Black Christmas (1974) — Episode 67

Holiday themed horror is fairly commonplace these days but back in the 1970’s, it was still almost taboo to crossover a beloved holiday with a truly horrific act. 

Canadian screenwriter Roy Moore decided to tackle that very subject when he wrote a film based loosely on the urban legend called “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs,” which told the story about a girl receiving a phone call warning her to check on the children she was watching only to discover the assailant was calling from inside the house. Taking that mythology along with a real life series of murders committed in Montreal, 

Moore crafted a script that eventually landed in the hands of director Bob Clark. Once Clark got involved, he made a few tweaks and changes to the story and the setting. 

The updated version took place on a college campus where a group of sorority girls were receiving obscene phone calls from a serial killer who was secretly knocking them off one by one while preying upon them from inside their own house. 

In the latest episode of Rewind of the Living Dead, we’re going to lock the doors and trace any phone calls coming into the house as we discuss the 1974 horror classic “Black Christmas”…