The Moaner is the sisters' name for him, and they crowd round the phone to listen, until one call ends with a threat to kill them.

Which actress plays the final girl, Jess Bradford, in Black Christmas (1974)?

Olivia Hussey plays Jess, who is ordered by the police to get out of the house at once and instead climbs the stairs armed with a fire poker.

The star of Black Christmas (1974) took the role after a psychic predicted what?

A money-making film in Canada, the psychic said, and so it proved: shot for well under a million dollars, Black Christmas took about $4 million.

Which future Superman star plays the boozy sorority sister Barb in Black Christmas (1974)?

Margot Kidder got the comic relief: the director added Barb's drunken rants so that the students would talk like real adults, four years before her Lois Lane.

With what object is Barb murdered in her bed in Black Christmas (1974)?

Barb is stabbed with a glass unicorn figurine from her bedside while carollers at the front door drown out the sound of the attack.

How is Clare, the first victim in Black Christmas (1974), killed?

Suffocated with a plastic bag from the dry cleaner's, Clare was played by Lynne Griffin, who said being a good swimmer let her hold her breath and stare unblinking through long takes.

Where does the killer in Black Christmas (1974) leave Clare's body?

In a rocking chair in the attic, where it stays for the whole film: the police search a nearby park and never the top of the house, so it is still there at the end.

Which Second City performer replaced Gilda Radner as Phyl in Black Christmas a month before shooting?

Andrea Martin took over as sorority sister Phyl, then came back 32 years later as the housemother in the 2006 remake, the only member of the original cast to return.

Which Hollywood legend did the makers of Black Christmas (1974) first want as housemother Mrs. Mac?

Bette Davis never took the part, so Marian Waldman played Mrs. Mac, a tippler the director modelled on an aunt of his who hid liquor bottles all over her house.

Keir Dullea, who plays Jess's boyfriend in Black Christmas (1974), was already famous for which film?

2001: A Space Odyssey had made him famous as astronaut Dave Bowman; here he is a highly strung music student who coldly wrecks the instrument he was playing earlier.

Which actor, later Nancy's policeman father in A Nightmare on Elm Street, plays Lieutenant Fuller in Black Christmas (1974)?

John Saxon stepped in at the last minute: Edmond O'Brien had been cast, but arrived on set too ill to work, and the producers had to let him go.

How did Nick Mancuso make his voice more demented as the killer in Black Christmas (1974)?

He stood on his head for some takes to squeeze his chest and warp the voice; at his audition the director had him face the other way, so that only the sound counted.

How did Carl Zittrer create the eerie score of Black Christmas (1974)?

By tying cutlery and combs to piano strings he warped every note, then slowed the tape as it recorded to distort the sound further.

Whose hands appear as the killer's in the point-of-view shots of Black Christmas (1974)?

The camera operator's: Bert Dunk built a rig that fixed the camera to his own body, leaving both hands free in shot as he climbed the trellis up the side of the house.

Under what alternate title did Warner Bros. first release Black Christmas in the United States?

Warner Bros. released it in the US as Silent Night, Evil Night, fearing 'Black Christmas' would make audiences expect a blaxploitation film; it later reverted to the original title.

Under what title was Black Christmas scheduled for its 1978 NBC television premiere?

Stranger in the House was NBC's title for it; after real sorority murders in Florida that month, the state's governor asked the network not to show the film there.

NBC let some stations drop Black Christmas in January 1978 after sorority murders at Florida State by which killer?

Ted Bundy had killed two Chi Omega sisters in their beds there two weeks earlier, so NBC offered its stations in Florida, Georgia and Alabama a different film to show.

Which carol are carol singers performing at the door while Barb is killed in Black Christmas (1974)?

O Come, All Ye Faithful keeps Jess listening on the doorstep while Barb is attacked in her bedroom, and the singing covers every sound of it.

In Black Christmas (1974), whom does Jess kill with a fire poker, believing him to be the murderer?

Peter, her boyfriend, breaks into the basement where she is hiding and she kills him in a panic; the police take him for the murderer and leave her asleep, with the real one still inside.

The director of Black Christmas told John Carpenter that his sequel idea would carry which title?

Halloween was his title for a sequel in which the killer escapes an asylum and comes back, yet he insisted that Carpenter's 1978 film was Carpenter's own work and no copy of his idea.

Which comedian told the film's star he had seen Black Christmas 27 times?

Steve Martin told her he had seen Black Christmas 27 times, calling it a favourite; she had assumed he was praising a different film of hers.

What sound is heard over the closing credits of Black Christmas (1974)?

A ringing telephone: the police think the case is closed and leave Jess sedated in her room, and as the camera backs away from the house the calls begin again.

On which day did the 2006 remake of Black Christmas open in US cinemas?

Christmas Day, which drew protests from American religious groups; the studio replied that horror at the holidays was a long tradition of counter-programming.

Which X-Files writer wrote and directed the 2006 remake of Black Christmas?

Glen Morgan made it with his producing partner James Wong, then found that the studio had shot extra scenes without him for the trailer, none of which are in the film.

In the 2006 Black Christmas, what does Billy make from his murdered mother's flesh?

Christmas cookies: he breaks out of the room where she kept him locked up, kills her, and is sitting eating them when the police arrive.

Who is revealed as the second killer in the 2006 remake of Black Christmas?

Agnes, Billy's sister, was only a name shouted down the phone in the 1974 film; the remake puts her inside the walls of the house as a second killer.

In the North American cut of the 2006 Black Christmas, how does Billy finally die?

Impaled on a Christmas tree: Kelli tips him over a hospital stair rail onto it, moments after stopping his accomplice with a defibrillator, in an ending the European cut does not have.

Which Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress plays sorority sister Melissa in the 2006 Black Christmas?

Michelle Trachtenberg, Buffy's younger sister Dawn, also wields a shotgun in a TV spot, in a scene the studio shot after filming ended and never put in the film.

In the 2006 remake of Black Christmas, what had the sorority house been years earlier?

The killer's family home: the 1974 film never says who its killer is, but the remake gives him a childhood in that house and has him break out of an asylum to return to it.

Which studio produced the 2019 remake of Black Christmas?

Blumhouse announced the remake in June 2019, finished filming by the end of July and had it in American cinemas that December, on a Friday the 13th.

Which star of The Princess Bride plays Professor Gelson in the 2019 Black Christmas?

Cary Elwes plays the professor a sorority sister petitions to have removed because his reading list is all men; Sophia Takal directed, from a script she wrote with April Wolfe.

Which actress plays Riley Stone, the lead in the 2019 Black Christmas?

Imogen Poots plays Riley, who gets up at a fraternity's holiday talent show and sings a rewritten carol accusing its members of assault, in front of the man who attacked her.

In the 2019 Black Christmas, the killings are traced to a bust of the college founder that oozes what?

Black liquid from the founder's bust is daubed on the fraternity's pledges in a ritual, and his spirit then possesses them and sends them out to kill.

Unlike the two earlier films, what MPAA rating did the 2019 Black Christmas receive?

The 2019 film was rated PG-13, which its director wanted from the start so that younger audiences could see it; the 1974 and 2006 films were both rated R.

Which 1968 role had made the actress who plays Jess in Black Christmas internationally famous?

Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, in Franco Zeffirelli's film, had made her a star, and that was the point: the director went after prestige names to lift a cheap horror picture.

Unlike the two Canadian-shot films before it, the 2019 Black Christmas was filmed in which country?

New Zealand: the University of Otago's Gothic registry building in Dunedin was dressed up as the film's American campus, Hawthorne College.

Which remake had the 2006 film's director made just before being hired for Black Christmas?

Willard, his 2003 remake of the 1971 rat horror starring Crispin Glover, flopped, but Dimension Films hired him anyway to write and direct Black Christmas.

In which city was the 2006 remake of Black Christmas shot?

Vancouver hosted the shoot; afterwards the director fought the studio's owners over the film's tone and lost, reshooting a more violent ending at their demand.

In the 2006 Black Christmas, what falls from above and kills the sorority's housemother?

An icicle drops and impales her as she tries to get away by car, one of several seasonal weapons in a film that also sucks a candy cane to a lethal point.

In Black Christmas (1974), what does Jess tell her boyfriend she plans to do, to his fury?

Have an abortion: she is pregnant and will not be talked out of it, and the film never condemns or shames her for the choice.

Which blockbuster sequel opened in US cinemas on the same weekend as the 2019 Black Christmas?

Jumanji: The Next Level took about $60 million that weekend, while Black Christmas, forecast to open above $10 million, managed $4.2 million.