Black Christmas

Bob Clark ’s 1974 horror filmBlack Christmasis an influential slasher movie , although the ending does n’t bring out who the killer is inBlack Christmas . " Billy " is consider the villain , and after almost 50 year , his indistinguishability is still debated . The story takes place in a sorority house , where the residents throw a Christmas political party before go away . Little do they make love , however , that a depraved killer has made his way of life into the planetary house and is preparing to plunk them off one by one . Billy stay in the shadows for most of the film , that is , until the chilling finish .

Billy is considered one of the first slasher picture killers in film history . He does n’t put on a mask or a disguise like other famous murderers , such asTom Morga ’s Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers . Instead , he takes on a more psychological revulsion approach path as he begins to make raunchy and increasingly jeopardise earpiece cry to the sorority household before kill victim one at a fourth dimension . InBlack Christmas , the killer is n’t turn over a tragic backstory . Instead , he ’s a run - of - the - mill killer on the lax , making the flick better .

What Happens Before The Black Christmas Ending

Billy Killed Several People Before The Police Realize He Is In The House

TheBlack Christmasending was inspired by a classic urban legend of a babysitter who learns that the jeopardize calls she ’s receiving are arrive from inside the mansion . InBlack Christmas , Billy makes vociferation to the house in which he speaks in different representative , carrying out conversations referring to people called " Billy " and " Agnes , " interspersed with strange moans and screech and violent , sexually denotative mutterings , standardised toWhen a Stranger Calls .

Jess develop interested when one of her friends sound overleap and reach out to the police .

The protagonist of theBlack Christmasending , Jess , produce implicated when one of her friends goes miss and contacts the police , who tap the sorority house ’s sound assembly line to come up out who is making the calls . As if the murders and the telephone calls were n’t enough to trade with , Jess has also discovered that she ’s pregnant , and her boyfriend , Peter , grow progressively fluid after she tell him that she plans to get an abortion .

Black Christmas 1974 Poster

Billy pour down Jess ’s friend Clare and stashed her body in front of the attic windowpane in a grotesque display . The eubstance of a 13 - twelvemonth - older girl is also find out in a nearby ballpark and is take for granted to be Billy ’s first victim of the night . The sorority female parent , Mrs. Mac , is murdered inthe Christmas horror moviewhile look the bonce for her missing cat , and Jess ' sorority sister , Barb and Phyl , are also viciously kill . Eventually , only Jess is entrust alive in the house , and after a serial publication of failures , the police finally work out where the shout are fall from .

What Happens In Black Christmas 1974’s Ending

Jess Kills Her Boyfriend Peter & Police Believe He Is The Killer

Lt . Ken Fuller , the police officer in charge of investigating the calls and missing people at the sorority house , sends a cop in a car outdoors — but it ’s bring out that Billy has already killed him , exit Jess alone and defenceless . Meanwhile , Fuller is at the music conservatory searching for Peter , whom he consider to be a prime suspect . He discovers a piano that Peter had violently destroyed earlier . At this point , Billy makes another phone call , staying on the blood line long enough for the call to be follow and to reveal that the phone calls are coming from inside the house .

1974 ’s Black Christmas had an equivocal conclusion go away the fate of its heroine and slayer up in the air . A fan - made sequel explores what happened .

wide touch bungling police officer Nash and instructs him to call Jess and assure her to get out of the house without raising a panic . Nash lose his sang-froid and tells Jess that the killer whale is in the house . rather of leaving , Jess goes up the stairs to check over on Phyl and Barb . She find them bloodied and dead in one of the bedchamber . After discovering their bodies , Jess looks through the quip in the threshold and see Billy hide behind it . She flees downstairs , but the front threshold is stuck , so she runs into the basement alternatively and lock the door behind her .

Black Christmas 1974 Ending Explained Billy

After trying and failing to get through the threshold , Billy retreats , leaving a frightened Jess in the basement . She construe a dim figure peer through the cellar windows . Peter then appears at the door , calling for her . Jess believe that Peter is the slayer . She stress to hide , but he breaks a window and climb into the basement . Soon , he discovers Jess ' hiding place and approaches her slowly . When Fuller and the other police arrive , they receive Jess cling to Peter ’s bushed body in the basement .

Jess kill Peter with a ardour poker before he can kill her .

In the ultimateBlack Christmastwist , Jess kills Peter with a fire poker before he can wipe out her , and the police force conclude that he is responsible for all the execution — driven mad by the opinion of his sister being abort . Jess is tranquilize and put to seam , and the police force , believing the menage to be secure again , lead back to the station , leaving just one officeholder outside . It ’s then revealed in theBlack Christmasending that Billy is still in the house , now alone with Jess . The headphone begin to ring just before the credit roll .

Margot Kidder as Barb on the phone in Black Christmas.

Black Christmas is a 1974 horror movie from A Christmas Story director Bob Clark. The Canadian slasher centers on sorority girls who are stalked and killed by a crazed killer during the holiday season. Throughout the film, the teenagers get strange and threatening calls from the killer known as Billy. Black Christmas recieved mixed reviews upon release but has since become a cult classic.

Peter Was Not the Real Killer In Black Christmas

Peter Was Only Guilty Of Being A Jerk

TheBlack Christmasending is in part a slaying mystery thatdoes its good to make it look like Peter might be the killer , unlike theBlack Christmasremakes . After he determine that Jess is plan to get an abortion , he establish an crazy piano reading and afterwards ruin the pianissimo with a microphone stand . He total to the house when Jess is alone , say that he ’s planning to foreswear the euphony conservatory , and then tells her that they will get married .

Jess also suspects that Peter might be responsible for the abhorrent phone call .

When Jess answer that she wo n’t hook up with him , that neither of them should leave out out of college , and that she ’s still planning to have an miscarriage , Peter becomes ireful , accusing her of want to suffer their baby . She makes him go away , but he is afterwards find cringe around outdoors . Jess also suspects that Peter might be responsible for the repulsive speech sound calls when the caller utters the phrase " just like hold a wart removed , " an echo of something that Peter said about her planned abortion , apolitical subject thatBlack Christmascoveredlong before its time .

Olivia Hussey as Jeff on the phone in Black Christmas.

She later realizes that it could n’t have been Peter because he snuck up on her while she was on the phone mind to one of the cry . However , with Peter ’s erratic and threatening deportment in theBlack Christmasending , it ’s little wonder that she trust he was the killer — especially when he bulge out searching the cellar just moments after the killer tail her into it . But while he was sure enough unpleasant and unstable , Peter did n’t pop anyone .

Black Christmas Never Explains Who “Billy” And “Agnes” Are

The 2006 Movie Explained The Backstory Originally Left As A Mystery

The real Orcinus orca inBlack Christmas’ending is never identified , but since he identifies himself as " Billy " in flakey conversations , it ’s by and large assumed that it ’s his name . Director Bob Clark revealed that Billy and Agnes were siblings , and the film alludes to some terrible incident in their puerility , with Billy say , " Do n’t tell them what they did . " That read , unlike the failedBlack Christmasremake , his backstory is never explored . It ’s potential that Billy used to dwell in the sorority mansion as a child , so he chooses it as a target ( and has such an intimate knowledge of its layout ) .

The killer whale ’s identity , backstory , and motif are deliberately pull up stakes equivocal .

It ’s also possible he somehow has a connection to Mrs. Mac ( after all , her first name is never bring out — perhaps she ’s Agnes ) or one of the sorority sisters . Ultimately , though , the killer ’s identity , backstory , and motivation are deliberately left ambiguous . Not so in the 2006 remake ofBlack Christmas , which settle to explicate in conscientious particular who Billy and Agnes were . In that movie , it was unwrap that Billy was a boy suffering from jaundiced , xanthous skin . In the 2006Black Christmas , Billy witnessed his mother and her fan polish off his father .

Black-Christmas-Olivia-Hussey

In thisMary Elizabeth Winsteadhorror movie , Billy ’s mother locked him in the attic for the next 16 years and , at one point , raped her son to conceptualize a kid . That child was Agnes , Billy ’s daughter / sister , Agnes . InBlack Christmas , Billy by and by belt down his female parent and stepfather and left Agnes badly disfigured .

The Real Meaning Of Black Christmas' Ending

Black ChristmasSubverts Christmas Movies

TheBlack Christmasending is a joyfully dark take on the holiday time of year — as the movie ’s title suggest . The film subvert many of the usual vacation tropes , usually good manners of Barb ( play by Lois Lane actress Margot Kidder ) . Christmas is the solemnisation of the parentage of Jesus , butBlack Christmas ' write up largely revolves around Jess ' decision to get an abortion . The sorority ’s purportedly enate figure of speech , Mrs. Mac , is an alcoholic who stashes liquor all around the theater .

It ’s little wonder that theBlack Christmasending is as nihilistic as the quietus of it .

Phyl ’s swain , Patrick , frock up as Santa Claus but swears crudely in front of the tiddler . Barb is seen plying a modest child with liquor and then declare , " I call back the little bugger ’s schnozzled ! " And while a choir of children sing to Jess , Barb is upstair getting stabbed to death with the motor horn of a field glass unicorn . It ’s lilliputian wonder that theBlack Christmasending is as nihilistic as the rest of it .

Peter and Jess arguing in Black Christmas.

There is one vex detail crucial to the film ’s meaningthat inspiredHalloween’sending — Billy only makes a telephone call after he ’s killed someone . The first call marks the decease of the high schoolhouse lady friend who was found in the nearby park . He makes another call after killing Clare and further call after killing Mrs. Mac , Barb , and Phyl . TheBlack Christmasending mean Jess is doomed since she ’s alone in a family with a killer . However , the strait of the headphone tintinnabulation adds an extra sting since it means Billy killed someone else .

Do The Black Christmas Remakes Change The Ending?

The Sequels Revealed The Killer’s Motives & Identities

While the originalBlack Christmasending was left equivocal , the subsequent remake had something else in mind . The 2006Black Christmasremake date two killers in the variety of Agnes and Billy . After most of the sorority house has been picked off , Kelli ( Katie Cassidy ) and Leigh ( Kristen Cloke ) burn the sign of the zodiac down . While recover in the infirmary , Agnes survives and kills Leigh , then tries to go after Kelli . She kills Agnes with a defibrillator before being snipe by Billy , who she then promote down the stairs and is empale by a Christmas tree .

The 2019Black Christmasending forgoes the Billy and Agnes storyline , turning the villains into the Delta Kappa Omicron fraternityand the spirit of Hawthorne College ’s founder . ThisBlack Christmasending sees the sorority girl clear Hawthorne ’s founding father has been possessing DKO pledges and dispatch women he take for " unruly , " and Helena ( Madeleine Adams ) has been stealing items from her sisters to help the fraternity settle their victims . Riley ( Imogen Poots ) manages to smash the Hawthorne tear , while Kris ( Aleyse Shannon ) set the fraternity house on fire .

How The Black Christmas Ending Was Received

Critics & Fans Loved The Movie & Its Ending

Critics and audiences bonk the original slasher movieBlack Christmas , although not everyone was glad with the conclusion . critic gave it a 71 % confident Rotten Tomatoes musical score , and the interview rat it at 76 % . One audience member write in their critique , " Really set the slasher musical genre going and the structure and scenes from the killers perspective are a good way to get multiple survey points in the plastic film . The ending with everyone substantiate the grampus is in the theatre is now popular everywhere evidence how much of an impact this film has had . "

ARedditthread started with fans discussing the end ofBlack Christmasfrom 1974 . The OP hump the end , especially since Billy was never officially bring out : " The Ending to Black Christmas is by far the most creepy-crawly endings to a Horror Film I ever seen the fact that Billy has n’t been caught and still up in the attic really bring a chill to my backbone after watching Black Christmas ( 1974 ) 4 times the termination still give me the Chills ! " However , @Majestic87 disagreed , complaining that " the law show up and sack up the scene but never curb the attic . "

On top of that , @badwolfjb complained that the medico sedated Jess and left her alone at the theater after the incident , writing , " That really get to me . And the fact that the Dr. and all of the cops immediately leave Jess whole alone in the menage at the goal . Great film , but the ending is really unsatisfying . " There was one other Redditor who had a new interesting theory , " I have a hypothesis that Jess is Agnes , she leaves threshold open in beginning , although Billy climbs to attic , I remember it ’s presuppose to be a hint . "

Billy peeping his eye in Black Christmas.

Which Black Christmas Movie Has The Best Ending

The First Movie Reigns Over The Remakes

The threeBlack Christmasmovies are all dissimilar beasts . The 1974 version is a slasher in whichthe mysterious killer has no know motive or even designate his facial expression , making him shuddery . He could be anyone , anywhere , making the slasher killer much more frightening . Michael Myers was always scarier in the original movie than he was when he received a backstory or the hoodoo that accompanied his show at one meter . The same holds true for Billy — if that is even the killer ’s name .

The first reboot arrive in 2006 , andBlack Christmasnot only revealed Billy ’s identity element but also brought in Agnes and revealed both of their tragic backstories . This allowed for some expectant twists and turns in the movie , but take away the whodunit and making the orca somewhat sympathetic ruined the integral report of the first flick . Unlike the original film , critic panned this button , with the consensus onRotten Tomatoesindicating it has the gore and blood of the original but not the creativity of the original .

The 2019 moving picture was much more appreciated , although it was a boxful - office letdown . The most significant alternation in this movie was shift the integral story and move out the mind of the faceless Orcinus orca go after sorority girls at Christmas . Critics mostly pan this film , but it received some praise for its feminist values , which were also integral to the first movie . deepen the villains from a secret Billy to an total evil brotherhood organization helped differentiate it , but that kept it from ever populate up to the firstBlack Christmas .

Lt. Fuller on the phone in Black Christmas

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bleak Christmas is a 1974 horror motion picture from A Christmas Story director Bob Clark . The Canadian slasher nub on sorority little girl who are stalked and killed by a craze killer during the vacation season . Throughout the motion picture , the teen get unknown and threaten calls from the killer whale bang as Billy . dark Christmas recieved mixed reviews upon release but has since become a fad classic .

Imogen Poots as Riley Stone in Black Christmas Remake

Jess looking at Christmas lights in the 1974 horror movie Black Christmas.

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