Plot
A sorority house is hosting a Christmas party late into the night. A seemingly disoriented man climbs up the house's trellis and through an open attic window. During the party, sorority sister Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) receives an obscene phone call from a recurrent caller the house has named "the moaner". After Barbara "Barb" Coard (Margot Kidder) jokingly provokes the caller, he replies, "I'm going to kill you", then hangs up. Soon after, Clare Harrison (Lynne Griffin) is offended by Barb and goes upstairs to finish packing for her trip home. In her room, she finds Claude the cat on the bed. She tells him to move as she has got some things to do. While she is packing, she hears the cat's cries and goes to investigate. Clare is attacked by the disoriented man and asphyxiated with plastic sheeting over her head. He carries her dead body to the attic and places it in a rocking chair next to the attic window and puts a doll in her lap.
The next day, Mr. Harrison (James Edmond Jr.), Clare's father, arrives to take Clare home for the holidays. When Clare is not at their agreed-upon meeting place, he goes to the sorority house. Meanwhile, Jess meets her boyfriend, Peter Smythe (Keir Dullea), a neurotic aspiring pianist, and informs him that she is pregnant and wants to have an abortion. Peter is upset by her decision and orders her to discuss the situation with him later. Mr. Harrison and sorority sisters Barb and Phyllis "Phyl" Carlson (Andrea Martin) arrive at the police station to report Clare's disappearance. Sgt. Nash dismisses the report and says that Clare is probably "hiding with a lover". After Jess informs Clare's boyfriend, Chris (Art Hindle), about Clare's disappearance and Sgt. Nash's dismissive attitude, they rush back to the police station to discuss the disappearance with Lt. Kenneth Fuller (John Saxon). A local mother reports that her daughter, Janice, is missing as well.
That evening, Mr. Harrison, Chris, and the sorority sisters join a search party aiming to find Janice or Clare. Back at the house, Mrs. MacHenry (Marian Waldman), the sorority's housemother, hears Claude's meows in the attic and investigates. She discovers Clare's body, but the killer launches a crane hook into Mrs. MacHenry's head and hangs her. After the search party finds Janice's dead body near the park, Jess returns home and receives another obscene phone call. Jess phones the police about the caller. Later, Peter arrives and argues with Jess about her decision to have an abortion. Peter becomes frustrated and leaves after Lt. Fuller arrives to discuss the phone calls with Jess. A technician places a tap "bug tracer" onto the sorority house phone to trace the phone calls. An officer is also stationed outside the house.
After Barb is sent to bed for being "too drunk", the killer appears in her room and stabs her to death with a unicorn ornament whispering, "Agnes? It's me, Billy." Door-to-door Christmas carolers drown out the noise of the attack. Jess receives another obscene phone call that quotes a part of the argument she had with Peter. Jess suspects Peter of being the caller, but she and Phyl decided that it cannot be him, since Peter was present during one of the earlier calls. Phyl goes upstairs to bed, but decides to check on Barb first. As Phyl goes into the room to check on Barb, the door suddenly shuts.
The calls continue to come in. Jess manages to keep the caller on the phone for a minute, allowing the police to trace the location of the call to inside the house (from Mrs. MacHenry's separate phone line). Jess is ordered to leave the house immediately, but she puts down the phone and yells up to Barb and Phyl. Lt. Fuller is informed of the situation and leaves for the house. Jess arms herself with a fireplace poker and ventures upstairs, finding both Barb and Phyl's dead bodies. The unseen caller attacks Jess and chases her through the house, so Jess locks herself in the basement. Peter appears outside a basement window, telling Jess he heard screaming. He breaks the glass and enters the room. Jess, believing him to be the attacker, backs into a corner as he approaches. Lt. Fuller and the police arrive at the house and find the officer stationed outside dead in his car. Hearing Jess scream, they rush inside and find Jess in the basement with Peter, whom Jess has bludgeoned to death in self-defense. Later, Jess is sedated as Fuller and the officers discuss how Peter must have been the killer all along. They also discuss the fact that Clare's body still hasn't been found, revealing that they neglected to look in the attic. The officers leave Jess to sleep in her bed, stating that a man will be right outside the front door. Once the house is quiet, the camera pans to the attic, with Clare and Mrs. MacHenry's bodies still undisturbed and the killer descending the attic stairs. The camera pulls back to show the outside of the house, and the telephone rings as the credits roll.
Read more about this topic: Black Christmas (1974 Film)
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