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*{{cite book|last=Best|first=Liane A.|title=The Myth and Reality of Serial Killers in U.S. Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mLpwNwAACAAJ|year=2007|publisher=University of Houston-Clear Lake}}
*{{cite book|last=Best|first=Liane A.|title=The Myth and Reality of Serial Killers in U.S. Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mLpwNwAACAAJ|year=2007|publisher=University of Houston-Clear Lake}}
*{{cite book|last=Crouse|first=Richard|title=Son of the 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B5alnowvF3sC&pg=PT48|date=December 15, 2010|publisher=ECW Press|isbn=978-1-55490-330-6}}
*{{cite book|last=Crouse|first=Richard|title=Son of the 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B5alnowvF3sC&pg=PT48|date=December 15, 2010|publisher=ECW Press|isbn=978-1-55490-330-6}}
*
{{cite book|last=Grunzke|first=Andrew|title=Educational Institutions in Horror Film: A History of Mad Professors, Student Bodies, and Final Exams|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r9K_BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT94|date=1 April 2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-46920-5}}
*{{cite web|last1=Hamman|first1=Cody|title=Face-Off: Black Christmas Billy vs. Silent Night, Deadly Night Billy|url=https://www.joblo.com/horror-movies/news/fo-face-off-black-christmas-billy-vs-silent-night-deadly-night-billy|website=Joblo.com|publisher=Arrow in the Head|accessdate=December 19, 2019|date=December 21, 2016}}
*{{cite web|last1=Hamman|first1=Cody|title=Face-Off: Black Christmas Billy vs. Silent Night, Deadly Night Billy|url=https://www.joblo.com/horror-movies/news/fo-face-off-black-christmas-billy-vs-silent-night-deadly-night-billy|website=Joblo.com|publisher=Arrow in the Head|accessdate=December 19, 2019|date=December 21, 2016}}
*{{cite book|last=Roche|first=David|title=Making and Remaking Horror in the 1970s and 2000s: Why Don't They Do It Like They Used To?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FQAbBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT87|date=6 February 2014|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-62674-246-8}}
*{{cite web |last1=Taylor |first1=Lauren |title=Horror Education of the Week: Black Christmas |url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3207322/horror-education-of-the-week-black-christmas/ |website=BloodyDisgusting.com |publisher=Bloody Disgusting |accessdate=February 23, 2020 |date=December 13, 2012}}
*{{cite web|last1=Taylor|first1=Lauren|title=Horror Education of the Week: Black Christmas|url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3207322/horror-education-of-the-week-black-christmas/|website=BloodyDisgusting.com|publisher=Bloody Disgusting|accessdate=February 23, 2020|date=December 13, 2012}}


==External links==
==External links==

Revision as of 17:04, 25 February 2020

Billy
'Black Christmas' character
File:Billy, Black Christmas, 1974 film, screenshot.jpg
Billy (possibly Albert J. Dunk) in Black Christmas (1974)
First appearanceBlack Christmas
(1974)
Last appearanceBlack Christmas
(2006)
Created byA. Roy Moore
Bob Clark
Portrayed byBlack Christmas (1974)
Bob Clark
Albert J. Dunk
Nick Mancuso
(Voice on Phone)
Black Christmas (2006)
Robert Mann
(Adult)
Cainan Wiebe
(Young)
In-universe information
Nickname
  • Billy
  • The Caller
  • The Killer
  • The Moaner
  • The Sorority House Killer
SpeciesHuman
GenderMale
OccupationMass murderer
Serial killer
FamilyBlack Christmas (2006)
Frank Lenz (father, deceased)
Constance Lenz (mother, deceased)
Agnes Lenz (sister/daughter, deceased)
Unnamed stepfather (deceased)

Billy is a fictional character from the Black Christmas series. He first appeared in Black Christmas (1974), as a deranged murderer who taunts and murders a group of college students during the Christmas season. Created by Bob Clark and A. Roy Moore, The character was partially inspired by the urban legend The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs, as well as a series of murders that were committed during the holiday season.

For the original film, multiple people would portray and voice the character, including Nick Mancuso, cameraman Bert Dunk, and director Clark. Both the character and his portrayer(s) would not be listed in the end credits, and is simply referred to in the film by the sorority sisters as The Moaner. However, both fans and several media outlets have often cited the character's name as Billy, due to the character's repeated mentioning of it throughout the film, including the film's final scene.

Contrary to many slasher film antagonists, the filmmakers intentionally left the character's true identity and motivations unanswered in the 1974 film, which they felt made the character more frightening. Several critics and art historians have noted that by leaving the character enigmatic, it allowed the audience to place their own fears onto the character, forming their own ideas on the character and his motivations. Although largely overshadowed by more popular horror film antagonists, the character has subsequently been identified by some critics and film historians as establishing many of the tropes that later became a staple for the slasher film genre, predating John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), and has been listed in some media publications as being one of the greatest horror villains of all time.

Appearances

Billy made his first appearance in the 1974 original film Black Christmas. In the film, Billy is a mentally disturbed man known as "The Moaner", who regularly calls a local sorority house, leaving disturbing and obscene messages. During one such phone call, Barb (Margot Kidder), one of the sorority sisters, provokes him; he responds by threatening to kill them. The caller then goes on a killing spree, murdering most of the sorority house's inhabitants, including Barb. Jess (Olivia Hussey), the lone survivor, is attacked by Billy but manages to fight him off, and after discovering the corpses of Billy’s victims in the attic, accidentally bludgeons her boyfriend Peter (Keir Dullea) to death, thinking he is the killer. The film ends with Billy, who is revealed to be still alive, talking to the corpses in the attic, before making a final phone call to the house.[1]

The character later appeared in the 1976 novelization of the film written by Campbell Armstrong, under the Pseudonyms Lee Hays[2][3] and the 1983 republished edition as Thomas Altman.[4][5] Both editions would explicitly state the character's name as Billy.[2][4]

The character later appeared in the 2006 remake of the original film. In the film, the character's history is expanded, his real name is William "Billy" Edward Lenz (Cainan Wiebe), suffering from severe jaundice due to liver disease. Although his father loves him, Billy is physically and mentally abused as a child by his mother, Constance (Karin Konoval), who blames him for being born. After murdering Billy's father with her lover, Constance rapes Billy after she is unable to conceive a child with her lover, and gives birth to Billy's sister/daughter Agnes (Christina Crivici). Billy later goes insane and murders his mother and her lover, and disfigures Agnes before being caught and sent to an insane asylum. Years later, an adult Billy (Robert Mann) escapes and goes on a rampage with Agnes (Dean Friss) at their old family home, which has been converted into a sorority house. After murdering most of the inhabitants, both Agnes and Billy are killed by Kelli Presley (Katie Cassidy), the sole survivor.[6]

Concept and creation

The Birth of a Horror Slasher

Originally created by Bob Clark and A. Roy Moore. The concept for the character that would later be known as Billy was partially inspired by the urban legend of The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs,[7][8] which had started and became widespread during the 1970s.[9] In the legend, a young woman babysitting three children is tormented by a madman who leaves threatening phone calls, later revealed to be originating from upstairs in the house with her.[10] The same urban legend would also provide a basis for the 1979 film When a Stranger Calls, and its subsequent remake.[8] According to Moore, further inspiration for the character was taken from a series of murders that occurred during the holiday season in the Westmount area of Montreal.[11][12] As noted in an article for The Telegraph, the murders, which occurred in 1943, were perpetrated by a fourteen-year-old boy who bludgeoned several of his family members to death.[13] After completion of the first draft, which was initially titled Stop Me,[14][15][16] both the script and its characters were further developed in subsequent rewrites by Clark,[7] and Timothy Bond.[16] Clark would state that, from the outset, he had never intended to fully reveal the character, feeling that it was more frightening to have the character remain ambiguous.[17] Clark, however, admitted in a later interview that the character does, in fact, have a very subtle backstory which he created, adding logic and reasoning behind the character's phone calls.[16] Warner Brothers, who later purchased distribution rights for the film, did not like the film's ending, and wanted significant changes as to the character's identity.[17] During preparation in 1975 for the film's American release, studio executives asked Clark to change the concluding scene to show Clare's boyfriend, Chris, appear in front of Jess and say, "Agnes, don't tell them what we did" before killing her;[7] however, Clark insisted on keeping the ending ambiguous.[17]

The 2006 incarnation of the character, was partially inspired by the crimes of serial killer Edmund Kemper.

The character's enigmatic nature was subsequently abandoned in favor of a more physical presence in Glen Morgan's 2006 remake of the film. In conceiving script, Morgan had intended to rework elements of the original film that were left ambiguous or implied, such as the cryptic phone calls received by the sorority house. Morgan also wanted to explore sub-plots from the original film, that were not fleshed out. Morgan also created an extensive subplot for the film's killer, Billy, and introduced a secondary killer in Billy's younger sister, Agnes (in the original film, the names Billy and Agnes figure prominently in the obscene calls received by the sorority sisters).[18][19] In writing the character of Billy, Morgan was inspired by the life of Edmund Kemper, a real-life serial killer who as a child had been locked in the basement of his home by his mother, whom he later murdered.[18] According to Morgan, he and James Wong had various disputes with Dimension Films executives Bob and Harvey Weinstein.[20]In a 2014 interview with Morgan, he claimed that his inclusion of a second killer was under the urging of Dimension Films executives: "I felt that a ten million dollar movie of Black Christmas didn't need anyone's help, and they should have left us alone. But they had to have the two killers, and then they were after kids from The O.C. We compromised a lot."[20] Morgan's original script ended with Kelli and Leigh in the hospital receiving a phone call from Billy, whom they believed to be dead; this scene, which Morgan filmed, was intended to pay homage to the conclusion of the original film. This ending, however, was scrapped by Bob Weinstein, who requested Morgan write and shoot a different ending. This ultimately resulted in the more violent conclusion that appears in the theatrical cut, which has Billy being impaled on the hospital's Christmas tree-topper.[20]

Men Behind the Killer

In the original film, Billy's role was given to multiple actors, although the character name and his portrayer would not be listed in the film's end credits.[1] Point-of-view shots of the character were done by director Clark himself, who also contributed to the voice of the character.[21] The POV scene where Billy scales the house and enters the attic was completed by camera operator Bert Dunk (Albert J. Dunk), who created a camera rig which he attached to his shoulder,[17][22] Dunk would also portray the character in the POV scene where Billy murders Clare, which was accomplished using the same technique.[23][13][12] The character's voice during the disturbing phone calls was performed by multiple actors including director Clark, and actor Nick Mancuso,[7] in his feature film debut.[24] When auditioning for the role, director Clark had Mancuso sit in a chair facing away from him, so as not to see the actor's face. Clark then had Mancuso experiment with different voices in order to come up with one that was right for the character, with Clark later offering him the part.[13] Mancuso spent only three days recording dialogue for the character, later recalling the experience as being very "avant-garde", with Clark encouraging him to improvise with the character's voice.[13] During some of these recording sessions, Mancuso would stand on his head to compress his thorax, which make his voice sound more demented.[25][13]

Actor Robert Mann was hired to portray the character in Dimension Films 2006 remake of the original film.[26] Likening the character to a "time-bomb", Mann felt that the character harbored a long-boiling rage due to the severe abuse he suffered.[18] Mann would speak highly of his time in the role, recalling the light mood while on set, and the fun he had as the character.[27]

Naming a Slasher

Commonly referred to by fans and some media outlets as Billy,[13][28][29] originating from the character's dialogue in the original 1974 film, in which he mentions the name repeatedly during his obscene phone calls, and the film's final scene, where the character directly refers to himself under the name.[1][30] However, the character was left unnamed in the original film's end credits,[Note 1] and is simply referred to, in the film, by the sorority sisters as "The Moaner".[1][7] Several of the original film's cast members, including Clark himself have, during interviews, referred to the character as either Billy or simply "The Killer".[23][33] For the 2006 remake, the character was officially named William "Billy" Edward Lenz,[6][34] and given a sister/daughter Agnes Lenz, in reference to the original film's obscene phone calls where the names are mentioned on multiple occasions.[35]

Characterization

Where other horror movies would have tried to explain the madman’s behavior, or pull a big reveal in the final scene, this killer stays hidden throughout. At a time of year when everyone is supposed to be together and celebrating, he’s at the edges, shrieking with a fury so intense and destructive that it’s barely recognizable as human. Instead of drawing the attention of the authorities, his bizarre behavior makes him invisible. He’s a creature so out of bounds with the season that he can operate with unsettling impunity. And not just impunity.

— Zack Handlen's characterization of Billy in his review of the film[36]

In both the original film and the remake, Billy is characterized as being a mentally-disturbed, and sexually perverted man.[30] Contrary to many slasher film antagonists, Billy's true identity and motivations are never revealed in the original film,[37][38][39] with the character's appearances in the 1974 film being mostly off-screen.[40][41] As noted by film scholar Adam Rockoff, "There never any attempt to rationalize or justify his madness. He is simply insane."[37] This lack of physical presence and identity would lead behavioral scientist and psychiatrist Sharon Packer and art historian Jody Pennington to classify Billy in the original film as being a "faceless killer".[42] Film historian Martin Rubin noted parallels between the character and Bruce the Shark from Jaws, citing both characters as being a remorseless, near omnipresent and omniscient force.[43]

Several film critics have noted that the character's lack of a clear backstory forced viewers to place their own fears on the character. As one critic wrote, "Lacking a distinct form or personality, Billy's really anything you want him to be, and that's primarily what makes Black Christmas so successful."[44] Brian Collins of Birth.Movies.Death pointed out that the original film purposely left many questions unanswered, leaving viewers to try and solve the mystery of the character.[45] Filmmaker Douglas Buck offered a similar opinion, stating that the mystery of Billy's identity forced the audience to question the actions of many of the other characters, in suspicion that one of them might be the killer. [46] IndieWire's Jamie Righetti pointed out that the character's elusiveness and the mystery of his identity was one of the reasons for the original film's timelessness. Righetti also noted that the character's obscene phone calls, "makes it clear that some horrors are all too common, and don’t require a boogeyman in a mask."[29] Graham Austin from FilmEra.com explained that, by using multiple actors to both voice and portray the character, "it "obfuscate[s] his identity and provide the eerie schizophrenic rantings he has between several of his characters.[47] Filmmaker and literary critic John Kenneth Muir felt that Billy represented a terrifying and disturbing character, whose effectiveness during the phone calls was due in part to their believability, drawing parallels between the phone calls and crank calling.[48] Bud Wilkins of Slant Magazine pointed out major differences between Billy and Halloween's Michael Myers, stating that "Billy" represented a more human killer as opposed to what he called "the unstoppable boogeyman that Michael Myers represents".[32]

As a result of the character's distinct lack of motivations, many have offered their own suggestions as to the reasons behind Billy's motivations for killing. Thrillist's Jourdain Searles felt the character represented a critique for toxic masculinity, calling the character "more metaphor than man, an unstoppable, unexplainable personification of masculine id with a singular purpose: to kill all the pretty women." Searles went on to note that Billy's dialogue hinted at a deep-seated fury towards women, which seemed to emerge in their presence. [31] Hannah Shaw-Williams pointed out Clark's statement on the character, in which he purportedly revealed Billy and Agnes as siblings, and Billy's dialogue hinted at something horrible which occurred in the character's past. However, she also admitted that film ultimately leaves Billy's true identity, backstory, and motivation ambiguous, which made the character far more interesting.[30]

For the 2006 remake, writer and director Glen Morgan wanted a more defined killer, abandoning the original character's ambiguity in favor of a more traditional slasher villain. One of the major changes Morgan made was the decision to delve into the character's backstory, revealing that Billy was born with a severe jaundice,[49] which turned his skin yellow. Billy's insanity was also explained as being the result of severe abuse at the hands of his mother, which later resulted in the birth of his sister/daughter after being raped by his mother.[50][30] Robert Mann, who portrayed the adult character in the remake, felt that the character's abuse at the hands of his mother had turned the character into 'a ticking time bomb'. Mann further elaborated that the character's moments of extreme violence came from that long-boiling hatred stemming from those years of abuse.[18] Several critics, including admirers of the original film, would criticize the remake's exploration into the character's backstory as being generic, and less frightening.[51][34] In her book Life Lessons from Slasher Films, Jessica Robinson argued that the remake's extensive backstory for the character was an attempt by the filmmakers to elicit sympathy for the character, delving deeper into the character's mind, and motivations.[52] Art and cultural historian Berit Åström explained that many aspects of the character in the remake, including their backstory and motivations, mirrored that of Norman Bates Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, noting both characters having abusive mothers, whom they have an 'Oedipal complex towards',[53] eventually murdering them.[54]

Legacy

Since his first appearance in the original Black Christmas, Billy has been credited by several critics and film historians as establishing many of the tropes that later became a staple for the slasher film genre,[55][13][56][57] such as the image of the "faceless killer",[58][59][42] predating John Carpenter's Halloween.[60][61] They have also noted, however, that both the character and the original film have been largely overshadowed by more popular slasher film entries and villains.[62][63][64] Several critics have noted that Halloween was possibly inspired and influenced by Clark's film and it's antagonist.[65][31] Clark himself has stated that Carpenter might have drawn partial 'inspiration' for Carpenter's film after a conversation in regards to the possibility of a sequel to Black Christmas and what it would look like.[16][66][39] However, Clark also admitted that this may or may not have been the case,[17] and Carpenter himself denied 'borrowing' anything from Clark's film, while stating that the project not originally his idea.[67]

The character has been listed in several media publications as one of the greatest horror film villains of all time. In 2017, GamesRadar included the character in their "30 Cruelest Horror Movie Villains".[68] Daniel Kurland from Bloody Disgusting included the character in his list of "The 10 Best Non-Monster Horror Villains", calling him "the prototypical slasher villain".[64] Placing the original film at #32 in his article of The Best Slasher Movies, Complex's Matt Barone stated that subsequent films and characters such as Scream franchise's Ghostface killer, would not have existed if not for original film and its antagonist.[69]

In the 2006 mocumentary slasher film Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, the title character was mentored by a "retired" killer named Eugene. According to the film's writer David J. Stieve, the character was written as both a homage and an allusion to Billy, pointing out allusions to the character by stating that both characters helped "pioneer the business of fear", but were not as widely recognized as much as their successors.[70] In earlier drafts of the film's script, Eugene was heavily implied to be Billy, but the idea was later abandoned in subsequent drafts in favor of making the character a combination of various slasher villains.[71]

The character was not included in the 2019 remake of the film, being replaced by a cult of misogynistic killers. According to the film's director Sophia Takal, the original version of the character 'had symbolized all the misogyny and sexism implicated against women', and, wanting to further convey this theme, Takal "reinterpreted" the character as a cult of misogynists rather than a single killer.[28] This abandonment of the character, among other aspects of the film, was criticized by both film critics, and fans of the original film.[72][73][74] As one critic wrote, the character's 'terrifying ambiguous threat' had been replaced by what they called a more "explicit and hackneyed embodiment of the patriarchy itself".[35]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Several media outlets have mistakenly reported that the character was listed in the end credits as The Prowler,[31][32] however, neither the character nor his portrayer(s) are listed in the end credits.[1]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e Clark 1974.
  2. ^ a b Hays 1976.
  3. ^ LibraryofCongress 1977, p. 2472.
  4. ^ a b Altman 1983.
  5. ^ Delaney 2000.
  6. ^ a b Morgan 2006a.
  7. ^ a b c d e Smith 2016.
  8. ^ a b Koven 2008, p. 129.
  9. ^ Brunvand 2012, p. 46.
  10. ^ Brunvand 2003, p. 54.
  11. ^ Dupuis 2016.
  12. ^ a b Duffin 2006.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Power 2019.
  14. ^ Nowell 2010, p. 63.
  15. ^ Orchard 2005.
  16. ^ a b c d McConnell & Mihalka 2015.
  17. ^ a b c d e Duffin & DuFort-Leavy 2005.
  18. ^ a b c d Morgan 2006b.
  19. ^ Hantke 2010, p. 112.
  20. ^ a b c Vander Kaay & Fernandez-Vander Kaay 2014, pp. 168–169.
  21. ^ Doupe 2015.
  22. ^ Brundtland 2002.
  23. ^ a b TerrorTrap 2011.
  24. ^ Rist 2001, p. 135.
  25. ^ FilmReel 2015.
  26. ^ Willis & Monush 2010, p. 240.
  27. ^ WireImage 2006.
  28. ^ a b Bibbiani 2019.
  29. ^ a b Righetti 2019, p. 4.
  30. ^ a b c d Shaw-Williams 2019.
  31. ^ a b c Searles 2018.
  32. ^ a b Wilkins 2016.
  33. ^ Morris 2005.
  34. ^ a b Lipsett 2018.
  35. ^ a b Smith 2019.
  36. ^ Handlen 2014.
  37. ^ a b Rockoff 2011, p. 42.
  38. ^ Armstrong 2001, p. 17.
  39. ^ a b Zinoman 2011, p. 181.
  40. ^ Hart 2019, p. 92.
  41. ^ Zinoman 2011, p. 216.
  42. ^ a b Packer & Pennington 2014, pp. 38.
  43. ^ Rubin 1999, p. 161.
  44. ^ Corupe 2006.
  45. ^ Collins 2016.
  46. ^ Buck 2017.
  47. ^ Austin 2018.
  48. ^ Muir 2012, p. 316.
  49. ^ Shotwell 2016.
  50. ^ Robinson 2012, p. 175.
  51. ^ Hartlaub 2006.
  52. ^ Robinson 2012, pp. 112–113.
  53. ^ Åström 2017, p. 212.
  54. ^ Åström 2017, p. 214.
  55. ^ Benshoff 2014, p. 323.
  56. ^ Weinberg 2019.
  57. ^ Dinning 2000.
  58. ^ Harper 2004, p. 11.
  59. ^ Paszylk 2009, p. 136.
  60. ^ Collum 2015, p. 10.
  61. ^ Vorel 2019.
  62. ^ Paszylk 2009, p. 135.
  63. ^ Hantke 2010, p. 111.
  64. ^ a b Kurland 2016.
  65. ^ Schaefer 2019.
  66. ^ Muir 2012, p. 315.
  67. ^ Zinoman 2011, p. 182.
  68. ^ Winning 2017.
  69. ^ Barone 2017.
  70. ^ Squires 2016.
  71. ^ IconsofFright 2007.
  72. ^ Grierson 2019.
  73. ^ Kennedy 2019.
  74. ^ Crucchiola 2020.

Sources

Books

Websites

Further reading

Grunzke, Andrew (1 April 2015). Educational Institutions in Horror Film: A History of Mad Professors, Student Bodies, and Final Exams. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-46920-5.

External links

  • Billy at Black Christmas (wiki)
  • Billy at Horror Film (wiki)
  • Billy at Villains (wiki)
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