Trivia / Black Christmas (1974)

• Acting in the Dark: The actresses never knew what Billy would be saying on the phone, as the sound was added later. They were just told to act like he was saying something scary.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Margot Kidder signed on to play Barb because she was such an unconventional leading part.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Bob Clark.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Spanish world: The Macabre Residence
  • Brazil: Horror Night
  • Germany: Jessy-The Stairs to Death
  • Denmark: A Killer in Your Hourse
  • Greece: Who is the Killer?, Terror in the Girls' School, Hysteria
  • Italy: A Blood-Red Christmas
  • Norway: It's the Killer Who is Calling
  • Sweden: Still Night, Bloody Night
  • Canada: Tragic Christmas
  • Japan: The Phone Rings in the Dark
  • Portugal: Haunted Holidays
  • Venezuela: Bloody Christmas
• Canada Doubling: Like many other Canadian genre films of the era, Black Christmas was shot in Toronto but set in an innocuous, geographically non-specific American setting.
• Dawson Casting: The college-age Peter is played by 38-year-old Keir Dullea (he certainly didn't look that old however). Although it is mentioned that he's been at the conservatory for at least eight years, so it's still plausible for the character to be around 30 years old.
• Descended Creator:
  • Bob Clark did some of the voices on the phone himself.
  • Co-producer Gerry Arbeid plays Mrs. Mac's taxi driver.
  • Albert J Dunk, camera operator, plays Billy during some of his murder scenes.
• Dueling Movies: Silent Night, Bloody Night was a similarly-themed film released a couple of years earlier.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Clare's look of shock as the killer jumps out from the closet is quite real. Lynne Griffin didn't know when he'd be jumping out.
  • According to Bob Clark, Margot Kidder did drink for the scenes in which Barb is especially intoxicated.
• Fake American: Most of the film's cast is Canadian, aside from Keir Dullea (Peter), John Saxon (Lt. Fuller), and Andrea Martin (Phyllis). Olivia Hussey is Anglo-Argentinian, though it's not clear whether Jess is supposed to be American or not - since she speaks with her natural voice.
• Hostility on the Set: Mildly. Margot Kidder admitted to picking on Olivia Hussey during filming - calling her "an odd one out" and "obsessed with falling in love with Paul McCartney through her psychic".
• Irony as She Is Cast: Olivia Hussey plays a character who is pregnant but wants an abortion. Ironically, Hussey had just given birth to her son before taking the lead role in the film.
• Looping Lines: Nick Mancuso dubbed over some of Keir Dullea's lines to add to the mystery that he might be Billy.
• Money, Dear Boy: Sort of. Olivia Hussey signed on when a psychic told her she would star in a Canadian film that would make a lot of money (and it ended up grossing $4 million worldwide).
• Never Work with Children or Animals: For the scene in which Claude the cat is crawling over Clare's body in the rocking chair, the cat they used wouldn't jump on Lynne Griffin. To get around it, they sprayed her face with catnip to encourage the cat to lick it. Bob Clark had to basically throw the cat onto her.
• No Budget: Only made for $620,000.
• Romance on the Set: Lynne Griffin and Art Hindle, who play a couple in the film, dated for a while in real life.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Peter only shares scenes with Jess and the people at the Conservatory - spending a lot of his screen time on the phone. This is because Keir Dullea was only available for a week of filming.
• Similarly Named Works: Around a decade after the film's release an unrelated slasher novel also titled Black Christmas was published.
• Stillborn Franchise: There were several attempts to make a sequel, one of which became Halloween (1978) (or so Bob Clark says) and even an attempt in the 80s. After the failure of the remake, Bob Clark began work on the sequel before he tragically passed away on 2007. In all these attempts, Olivia Hussey was to reprise her role of Jess.
• Typecasting: Lynne Griffin joked that she was often cast as "the ultimate innocent virgin" like Clare at the time.
• Vacation, Dear Boy: Inverted. Keir Dullea did the film mainly because it was being shot near where his family lived, allowing him to visit them.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The role of Peter was originally offered to Malcolm McDowell, but he turned it down. He later regretted it, once the film became such a cult favorite.
  • The role of Mrs. Mac was offered to Bette Davis, who turned it down.
  • The early drafts of the script made it a more straightforward slasher. Bob Clark made a few changes, such as the more humorous moments involving Barb and Mrs. Mac's drunken antics. Likewise, he was the one who came up with never seeing the killer. Roy Moore wasn't pleased with this idea but came around once he saw the final film.
  • Gilda Radner was originally cast as Phyl but dropped out shortly before filming and was replaced with Andrea Martin.
  • John Saxon likewise was a last-minute replacement for Edmond O'Brien - who was suffering from Alzheimer's and his failing health would not have allowed him to do the part.
  • After seeing the ending of the film, studio executives asked director Bob Clark to change the ending. The proposed idea was to have the cops leaving Jess alone with Chris, Claire's boyfriend. She wakes up and he says, "Agnes, don't tell them what we did." Then he kills her. However, Clark refused and insisted that the ending be ambiguous.
  • Bob Clarke and Roy Moore couldn't decide if Jess should die or not and decided to go with an ambiguous ending, leaving her fate open.
  • Reportedly, some Warner Bros. executives wanted to change the title to something else, believing that calling the film Black Christmas might have made audiences think it was a blaxploitation movie.
• Word of Gay: Barb was intended to be bisexual.
• Working Title: Stop Me, Silent Night, Evil Night.
• Write What You Know: Bob Clark based Mrs. Mac off an aunt of his.

---