Is Black Christmas Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 6 out of 10. It's obscene phone calls and jump scares at a sorority Christmas party.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
6 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
You may avoid answering the phone for a night.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: It has jump scares and a bleak mood, so watch it in the daytime and leave the ringer off.
Black Christmas runs ninety-eight minutes, and the sorority sisters in it get calls from a stranger who talks in several voices, and they have already given him a nickname.
The premise, briefly
During a Christmas party at a sorority house, the sisters get obscene phone calls from a stranger who rants in strange voices, and then one of them goes missing.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Jess kills her boyfriend Peter with a fire poker, and the police assume he was the killer. They leave her sleeping upstairs, and the real killer is still in the attic as the phone rings again.
The scene you're dreading
Barb's death, in the middle of the film: Christmas carolers distract Jess outside while the killer enters Barb's room and kills her with a glass unicorn figurine.
The dog
No dog dies in Black Christmas. A character claims one died the night before, but she is lying to get men at the door to leave.
Black Christmas is a bleak slasher built on phone calls and jump scares, and the ending leaves the killer in the house.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
An attic with a very bad guest
On the night of a Christmas party at a sorority house, an unseen man climbs the outside wall and slips into the attic. The house phone rings, and Jess Bradford picks it up. It is an obscene call from a regular caller the sisters nickname "The Moaner". He talks in odd voices and keeps raving about a "Billy", along with vulgar remarks and a threat to kill them. Upset, a younger student named Clare Harrison goes upstairs to pack her things. The intruder attacks her there and asphyxiates her.
Missing: one sorority sister and one girl from the neighborhood
Come morning, Mr. Harrison, Clare's father, shows up worried that she missed her train, and the housemother, Mrs. MacHenry, offers to help look for her. Jess tells Peter Smythe, her boyfriend, that she is pregnant and intends to have an abortion, which makes him angry. Barb Coard and Phyl Carlson go with Mr. Harrison to report Clare missing, and Sergeant Nash waves them off until Chris Hayden, Clare's boyfriend, storms in and insists he do something. That night a search party forms for Clare and for Janice, a girl who has gone missing nearby, and volunteers find Janice's dead body in a park. At the house, Mrs. MacHenry finds Clare's body in the attic, and the intruder kills her with a crane hook. Jess receives a second call like the first, so she brings in the police, and Lieutenant Fuller comes over with a lineman to trace the next one.
A glass unicorn and some Christmas carolers
After Fuller leaves, Barb has had a few drinks and an asthma attack, and she goes to bed. A group of Christmas carolers outside distracts Jess, and the killer uses the moment to enter Barb's room and kill her with a glass unicorn figurine. This is the scene people dread most, and it happens in the middle of the film. The next call echoes pieces of Jess's fight with Peter. Fuller says the trace failed, and for a while Peter is the one people suspect. Jess and Phyl lock up the house. Phyl finds Barb's body and is killed.
The ending, explained
A new call is traced successfully, and Nash tells Jess to leave right away because the calls are coming from inside the house. Jess discovers that Barb and Phyl are dead and sees the killer briefly through a gap in a door. She flees down to the basement and shuts herself in, but Peter forces his way in and Jess, panicking, kills him with a fire poker. The police find her barely conscious next to his body and assume he was the killer. They consider it over and leave her asleep in bed with a policeman posted outside. Then the killer's voice comes down from the attic and the hatch swings open. Clare's and Mrs. MacHenry's bodies still have not been found. The house phone rings once more.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Black Christmas scary?
Yes, Black Christmas (1974) is a 6 out of 10. It has jump scares and a bleak mood built around the phone calls, with little gore.
How does Black Christmas end?
Jess kills her boyfriend Peter, and the police assume he was the killer. They leave her asleep in the house, and the real killer is still in the attic as the phone rings.
Does the dog die in Black Christmas?
No, no dog dies in Black Christmas. A character says a dog died the night before, but she is lying to get men at the door to leave. A cat in the film comes to no harm.
Is there a post-credits scene in Black Christmas?
No. Black Christmas has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who is the caller in Black Christmas?
The caller is nicknamed "The Moaner" and rants about someone named "Billy". The calls turn out to come from inside the house, and the ending leaves him in the attic.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Black Christmas is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can skip the phone calls and still know how Black Christmas ends. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
