- Directed by Bob Clark
- Written by Roy Moore
- Stars Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6JuJHmVsh4
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
Super influential early holiday slasher film with lots of familiar faces. With the exception of some dated telephone technology that’s important to the story, it holds up really well today. It’s still very good.
Synopsis
It’s Christmas at the sorority house. Someone is outside creeping around looking at the various windows in the huge old building. The unseen person climbs the trellis to an upstairs window. He sneaks around while we hear Barb take an overseas call from her mother. Most of the girls are leaving to go home for the holidays, and only a handful are staying behind.
They get another phone call, and it’s “The Moaner” again. The whole gang gathers around to listen to him go at it. He’s quite… entertaining for the girls.
Clare goes upstairs to pack and the stalker is hiding in her closet. He kills her with a dry-cleaning bag. He then goes up and hides in the attic. Mrs. Mac, the house mother, has hidden her booze in the bookshelf— and another in the toilet tank. Peter calls Jess and makes a date for tomorrow at two.
Clare’s father, Mr. Harrison, comes to town looking for her. Mrs. Mac takes him to the sorority house, but they still don’t find her body. Meanwhile, Jess tells Peter that she’s pregnant and doesn’t want the baby. He wants the baby, but she wants an abortion. Harrison, Jess, and Barb go to the police station to report Clare as missing, but that doesn’t go anywhere. Jess asks Chris if he’s seen her, but he hasn’t.
We see Peter feverishly playing the piano for his instructors, and then later see him destroy the piano. Apparently he didn’t get a good review. Temper!
There’s another missing girl, Janice, and Lt. Fuller of the police organizes a walk through the park for a large search party. Some of the sorority girls and Mr. Harrison go out to help. While they’re all out there, the killer returns to the house. Mrs. Mac hears the cat yowling in the attic and goes up to investigate. She finds Clare’s body, but the killer is there too.
Peter offers to marry Jess, but she turns him down. He still wants the baby. He threatens her and then storms out. Lt. Fuller comes to investigate the obscene phone calls, thinking they may be related to the disappearances. They tap the phone so they can trace it, but that takes time. They still don’t search the attic.
While Jess is watching Christmas Carolers in the front yard, the killer sneaks in and kills Barb with her glass unicorn horn. Jess gets another call, but there wasn’t enough time to trace the call. When the caller alludes to abortions, Jess starts to think it may be Peter on the phone. Peter calls Jess again and cries about the baby, and they can’t trace that call either. Lt. Fuller starts looking into Peter’s history and finds the smashed piano in the conservatory.
Phyl goes looking for Barb, but the killer gets her as well. Jess gets another call, and this time, they do trace the call. It’s from inside the house! They call and tell Jess, who decides to ignore their warning and go upstairs, looking for Barb and Phyl.
“Agnes, it’s me, Billy. Don’t tell them what we did, Agnes,” says the maniacal voice behind her. She finds the bodies and then runs to the basement. Peter breaks the window and comes into the basement as well, calling for Jess. He approaches her, and she kills him with a knife.
Lt. Fuller says he knew it was Peter all along. All the cops and reporters clear out, leaving Jess alone. We hear movement and giggling from up in the attic. We see Mrs. Mac and Clare’s bodies, still up there; apparently the police still didn’t look up there… Where the real killer is still hiding.
Commentary
All along, we’re led to believe the killer is Peter, but he also seems a little tooobvious. The only other male we know is Chris, Clare’s boyfriend. The real question was which one was the red herring? At the end, we’re still not absolutely sure who the killer was, but it’s not Peter.
Mr. Harrison’s shock at the language and lifestyle of college girls is hilarious. Their behavior is really tame by modern movie standards, but it was definitely pushing the envelope of good taste in 1974.
The killer here has an uncanny knack for knowing when the other people in the household are distracted or busy. His rants on the phone are really creepy as well- for just a voice, they’re really well done.
This is the first movie I can recall that showed the process of tracing a phone call. This was what it was like when the phone company had lots of humans working on what was still a very mechanical system.
Believe it or not, this was the first holiday-themed horror film; it was also a big inspiration for future slasher-type films.