I suppose a sorority can be used to host a multitude of characters, so that's what Bob Clark does here as he puts four quite different girls into an house supervised by the likably dypso "Mrs. Mac" (Marian Waldman). The house has, for ages now, being getting crank calls from a guy they call the "moaner". Some get upset by his behaviour, others laugh it off but when one of their number "Clare" (Lynne Griffin) disappears and the police are called in by her boyfriend "Chris" (Art Hindle), the sense of menace ratchets up a notch. As we get to know these characters, there are quite a few suspects and quite a few decent reasons why we might want to bump them all off. "Jess" (Olivia Hussey) is expecting a child with wayward boyfriend "Pete" (Keir Dullea) only he doesn't know it yet; give-as-good-as-you-get "Barb" (Margot Kidder) quite likes to goad their would-be tormentor ("Billy") - much to his obvious chagrin. More menacing yet is the increasingly detailed knowledge contained in the calls. "Billy" is spookily well informed. Could he be one of them? I'm not too sure what this has to have to do with Christmas, to be honest. It's just another typical slasher set amongst a student fraternity that gives everyone an opportunity to scream and make some shockingly poor under-pressure decisions. Neither the acting nor the writing stand out but the photography is quite effective at creating and sustaining a modest sense of peril as our killer nears goal. It's not really very scary, indeed time hasn't been to kind to it at all - but it's watchable if you like the genre and have taken a drink or two.
