17: Black Christmas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… and we’re dreaming of a blood-soaked, murder filled Christmas!

As the trailer for Black Christmas declared - if this film doesn’t make your skin crawl, its on too tight!

Yes this week we’re discussing the true horror behind Black Christmas, the 1974 slasher film about a murderer on the rampage in a sorority house, at Christmas!  Upon its release, Black Christmas received mixed reviews, but it has since received critical re-appraisal, with film historians noting it for being one of the earliest slasher films, and it is considered the inspiration for John Carpenter’s Halloween.

A novelisation was released in 1976 and it’s since spawned a remake in 2006 and a further sequel in 2009.

But did you know… Black Christmas is based both on a true crime story and an urban myth? Namely the urban legend ‘The Babysitter and the man upstairs’, and the murders committed by Wayne Clifford Boden in the 1960s!

Listen now to find out the horror behind the horror of Black Christmas!

Learn from the best:

Watch: Black Christmas legacy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGdU02z00w

Read: Black Christmas (the novel) by Lee Hayes

Read: Be afraid be very afraid  by Jan Harold Brunvand

Obscure Film Club

When a Stranger Calls - 1979

Happy Birthday to Me (1981)

The Prowler (1981)

Teketeke (2009)