The Big Picture

  • The 1974 cult classic Black Christmas is based on a real-life true crime story that took place in Montreal, Canada.
  • The movie is also inspired by the urban legend "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs", which later spawned the film When A Stranger Calls.
  • The screenplay was initially titled "Stop Me" and drew inspiration from both urban legend and true events, including the George Webster murders and the Lipstick Killer.

The 1974 cult classic Black Christmas, directed by Bob Clark, has captivated horror fans for decades and has spawned two remakes since it was released. Black Christmas paved the way for movies like Halloween and set the tone for slasher tropes everywhere. One thing that sets this iconic slasher above the rest is its roots in a popular urban legend and a real-life murderer. If you're an avid fan of true crime and you listen to podcasts or YouTube videos, you may have heard of the inspirations for Black Christmas. The Christmas horror is about a group of sorority girls who start receiving threatening phone calls during Christmas break. These threats turn into physical acts of violence as the women try to figure out who the killer is and where he is hiding. As they are picked off one by one, they soon discover the deranged killer is inside the house with them. Sound familiar? That's because one of the inspirations for the script, written by Ray Moore, comes from the urban legend "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs." This urban legend later spawned the movie When A Stranger Calls.

Black Christmas 1974 Film Poster
Black Christmas (1974)
R


During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.

Release Date
December 20, 1974
Director
Bob Clark
Cast
Olivia Hussey , Keir Dullea , Margot Kidder , John Saxon
Main Genre
Horror

Moore initially wrote the screenplay with the title Stop Me and used inspiration from the urban legend to form the plot of Black Christmas. The urban legend, originally written in the 1960s, became very popular in the 1970s and featured a babysitter being harassed by phone calls from a stranger. In the urban legend, the creepy caller repeatedly tells the babysitter to "check the children," unsettling the babysitter enough to call the police. The babysitter keeps the stranger on the phone long enough to be traced, and they find out the stranger is hidden in the house. Moore used the basis of this urban legend to build a plot and storyline to send chills down viewers' spines. The iconic scene in this movie where you can see an eyeball through the crack of the door is what really put the fear in everyone watching. At the time of its release, no other movie had scared audiences about their own home as much as Black Christmas did.

The True-Crime Story That Inspired 'Black Christmas'

Even more chilling, Black Christmas is also based on true events that happened in the city of Westmount, Montreal, in November 1943. The real-life crime was that of George Webster, a 14-year-old boy who bludgeoned his mother to death with a baseball in their family home. His brother, sister, and a family friend also sustained head injuries from the bat but did not die at the hands of George. A reason for the attacks was never described, which directly parallels never truly finding out why the killer did what he did in Black Christmas. While he was deemed criminally responsible and charged with his mother's murder on February 28, 1944, he was declared unfit to stand trial and transferred to a mental hospital.

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There was some speculation that the movie was inspired by the murders of Wayne Boden, known as "The Vampire Rapist," that also took place in Montreal, but between the years of 1969 and 1971. Boden killed four women and left bite marks on their breasts, which gave him his vampire nickname. In 2020, Nick Mancuso, the actor who played the killer in Black Christmas, confirmed with The Telegraph that it was George Webster's crimes that were actually the inspiration Moore used. As mentioned previously, Black Christmas was almost named Stop Me. The reasoning for this possible name was to reference William Heirens, aka The Lipstick Killer, who killed three women in Chicago between 1945 and 1946. Heirens wrote "stop me" in lipstick at a crime scene, and the alias stuck with him from that day forward. As we can see, there were quite a few inspirations for the Black Christmas killer. The combination of these three real-life murderers plus the urban legend made for a despicable killer that anyone would be fearful of.

'Black Christmas' Is a Holiday Horror Classic

Olivia Hussey Jess Bradford Black Christmas 1974
Image via Warner Bros.

True-crime podcasts, shows, and movies are trending hard right now and have been for the last 10 years or so. Horror and true-crime fans can rejoice this holiday season when they pop on Black Christmas and relax to the soothing sounds of an "inspired by true events" cult classic. It's become such a popular film that some local theaters will screen Black Christmas to get into the holiday spirit, so check your local theaters to see if you're one of the lucky ones. However, if you're not in an area that is, the internet will save the day on this one. Black Christmas can be found on streaming channels everywhere, and you can even host a movie marathon of all the versions of Black Christmas. Start with the 1974 classic, move on to the 2006 version, and finally end with the most recent 2019 version of the film. No matter which year you choose, you're bound to want to check all the rooms in your home for unwanted intruders, especially when things start to go bump in the night.

Black Christmas is free to watch on Tubi in the U.S.

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