10 Horror Movies To Watch If You Like 1974’s Black Christmas
For fans of the 1974 horror classic Black Christmas, movies like Halloween, Scream, and Sisters are similarly terrifying films to enjoy.
Black Christmas is an underappreciated gem of the horror genre. Helmed by the usually comedic director Bob Clark, Black Christmas has the perfect mix of suspense, thrills, and a bit of humor. At the time, it was less common for a horror movie to be well written and have complex characters, especially female characters. With Black Christmas’s compelling story and relatable characters, the film is fantastic even without the jump scares and horror elements.
The movie is responsible for starting a trend of horror movies taking place during holidays, like Halloween and Valentine’s Day. For those who love their horror a step above, there are some exceptional films that follow in Black Christmas’s footprints that fans ought to see.
10 I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) – Stream On Prime Video
I Know What You Did Last Summer follows four teens who after receiving a threatening note on the one-year anniversary of the accidental murder and cover up the four committed, begin to get picked off one by one. This movie was one of the slasher movies that came about in the ’90s after the horror resurgence from Scream.
I Know What You Did Last Summer was the movie that cemented Sarah Michelle Gellar’s reputation as one of the most iconic scream queens ever. The film’s wharf atmosphere adds to the overall haunting and mysterious feeling of the movie. I Know What You Did Last Summer has elicited numerous parodies including serving as a major inspiration for 2000’s Scary Movie.
9 Sisters (1973) – Stream On HBO Max
In this underrated movie by Brian De Palma, a reporter tries to prove her glamourous but elusive neighbor killed a man. De Palma borrowed a lot from Alfred Hitchock for many of his horror and thriller films. Sisters has a clear parallel to Hitchcock’s Rear Window. But De Palma adds his own flair to the story, making a familiar plot wholly original.
De Palma knew how to update a tried and true story and bring it into the modern age in which he was working. In addition, Sisters and Black Christmas have star Margot Kidder in common. Kidder brings her charisma and intensity to both movies, making both films fantastic viewing experiences even for the acting alone.
8 The Last House on the Left (1972) – Stream On Pluto TV
Teenage Mari and her friend are brutally murdered by a gang in Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left. When the gang members unknowingly stumble upon Mari’s parent’s house, the parents enact revenge. The Last House on the Left was Craven’s directorial debut and he enters the horror scene with a bang.
The film is violent and shocking, even decades after The Last House on the Left’s release. Rather than focusing on fantastical horror villains like monsters or creatures, the film instead shows realistic villains of brutal sociopaths. Craven’s use of realistic villains makes the film all the more suspenseful and terrifying, much like Black Christmas.
7 The Funhouse (1981) – Stream On Peacock
In The Funhouse, four teenagers scheme to stay overnight in a carnival funhouse. However, the foursome finds themselves trapped in a horrific situation when they witness a murder committed by a disfigured carnival worker and must escape the funhouse before the carnival leaves the next day.
The Funhouse comes from the same mind behind The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Needless to say, this movie is unnerving as only horror maven Tobe Hooper can do. The grotesque horror makeup effects are enough to be blood-curdling and then murder and stalking are added in to guarantee nightmares for the viewer.
6 Suspiria (1977) – Stream On Tubi TV
A young American student, Suzy Bannion, comes to a mysterious German ballet company to study modern dance. When grisly murders start occurring, Suzy discovers that the school has an unsettling past involving murder and witchcraft.
As one of Dario Argento’s best movies, Suspiria is famous for its stylistic visuals, vibrant use of colors, and prog-rock score by the band Goblin. Suspiria has since been remade by another Italian auteur, Luca Guadanino. However, the original is much closer to 1974’s Black Christmas by the deliberate style choices through the bold use of colors and the presentation of the female camaraderie of both films.
5 The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) – Stream On Prime Video
An innocent slumber party goes massively downhill when an escaped killer crashes the party in The Slumber Party Massacre. This movie has the distinction of having both a female writer and a female director, a rarity in the male-dominated horror genre. Coming from an outsider’s point of view, this led to the film using slasher film cliches and parodying them. For example, to spoof the male gaze employed in the male-helmed horror movies of the period, the camera lingers on the female characters’ nude body parts for a ridiculous amount of time. This was done as a way to make fun of the superfluous nudity found in many horror movies of the era.
4 Scream (1996) – Stream On Fubo TV
Scream is about a masked killer who uses horror movies as part of his scheme and targets a teen and her friends on the anniversary of her mother’s murder. The film’s use of conventional slasher movie cliches and completely turning them on its head revitalized the horror genre. Subverting traditional horror tropes, both Black Christmas and Scream ignore the “Final Girl” rules and forge their own three-dimensional female characters who are not victims but rather survivors.
Wes Craven broke the rules he himself established in his older films in Scream, which then brought the horror genre into the new millennium. The multiple movie references employed in Scream were a way of communicating that the film was in on the joke of horror’s reputation. The use of meta-references precipitated a trend not just in horror movies but in all movie genres of a film winking at its audience.
3 The House On Sorority Row (1982) – Stream On Hoopla
After a silly prank ends in disaster, the sorority sisters find themselves getting picked off one by one in The House on Sorority Row. Black Christmas and The House on Sorority Row have very similar plots with murders occurring at a sorority house, which will entice fans of Black Christmas.
However, the two films diverge from then on as the tone and style of both films could not be more different. While Black Christmas acts as more of a horror-drama, The House on Sorority Row is more of a traditional B-movie horror flick. The House on Sorority Row is enjoyable for its over-the-top acting and nonsensical plot but it is best suited to viewers who are fans of ’80s kitsch.
2 My Bloody Valentine (1981) – Stream On Hulu
In My Bloody Valentine, when a decades-old folk legend of a Valentine’s Day murderer turns out to be true, the small town is terrorized by the deranged killer. Much like Black Christmas and later Halloween, My Bloody Valentine cashed in on the trend of holiday-themed slasher films. A notable place where this film differs from those other movies is the protagonists.
While Black Christmas deals with university-educated sorority sisters and Halloween has suburban teens as its protagonists, My Bloody Valentine instead has blue-collar twenty-somethings as their protagonists. This distinction is interesting as it makes the film apt for analysis when compared to similar films of the genre. In addition, My Bloody Valentine is film buff Quentin Tarantino’s favorite slasher movie.
1 Halloween (1978) – Stream On AMC+
Watched every Halloween by countless horror fans, Halloween follows babysitter Laurie on the titular holiday as a murderer has escaped the mental institution and goes back to his hometown to kill again. Black Christmas actually served as Halloween’s main source of inspiration. By placing a slasher plot framed in a holiday narrative, the typical genre mainstays are made more intriguing.
Made on a shoestring budget, famed director John Carpenter made full use of all his creative abilities to craft this horror classic. In addition, Michael Myers is one of the most recognized movie villains of all time and is currently terrifying modern-day audiences in Halloween Kills.