Bob Clark’s 1974 horror film Black Christmas is an influential slasher movie, although the ending doesn’t reveal who the killer is in Black Christmas. “Billy” is considered the villain, and after almost 50 years, his idenтιтy is still debated. The story takes place in a sorority house, where the residents throw a Christmas party before departing. Little do they know, however, that a perverted killer has made his way into the house and is preparing to pick them off one by one. Billy remains in the shadows for most of the movie, that is, until the chilling ending.
Billy is considered one of the first slasher movie killers in film history. He doesn’t don a mask or a disguise like other famous murderers, such as Tom Morga’s Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. Instead, he takes on a more psychological horror approach as he begins to make lewd and increasingly threatening phone calls to the sorority house before killing victims one at a time. In Black Christmas, the killer isn’t given a tragic backstory. Instead, he’s a run-of-the-mill killer on the loose, making the movie better.
What Happens Before The Black Christmas Ending
Billy Killed Several People Before The Police Realize He Is In The House
The Black Christmas ending was inspired by a classic urban legend of a babysitter who learns that the threatening calls she’s receiving are coming from inside the house. In Black Christmas, Billy makes calls to the house in which he speaks in different voices, carrying out conversations referring to people called “Billy” and “Agnes,” interspersed with strange moans and screams and violent, Sєxually explicit mutterings, similar to When a Stranger Calls.
Jess grows concerned when one of her friends goes missing and contacts the police.
The protagonist of the Black Christmas ending, Jess, grows concerned when one of her friends goes missing and contacts the police, who tap the sorority house’s phone line to find out who is making the calls. As if the murders and the phone calls weren’t enough to deal with, Jess has also discovered that she’s pregnant, and her boyfriend, Peter, grows increasingly unstable after she tells him that she plans to get an abortion.
Billy killed Jess’s friend Clare and stashed her body in front of the attic window in a grotesque display. The body of a 13-year-old girl is also discovered in a nearby park and is presumed to be Billy’s first victim of the night. The sorority mother, Mrs. Mac, is murdered in the Christmas horror movie while searching the attic for her missing cat, and Jess’ sorority sisters, Barb and Phyl, are also brutally killed. Eventually, only Jess is left alive in the house, and after a series of failures, the police finally work out where the calls are coming 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 outside — but it’s revealed that Billy has already killed him, leaving Jess alone and defenseless. Meanwhile, Fuller is at the music conservatory searching for Peter, whom he believes 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 line long enough for the call to be traced and to reveal that the phone calls are coming from inside the house.
Fuller contacts bungling police officer Nash and instructs him to call Jess and tell her to get out of the house without raising a panic. Nash loses his cool and tells Jess that the killer is in the house. Instead of leaving, Jess goes upstairs to check on Phyl and Barb. She finds them bloodied and ᴅᴇᴀᴅ in one of the bedrooms. After discovering their bodies, Jess looks through the crack in the door and sees Billy hiding behind it. She flees downstairs, but the front door is stuck, so she runs into the basement instead and locks the door behind her.
After trying and failing to get through the door, Billy retreats, leaving a frightened Jess in the basement. She sees a shadowy figure peering through the basement windows. Peter then appears at the door, calling for her. Jess believes that Peter is the killer. She tries to hide, but he breaks a window and climbs into the basement. Soon, he discovers Jess’ hiding place and approaches her slowly. When Fuller and the other police arrive, they find Jess clutching Peter’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅ body in the basement.
Jess kills Peter with a fire poker before he can kill her.
In the ultimate Black Christmas twist, Jess kills Peter with a fire poker before he can kill her, and the police conclude that he is responsible for all the murders — driven mad by the thought of his baby being aborted. Jess is sedated and put to bed, and the police, believing the house to be safe again, head back to the station, leaving just one officer outside. It’s then revealed in the Black Christmas ending that Billy is still in the house, now alone with Jess. The phone starts to ring just before the credits roll.
Peter Was Not the Real Killer In Black Christmas
Peter Was Only Guilty Of Being A Jerk
The Black Christmas ending is in part a murder mystery that does its best to make it look like Peter might be the killer, unlike the Black Christmas remakes. After he learns that Jess is planning to get an abortion, he gives an unhinged piano recital and later smashes the piano with a microphone stand. He comes to the house when Jess is alone, says that he’s planning to quit the music conservatory, and then tells her that they will get married.
Jess also suspects that Peter might be responsible for the obscene phone calls.
When Jess responds that she won’t marry him, that neither of them should drop out of college, and that she’s still planning to have an abortion, Peter becomes irate, accusing her of wanting to hurt their baby. She makes him leave, but he is later seen creeping around outside. Jess also suspects that Peter might be responsible for the obscene phone calls when the caller utters the phrase “just like having a wart removed,” an echo of something that Peter said about her planned abortion, a political subject that Black Christmas covered long before its time.
She later realizes that it couldn’t have been Peter because he snuck up on her while she was on the phone listening to one of the calls. However, with Peter’s erratic and threatening behavior in the Black Christmas ending, it’s little wonder that she believed he was the killer — especially when he starts searching the basement just moments after the killer chased her into it. But while he was certainly unpleasant and unstable, Peter didn’t kill anyone.
Black Christmas Never Explains Who “Billy” And “Agnes” Are
The 2006 Movie Explained The Backstory Originally Left As A Mystery
The real killer in Black Christmas’ ending is never identified, but since he identifies himself as “Billy” in bizarre conversations, it’s generally ᴀssumed 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 childhood, with Billy saying, “Don’t tell them what they did.” That said, unlike the failed Black Christmas remake, his backstory is never explored. It’s possible that Billy used to live in the sorority house as a child, so he chooses it as a target (and has such an intimate knowledge of its layout).
The killer’s idenтιтy, backstory, and motive are deliberately left ambiguous.
It’s also possible he somehow has a connection to Mrs. Mac (after all, her first name is never revealed — perhaps she’s Agnes) or one of the sorority sisters. Ultimately, though, the killer’s idenтιтy, backstory, and motive are deliberately left ambiguous. Not so in the 2006 remake of Black Christmas, which decided to explain in painstaking detail who Billy and Agnes were. In that movie, it was revealed that Billy was a boy suffering from jaundiced, yellow skin. In the 2006 Black Christmas, Billy witnessed his mother and her lover murdering his father.
In this Mary Elizabeth Winstead horror movie, Billy’s mother locked him in the attic for the next 16 years and, at one point, raped her son to conceive a child. That child was Agnes, Billy’s daughter/sister, Agnes. In Black Christmas, Billy later killed his mother and stepfather and left Agnes badly disfigured.
The Real Meaning Of Black Christmas’ Ending
Black Christmas Subverts Christmas Movies
The Black Christmas ending is a gleefully dark take on the holiday season — as the movie’s тιтle suggests. The film subverts many of the usual holiday tropes, usually courtesy of Barb (played by Lois Lane actress Margot Kidder). Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, but Black Christmas‘ story largely revolves around Jess’ decision to get an abortion. The sorority’s supposedly maternal figure, Mrs. Mac, is an alcoholic who stashes liquor all around the house.
It’s little wonder that the Black Christmas ending is as nihilistic as the rest of it.
Phyl’s boyfriend, Patrick, dresses up as Santa Claus but swears crudely in front of the children. Barb is seen plying a small child with liquor and then declaring, “I think the little bugger’s schnozzled!” And while a choir of children sings to Jess, Barb is upstairs getting stabbed to death with the horn of a glᴀss unicorn. It’s little wonder that the Black Christmas ending is as nihilistic as the rest of it.
There is one disturbing detail crucial to the movie’s meaning that inspired Halloween‘s ending — Billy only makes a phone call after he’s killed someone. The first call marks the death of the high school girl who was found in the nearby park. He makes another call after killing Clare and further calls after killing Mrs. Mac, Barb, and Phyl. The Black Christmas ending implies Jess is doomed since she’s alone in a house with a killer. However, the sound of the phone ringing 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 & Idenтιтies
While the original Black Christmas ending was left ambiguous, the subsequent remakes had something else in mind. The 2006 Black Christmas remake saw two killers in the form of Agnes and Billy. After most of the sorority house has been picked off, Kelli (Katie Cᴀssidy) and Leigh (Kristen Cloke) burn the house down. While recovering in the hospital, Agnes survives and kills Leigh, then tries to go after Kelli. She kills Agnes with a defibrillator before being attacked by Billy, who she then pushes down the stairs and is impaled by a Christmas tree.
The 2019 Black Christmas ending forgoes the Billy and Agnes storyline, turning the villains into the Delta Kappa Omicron fraternity and the spirit of Hawthorne College’s founder. This Black Christmas ending sees the sorority girls realize Hawthorne’s founder has been possessing DKO pledges and murdering women he deems “unruly,” and Helena (Madeleine Adams) has been stealing items from her sisters to help the fraternity locate their victims. Riley (Imogen Poots) manages to smash the Hawthorne bust, while Kris (Aleyse Shannon) sets the fraternity house on fire.
How The Black Christmas Ending Was Received
Critics & Fans Loved The Movie & Its Ending
Critics and audiences loved the original slasher movie Black Christmas, although not everyone was happy with the ending. Critics gave it a 71% positive Rotten Tomatoes score, and the audience rated it at 76%. One audience member wrote in their review, “Really set the slasher genre going and the structure and scenes from the killers perspective are a good way to get multiple view points in the film. The ending with everyone realising the killer is in the house is now popular everywhere showing how much of an impact this film has had.“
A Reddit thread started with fans discussing the ending of Black Christmas from 1974. The OP loved the ending, especially since Billy was never officially unveiled: “The Ending to Black Christmas is by far the most creepiest endings to a Horror Film I ever seen the fact that Billy hasn’t been caught and still up in the attic really brought a chill to my spine after watching Black Christmas (1974) 4 times the ending still gives me the Chills!” However, @Majestic87 disagreed, complaining that “the police showed up and cleared the scene but never checked the attic.“
On top of that, @badwolfjb complained that the doctor sedated Jess and left her alone at the house after the incident, writing, “That really bothered me. And the fact that the doctor and all of the cops immediately leave Jess completely alone in the house at the end. Great film, but the ending is really disappointing.” There was one other Redditor who had a new interesting theory, “I have a theory that Jess is Agnes, she leaves door open in beginning, although Billy climbs to attic, I think it’s supposed to be a hint.“
Which Black Christmas Movie Has The Best Ending
The First Movie Reigns Over The Remakes
The three Black Christmas movies are all different beasts. The 1974 version is a slasher in which the mysterious killer has no known motivation or even shows his face, making him scary. He could be anyone, anywhere, making the slasher killer much more frightening. Michael Myers was always scarier in the original movies than he was when he received a backstory or the voodoo that accompanied his appearance at one time. The same holds true for Billy—if that is even the killer’s name.
The first reboot arrived in 2006, and Black Christmas not only revealed Billy’s idenтιтy but also brought in Agnes and revealed both of their tragic backstories. This allowed for some big twists and turns in the movie, but removing the mysteries and making the killers somewhat sympathetic ruined the entire theme of the first movie. Unlike the original film, critics panned this release, with the consensus on Rotten Tomatoes indicating it has the gore and blood of the original but not the creativity of the original.
The 2019 movie was much more appreciated, although it was a box-office disappointment. The most significant alternation in this movie was changing the entire story and removing the idea of the faceless killer going after sorority girls at Christmas. Critics mostly panned this film, but it received some praise for its feminist values, which were also integral to the first movie. Changing the villains from a mysterious Billy to an entire evil fraternity organization helped differentiate it, but that kept it from ever living up to the first Black Christmas.
