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From:Syd Brown , Leslie Carlson , Marcia Diamond , Keir Dullea , James Edmond , Eclectic DVD Dist. ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#72623 |
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3 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
 THE BEST SLASHER FLICK EVER MADE!!!, 2007-06-06
I have been watching horror films for as long as I can remember, and this is one of only 2 movies that has ever really scared me(the other being "The Shining"). As time has passed I just remebered it being the best of the "killer in the house movies". As I was browsing amazon I stumbled upon the special edition of this priceless gem and bought it immediatly. I watched it as soon as it arrived, and while watching it, I felt like I was 8 years old all over again.
This is a very simple, but extremely effective movie about a group of sorority girls being stalked by an unwanted guest over Christmas break. Bob Clark creates a very dark and menacing atmosphere and wastes no time in indroducing the killer in first-person perspective(a much copied technique). One of the most disturbing thing about this film is the killer is well defined, but we know nothing about him(other films such as The Hitcher and Se7en use this technique).The only clues we have of the killers motives are the very disturbing phone calls(What your mother and I must know is...What did you do with the baby,What did you do with AGNESS??) Another great plot device is suttle misdirection. The audience knows the killer is in the attic, but BOB CLARK designed the story so the actors and actresses are occupied with other matters(JESS'S conflict with PETER, the child murder, and the climax taking place in the basement, in contast to the killer being in the attic).
This movie pre-dates 'Halloween' by four years, and you can tell that this movie left a huge impression on John Carpenter and it shows in 'Halloween'. Great story, great acting, great editing, I can't say anything about this movie that has not already been said, so let me just say they caught lightning in a bottle with this movie. A MUST HAVE FOR ALL HORROR MOVIE FANS
2 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
Originally titled 'A Stranger in the House", 2007-05-19
I saw this movie on HBO in the late 1970's, as a kid, under the above listed title. This one is well worth the watch. I have watched horror movies my whole life and can honestly say that very few genuinely scared me as much as this one. (Yes, Halloween and The Exorcist were also very scary the first go 'round, but this movie affected as much as either of these movies). It may be that nowadays the plot has been repeated ad nauseam but I still feel that the impact of this movie is viable. You will not see gore, so you will have to use your imagination. That is a good thing. Your imagination is far more disturbing than any gore onscreen. The antagonist, whoever did the voice, is fantastic. He really sounds crazy, and not in a good way, either.
3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
This movie scared the life out of me, 2007-05-10
The first time I saw it was a year or two after it came out. I was a teenager and had never seen anything that scary. This was, remember, several years before the genre of the teenage slasher flick first appeared.
One of the creepiest and most effective things about this movie is that you never got to see the face of the killer. There was never a reason given for what he did, and you had no idea who he was. It was just some lunatic who got into the house through a window, No other explanation given. Not many scripts or stories have the guts to pull this off.
Once the maniac gets in, he begins a series of chilling, sickening and utterly terrifying phone calls to the sorority girls in the house, who are in the midst of a Christmas party. You realize, when listening to this psycho, that whatever is wrong with him is beyond a prank, beyond mental illness. This person is unbelievably twisted and deranged. The ability he has to shift his voice patterns and imitations, not to mention his hoarse, guttural and violent thrusts when he shouts are what let you know how unspeakably horrifying it is going to be for the parties involved.
The girls have a range of emotions, from frightened, amused, and, provocation, which is a mistake.
A side story of a missing, later found murdered child in a park lends to the growing terror. A race against time while police try and track the calls from inside the house adds to the tension.
There is no satisfying, feel-good ending.
The great touches in this movie come fom everything you do not see, but from what is inferred. There is almost no blood in the movie. You do get to see several murders, but the murders themselves are almost beside the point. Its the heart-pounding fear leading up to it that makes the movie worth seeing. None of the slasher movies that followed can touch this one. What a forgotten piece of work.
Hands down one of the best scary movies ever.
1 of 12 customers found the following review helpful:
 Overrated, 2007-04-09
BLACK CHRISTMAS is not as effective as HALLOWEEN. The killer is annoying, some gurgling lunatic who uses obscene language to get his point across. The direction and editing is weak. How many times do we have to see the woman wrapped in cellophane up in the attic...she's dead ..I get it...Move on! I wasnt routing for the characters or the killer for that matter...this movie just didnt deliver. HALLOWEEN and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS "borrowed" from this film and both movies were scarier!
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
A Great 70's Classic, 2007-04-08
I guess you can say that this movie spawned many copycats but this one is still supreme. This 70's classic has great atmosphere and chilling sequences. The creepy phone calls are awesome, how else can you creep out a house full of college girls? Great movie. No remake could ever come close to recapturing the escence of the original.
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