Halle and Alison sip sherry and sort out stalkers to ruin Black Christmas.

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TRANSCRIPT

 

[theme music]: If scary movies give you dread. Keep you up late night in bed, here’s a podcast that will help you ease your mind. We’ll explain the plot real nicely then we’ll talk about what’s frightening, so you never have to have a spooky time. It’s Ruined.

 

Halle Kiefer: Hello, everybody. Welcome to Ruined! I’m Halle. 

 

Alison Leiby: And I’m Alison. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And this is a podcast. Where we ruin a horror movie just for you. 

 

Alison Leiby: Just for all of you, Halle. I mean, I can hear it in your voice. How you feeling?

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, I am coming. I I’ve been so fortunate. And I really dodged so many bullets this holiday season. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then I woke up today. I’m like, well, last night even I was like, uh oh. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, you could feel it—

 

Halle Kiefer: You know sort of like that pre sick. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. Like sometimes for me it’ll be like just like my face feels a little off. Like sometimes like like behind my eyes is weird and everything’s like a little warmer than it should be. And then like, you wake up the next day and you’re like, well, that was the beginning of something. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. I always get a body ache, like, no matter what kind of illness it is, it’s like my I get it. I appreciate my body’s trying to, you know, they’re trying to do their work. So. 

 

Alison Leiby: Brutal. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But. Yeah. How are you doing, Alison? 

 

Alison Leiby: I’m good. I’m. I’m on a cottage cheese kick. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You and all of TikTok I hear. 

 

Alison Leiby: I know. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I like I like cottage cheese. But what lay it on us, what do you mean. 

 

Alison Leiby: I had never been. I guess I had been like, cottage cheese agnostic before. Like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Fair. 

 

Alison Leiby: I wasn’t, like, grossed out by it, but it wasn’t something I was eating all the time. And obviously everybody’s like, protein is all you should eat now. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: Which I’m just like, oh, this is actually more protein than my body has adjusted to eating. And I feel like insane for part of the day. And I think it’s because of that. But I found a a way I really like to eat it. If I could tell you. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m begging you. 

 

Alison Leiby: I go, I go savory, I am not the biggest sweet— 

 

Halle Kiefer: I couldn’t agree more. 

 

Alison Leiby: Like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I like it sweet but savory’s the way to go. Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Sure. It’s just like, I don’t love starting my day sweet because. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Same. 

 

Alison Leiby: It makes me instantly crave salt. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Interesting. Okay. 

 

Alison Leiby: So English muffin toasted. I’m a big fan of Bays these days. Do you ever have Bays English muffins? 

 

Halle Kiefer: No. I’ll keep my eyes open. 

 

Alison Leiby: They’re. Yeah. Please keep your eyes out for that in the refrigerated section. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Okay, great. 

 

Alison Leiby: So. But they’re very good. They have a sour dough English muffin. So I’m just like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh, okay. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s some taste. That’s a little good for the gut. English muffin a little bit of cottage cheese. Chili crisp. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Mm hmm. Great. 

 

Alison Leiby: And then, I’ll make a couple of hard boiled eggs that are kind of like, jammy in the middle still. And I’ll just, like, cut one of those in half and put half on each and kind of mash it down. So it’s like a little yolky and a little salt and pepper. Honestly, it’s like it’s a lot of protein. But it’s also very tasty and very filling. So I just have them—

 

Halle Kiefer: That sounds delicious. Yeah. I feel like, it’s interesting because we’ve, you know, growing up in the era in which we did. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It was very much about, like, cutting calories and, aerobic exercise to try to reduce the size of the body. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. It was like, you should run six miles and eat one apple. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And boy, did we [both speaking] disastrous results for. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I think, millennials. And I’m sure everyone older and younger than us. And now it’s about protein and weightlifting in pursuit of not just of this, but in pursuit in large part of a bigger ass. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. A lot of it is for the ass. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, and it’s like a bigger ass. Of course, we love to see it, but then, of course, it creates a new, a new concept of how we’re supposed to be working on the body. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I guess it’s better. I think it is better to be additive rather than subtractive. But then, of course. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s there are some among us that simply will never have a big ass. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So it’s like how you could be punishing yourself. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, I guess the problem is having a, a fitness standard rather than everyone is unique and like you should be try to be healthy for your own body rather than I would eat cottage cheese and get jacked. As much as I’d love to do that myself, you know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, no, I think you know, and as you know, we’ve discussed her a bit, but like, as as problematic as Tina Fey can be. I remember when I was reading her book, she was talking about body image and how, like, you know, she grew up when it was just like, be like, she’s older than us, of course. But then she was like, now there was a it’s like, ooh, like a Kardashian or like a J.Lo, butt. And it’s like, but you also still need to have, like, a tiny waist and Michelle Obama arms it’s like, oh, just because all of these, like, parts of the body get like, focused on the idea is that you have all of them. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. It’s sort of like they, you know, you think about like body positivity, which again, we were a little bit older when that started happening. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. We had already learned to hate ourselves pretty intensely through the culture. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And the problem with that is one, there still is hotness. Like it’s almost like we can’t like we’re every we’re so beholden. And obviously the, you know, the standard has traditionally been a, you know, white, cis, traditionally feminine woman. So then anyone outside of that has been punished against it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And now it’s like, oh, we’ll try to expand the category of hotness. But the issue is and always will be hotness. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Because all of us throughout our life are going to pass in and out of hotness. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And we’re constantly supposed to punish ourselves for being out of it. Rather than what I think people now have more of idea of, neutral body neutrality. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Which I feel like I’ve finally been able to start to arrive at my in my. 

 

Alison Leiby: Me too. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Late 30s is like, well, what am I going to do, do this my whole fucking life? I’m going to be 70 and hating myself, or 70 and choking down pounds of cottage cheese if I don’t want to, you know? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, I just hope for it. The problem ultimately is like that there shouldn’t be a standard and they shouldn’t be punished against it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And it should be an act to the best of our ability under, you know, the systems we live in, having some sort of sense of ownership and pleasure in, like, your own body. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, in the world. 

 

Alison Leiby: Feeling good in it as good as you can like. Yeah. That’s what it should be about. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. That being said, I am going to get some cottage cheese. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s I mean, it’s really that tasty and like, I’m somebody who like, I have yet to find a breakfast that keeps me full enough to not be, like just eating chips by noon. And not that that’s, like, necessarily a bad thing, but I’m like, well, I don’t think it’s like a super healthy thing all the time. And this has been keeping me full enough that, like, I’m not hungry until the afternoon. And it tastes good. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Listen. As someone who often gets up at five in the morning and eats a turkey burger. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, you could use a high protein filling. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m going to check it out. 

 

Alison Leiby: Give it a whirl. And I have one more tiny thing. Yesterday I had a Zoom with my, book editor. And because she’s very pregnant and was like, I’m not going into the office anymore. And I was like, we could just Zoom. Our cats got to meet each other because we were on Zoom, and it was really special to, like, show them each other, and they were both very upset by it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: What’s her cat’s name? 

 

Alison Leiby: Prune. She’s a big fluffy. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh my God. 

 

Alison Leiby: Wears a little diamond collar. She’s a stunner. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Cute. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then Rizz. I was like, well, she’s so fancy, and he’s in a tux, like they belong together. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. It’s interesting. Like what their conception of each other is. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. I was like, do you know you’re looking at a cat? I don’t know if he understands screens. 

 

Halle Kiefer: No. I can’t imagine a cat would. It’s simply—

 

Alison Leiby: I can’t tell if he could, like, see, like, because their vision is so weird. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. 

 

Alison Leiby: With, like, colors, like, all pets, like, have different, like, perception for color. Like, I’m like, he can he’s see a screen or is it just a rectangle to him? 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s an excellent question. And it makes you think, oh, I’m sure I’ve talked about this documentary before, but I remember this is like a Netflix like ten, 12 years ago called Technopolis. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s basically like all these like, oh, maybe Technopolis, Technopolis Now. Anyhow, it’s a sort of a a sort of scaremongering, but in a way that I think perhaps we should have paid a little more attention to. 

 

Alison Leiby: Always. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Documentary about different technology coming. One of the ones I remember was, basically the there’s, now going to be like video cameras in every, traffic light that would be activated by sound. So there’s a gunshot, it just starts recording, which is that we do do that and just sort of stuff out the police state. But then another interesting thing, but it did require, people to put electrodes in a cat’s head and basically they would have a cat watch something, and then they would use the feed back to recreate it, digitally. So it’s like, try to take what the cat is seeing and create a video image of it. And I don’t think this is probably true, but it is presented in the documentary in a very way. That’s very funny, where it’s like, well, I’m not like, afraid of this. I also don’t understand why we’re doing this 

 

Alison Leiby: I don’t know, we don’t. There’s a million things we could spend our time and resources on that isn’t. Can cats see screens and how do they enjoy movies? 

 

Halle Kiefer: So but basically what they were arguing in this Technopolis documentary is that when a cat looks at a human’s face, it sees a cat’s face. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes yes yes yes. Cause they think we’re cats.

 

Halle Kiefer: And because— Exactly. And I was like, well, I’m glad we put electrodes in a cat’s brain to like, know, that. But it is interesting because it is interesting, but it’s just one of those things where like, you guys didn’t want to work on climate change. You know, the cats head—

 

Alison Leiby: We’re not gonna solve any degenerative health issues that could probably be solved or, you know.

 

Halle Kiefer: The cat sees. Well it sees other cats that stands to reason doesn’t it?

 

Alison Leiby: Cats see cats. Cat sees cat. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But yeah. Shout out to all the scientists behind that cat electrode thing. I’m sure we’re using that technology. 

 

Alison Leiby: For sure. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Or it’s probably being used on us. Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Like, yeah, that’s probably just the test run for infiltrating our understanding of perception and vision. But anyways. Rizz does think I’m a cat, so that’s fine. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Well, this month, speaking of technology. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We wanted to do a month. And you might think well, what this movies. We should have done this at Christmas time. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well, perhaps we should have, but instead we’re doing it now. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yep. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Because we’re doing a movie about cold. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: These are. A month of cold horror movies. 

 

Alison Leiby: Cold it’s cold now. So we’re doing cold movies. [laughs] Very high concept.

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. But it’s also a celebration and a perhaps memoriam for, a time in which cold will no longer exist. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We’re passing in, I believe. Sorry. Cleveland, New York just got snow, and it was like they hadn’t had snow in over 700 days. 

 

Alison Leiby: 701 days. Yeah. Since we have, like, above one more than one inch, like, actual, but also like, it’s cold like. I mean, I’ve been complaining because I’m like, it’s not winter anymore and it’s like 21 degrees outside. [laughs] So I complained my way into regular winter.

 

Halle Kiefer: Listen it will we’ll all be complaining whether or not it’s winter or whether it is winter—

 

Alison Leiby: Extreme weather is here to stay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So we thought in that honor, we’ll do a movie that again, I don’t know why we haven’t done this for the multiple. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Christmas’ our podcast has existed for, but that movie is, of course, Black Christmas we’re doing the original, the 1974 film. It’s got Margot Kidder, it’s got, Olivia Hussey, and it’s got someone who’s very dear, near and dear to, Alison, one of her favs. 

 

Alison Leiby: One of my favs. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We’ll get to, we’ll present when she arrives in the narrative. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And to get us started Alison, what do you think of the Black Christmas trailer? And, of course, did you watch the one for the original 70s version? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, I watched the right one. 

 

Halle Kiefer: All right. Thumbs up.

 

Alison Leiby: There are. There are several Black Christmas remakes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: There are two remakes. I’ve seen the— 

 

Alison Leiby: 2006 and 2019, I think. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes, I’ve seen the one from the aughts, but I have not seen the more recent one. And the aughts one was. Fine.

 

Alison Leiby: Fine. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like it’s just like, well, okay, it’s certainly not the worst remake, but the original is really great. So.

 

Alison Leiby: It is very scary when someone is suffocated with a clear shower curtain or a clear plastic bag, or at like a—

 

Halle Kiefer: Laundry, a laundromat bag. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, a laund— 

 

Halle Kiefer: So it’s a dry cleaning bag. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, God. Yeah, that’s like that’s just such a specific image where it’s like you can see the face of someone who’s dead. It feels like they’re actively dying every time you look at them. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: And that is a very. And like that, of course, like, comes up there in the beginning and then we kind of come back to it’s, I watched a very long trailer and I was like, I’m getting too much of the movie, but also not enough to, like, understand the plot. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s perfect then. 

 

Alison Leiby: But, that to me stands out as an extremely scary image that I am not looking forward to discussing. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Great. Yeah, I think it’s a prime example of like, I may have seen that before the movie, but I this is certainly hitting me hard. 

 

Alison Leiby: Using it really. Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And a simple something you have around the house. You know, it’s just a wonderful scare. We always take like to take a baseline scary. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay.

 

Halle Kiefer: A baseline scary. From Alison I guess the baseline for Black Christmas would be how do we how scary do you find the concept of staying in a sorority house over the holiday break when everyone else has gone home? 

 

Alison Leiby: Oof. I mean, as someone who, as an adult, stays in New York City during every holiday, I enjoy the emptiness. But I remember those days on campus in college, and I never lived in a sorority. But I did live in a big house of girls, from the rowing team that I was friends with. And I remember, like, you know, certain people would leave, you know, your exams are over, you leave as soon as they’re done, and some people have exams at the end of the exam period, and you’re there later and then, like, you leave the next, like having campus empty out. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: And you’re still there is a very eerie feeling, especially when you’re younger and you don’t quite. Know anything yet? [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. There’s something, I, I do want to do a, horror movie set at my alma mater, Notre Dame, and it would be a snowed in situation. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, yes, yes, yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: There was—

 

Alison Leiby: Cornell could be the same. We could do the same. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I feel like other than that, it seems fine to me. I wouldn’t be scared. But there is thing about being, geographically and weather isolated. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Now, this isn’t in this movie. In this movie, it’s quite interesting because this movie, the cops entered the narrative pretty early. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And they’re involved in it, which I, I again, I, I have seen this movie, but I don’t think I’ve seen this movie since I was in middle school or something. So I had forgotten what an excellent film this is. And before we get started, Alison, would you like to guess the twist in Black Christmas? 

 

[voice over]: Guess the twist. 

 

Alison Leiby: Would you say that there’s a traditional twist, or is it pretty straight forward? 

 

Halle Kiefer: I sure would. It is perhaps one of the traditional twists. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, wow. Okay. I’m going to guess that. That one of the cops, if not all of the cops, was in on the initial murder that they’re investigating and. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh, okay. 

 

Alison Leiby: And they’re there to attempt to finish the job by killing the other girls. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I love that I’ll say it now, completely off base, but I really love if there was another remake and I’m sure there will be. That’s an excellent way to take this. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. No more propaganda. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. All right. Let us begin ruining Black Christmas 1974. We open on that most holiest of sites. A snow covered sorority house decorated for Christmas. And of course, there’s so much Christmas music in. And we open on Silent Night. 

 

Alison Leiby: Of course. 

 

Halle Kiefer: There’s a children’s choir later. There’s. There’s church bells playing. It’s it’s great. And I think this is, speaks to again, not a low budget film for the time, but a film made with care. It was, directed by Bob Clark, who also did Porky’s and The Christmas Story. Oh, well, that makes sense. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The Christmas Story was great. And I guess they’re like, oh, you did a Christmas movie. We’ll have you do a Christmas Story. And they were right. That’s an excellent film.

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah that really is great. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It tracks, and it was written by Roy Moore, who I don’t believe is that, Congressmen who tried to marry a 14 year old wherever the fuck that was? But no, I, I it looks to be a different gentleman. Unfortunately, yes. He was accused of sexually assaulting multiple people while they were underage. Fortunately lost. And ran again what is happening in this country anyways? 

 

Alison Leiby: I hate it here. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It is worse and worse every day. We see someone arriving at the sorority house. There’s a little bit of a festive Christmas or holiday party before break begins, and we then see the POV of somebody else coming towards the house. Sort of wheezing, shambling. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh wheezing. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like, oh, did I get invited to this party? Am I am I in this movie? They turned from the the door and immediately start looking at the windows. So, you know, they’re crazy, you know. So we like okay, we’re the killer’s POV. Yeah. We’ll be cutting to the killer’s POV throughout the film, which I love. 

 

Alison Leiby: I love that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And used excellently. I thought, yeah, we see sort of all these, coeds with their, their, boyfriends inside, and we see Barb Margot Kidder come down the stairs. And icon of 70s film and television. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I like Barb because Barb is like, obviously like the popular hot head bitch who also has a drinking problem. 

 

Alison Leiby: Terrific. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And just comes in and starts yelling, at everyone. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like, who left the goddamn front door open? And she already has a drink. She has a drink the entire time. 

 

Alison Leiby: I love that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: As they’re all sort of partying inside, the killer starts to climb the trellis up the side of the sorority. 

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I think you gotta—

 

Alison Leiby: No trellises on houses moving forward. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I think most trellises would not sustain the weight of a serial killer. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So I think mostly people would be finding. He or she would just rip off the side of the house. But something to think about when you’re building a trellis. Barb also tells everybody that they have to come to the, holiday party they’re throwing at the common room, which seems to be like a, event space that any all the sororities and fraternities could use. And their sorority is planning a holiday party for the underprivileged children in their area. So while Barb might be a bitch and already drunk, she is making sure that everyone is showing up. 

 

Alison Leiby: I really like that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Including this guy Patrick, who is going to play Santa Claus. And I thought it was really cute. Like having a college. Like a bearded college guy play Santa. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s fun. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And Patrick is the boyfriend of Phyl, who is played by a young Andrea Martin. 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s so nice to see her.

 

Alison Leiby: I mean. A queen. An icon, the best. 

 

Halle Kiefer: A legend. And great in this movie. 

 

Alison Leiby: Good. Of course. Yeah, she’s great and everything. She has, like, one line and something, and, like, she steals the show. She’s incredible. I love her so much. And I’m so happy to see her. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I will say, and I know we’ve talked about this, much and not to put all this on Andrea Martin. But like, it does make you think like, boy, I guess we really just don’t casually cast Jewish people. Like I think about, like, you know, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel where it’s like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well, just nice that I just sort of like someone in a very 70s Jewish way. Does that make sense? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. It really like it feels very, like, authentic and therefore like fun and better to watch. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And also like, that’s what the college of the 70s. And they also have like, you know, like posters with like two naked hippies making a peace sign. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes of course. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like they’ve done a great job building out the sorority in a way that makes these are like, yeah, like these are 20 year old girls. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s interesting. And there’s more character. Again, a lot of movies now. We don’t we’re not paying attention to the posters. 

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: This does a great job of like the people actually live here. Yes. We then beat our, our protagonist, Jess, who’s played by Olivia Hussey, who I always associate with the, having seen the, 1968, Zeffirelli adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. Of course. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I remember seeing it because it was a big deal. Because we watched it in English class. And I believe you can see her breasts for like one second. And then you see, I can’t remember the male lead. His butt for one moment and it is funny, like, what a big deal it was. We went to a public school even. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And this poor kid, I won’t say his name, but this poor kid, Chris, was from one of these. Real religious. You know what? 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m from a small town. We had a lot of us white churches where you can’t know about dancing. You like. And then the teacher had to say it’s coming up literally before, like, you know, she’s gonna be topless. For in bed for one second. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Not even having, like, writes the most benign version of a woman’s breasts. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And he had to put his head down on the desk so he didn’t see them. And I’m like, he’s a teenage boy. God—

 

Alison Leiby: Let him see some tits. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You’re gonna drive the man insane? Like, anyway, I just that was my experience of, like, that sucks, dude. Also think you didn’t get to see boobs anyways. I hope you’re doing fine.

 

Alison Leiby: Just pick your head up. Don’t tell your parents. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Also it’s like you didn’t see that was it’s not like he’s gonna forget they exist in the world. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right, right, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: If anything, you’re just gonna make you insane about it. Well, you can see that. You can see how religion works. In modern society. Back at it, the phone rings. Alison and Jess answers it. And also, she’s British, so she’s fighting her British accent in this movie. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s really fun. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And there’s certain. Oh, no. Is she British or she. Oh, she’s from, Argent. Oh, she’s British, but she’s born in Argentina. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That makes sense. She’s trying to do an American accent. She’s all over the place. And she goes, Pardon. For who? In a way that, like. Oh, you’re the accents just going to be crazy this whole movie. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. That reminds me of my grandmother’s best friend, Lily, lived in Eastern Europe and then moved to Israel and then Argentina and then New Jersey. And she would open her mouth, and I’m like, I don’t know what the fuck you’re saying like that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Wild. 

 

Alison Leiby: She got so many thick accents on top of each other from different places that she lived. And I was like, wait. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I love that. But she says, oh, it’s Barb, it’s for you, it’s your mom. And so Barb comes into the other room to answer it, and there’s a lot of, like landline phone work, basically people. 

 

Alison Leiby: Excellent. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Answering the same line from different rooms. In the movie, meanwhile, we see the killer get to the attic window, having climbed the entire trellis and pushes it open. Horror rule 5,000,863. Lock your goddamn attic window. You think you don’t have to. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. You do. You absolutely do.

 

Halle Kiefer: Of course, when the killer’s in the attic, it’s full of big old house things. Sorority is like in an old house, we see like a cobweb covered hobbyhorse, a rocking chair, parties. Bob is screaming at the party. Shut up. And she’s trying to, like, hear her mom, on the phone, and, she’s arguing with the operator, like, I can’t hear anything. And she tells her mom that she’s going to come home on the 720 trade, and the mom basically blows her off and says, like, I’m going to go up and take a look at, house up in Mount Holly if you want to go skiing, but I’m not going to do like, you know, don’t come home. Which, of course, Barb already alcohol. You sort of see where Barb’s coming from, if that’s your mom, right? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. Absolutely.

 

Halle Kiefer: And then Barb says to her mother, you’re a real gold plated whore, mother, did you know that? 

 

Alison Leiby: Jesus. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s like, oh, the 70s. 

 

Alison Leiby: Different time. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Meanwhile, the party ends and all the girls kick their boyfriends out for the evening. But with the idea that, like, everyone’s leaving to literally go home either that night or the next day. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And we see the killer’s POV creeping down the stairs, and we see, the attic door open. It’s like, one of those open, it opens up attic doors. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So whenever we, a killing is afoot. We see the attic door open, so the killer keeps retreating to the attic. Nobody thinks to look there, unfortunately. We see another girl, Clare, kiss her boyfriend Chris goodbye and say, I’ll see you in a week. But then he’s going to come to her house and she says, call you before I come, I just kind of have to get my parents ready to see you. And he says, great, I’ll see you then. So we’re they’re going to be out for like, I’m assuming two weeks at least. Barb storms in upset from the call from mother and says does anyone want to go with her skiing for a few days. And she’s obviously again the head bitch. So both Jess and Phyl say yes, we’ll go with you. But Clare says nope, I have other plans. Chris is going to go to my house and Barb is pissed about it. It’s like you just mentioned it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: What do you mean? How could you be mad about this? But she’s doing her own stuff. 

 

Alison Leiby: Girls. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Alison. The phone rings again and Jess answers and she says it’s the moaner again. They’ve been getting obscene phone calls and I’ll do it. I’ll do my impression because I fucked up. But I did not do Jigsaw in the Saw II episode. And I really apologize.

 

Alison Leiby: Well thank God we have a billion more Saw movies to do. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Hell, yeah, but I’ll do impressions of the moaner, which is. [gurgles]

 

Alison Leiby: Wow. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then he. It’s good. He says, let me lick it. 

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Let me stick my tongue in it. And all the girls are watching. And again, they’re not playing it for jokes. Like all these girls are gathered around like, just really sad and grossed out. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. Well, that’s the only real reaction to a phone call like that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He goes. 

 

[clip of Nick Mancuso]: [gurgles] Let me lick it. Lick it. Let me lick your pretty—

 

Alison Leiby: [laughs] Oh, wow. The 70s. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And Barb says oh, wow. So he’s expanded his act and she grabs the phone. And that’s where Barb comes, you know? That’s where you need—

 

Alison Leiby: That’s fun. 

 

Halle Kiefer: —her in those moments. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: She’s like, how about you call over to Lambda Chi? They could use a little of this, you know, just sort of like dragging him. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And the caller’s voice drops into a normal man’s voice and he goes, I’m going to kill you. And he. And he hangs up. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s so scary. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And Barb’s like, what a fucking asshole. But Clare says don’t provoke this guy. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We don’t know him. Like we don’t know what’s going on. And she says, you know, that townie girl got raped a few weeks ago. And Barb, who is of course, smoking and drinking the entire movie goes, Clare, you can’t rape a townie. And Clare’s like, oh, and everyone’s like, oh, Barb, I mean, you’re hilarious, but Barb you can’t say that. 

 

Alison Leiby: But jeez.

 

Halle Kiefer: And Clare’s like, oh, you’re really something. Which I do think is the best thing to say in the 70s. Oh, you’re really something, Barb. And Barb says this is sorority house Clare, not a convent, and they sort of have a fight, you know, in front of everybody. 

 

Alison Leiby: What a movie. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I know I it really is. I was like the flavor. You know what I mean like—

 

Alison Leiby: There’s a lot of fun being had, but not at the expense of it still being scary. Like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I think grounding it in these characters, like, we have moments that are kind of a little too funny, but like playing it for realism, which then makes the scary parts even more horrifying. Clare storms upstairs and Jess tries to go to her like, I’m sure Barb didn’t mean anything. You know how Barb is. And Clare says it’s fine. I’m just going to pack because I’m going in the morning. Or going tomorrow. Like I’m not upset or anything. Just then, Mrs. Mac or Mrs. MacHenry comes home and she is the house mother. And having not lived in a sorority, I did live in a dorm in a, in a Catholic university. So we had a sort of a housemother and then also a priest that lived on, on sites. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh good. Great. 

 

Halle Kiefer: For confession, a drop of the hat. You know, I am a wild times. And so Miss Mac comes in and all the girls say, we bought you a gift, and they all kind of bring her in, and she’s just like an older, very warm woman. She has a lot of, like, coordinated pillbox hats. 

 

Alison Leiby: Sure. 

 

Halle Kiefer: With, like, skirt suits. And her lipstick’s always fucked up. And she’s also constantly drinking sherry, so it’s like her character bit is she has different bottles of sherry hidden all throughout the sorority house. 

 

Alison Leiby: Love it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And she’ll go and just take a swig. A lot of yeah, a lot of drinking I guess that—

 

Alison Leiby: It’s the seventies.

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So they all, they’re all like rushing in like open your present with your present, unfortunately. And there’s a lot of commotion which means when Clare goes upstairs to pack. Nobody could hear her from inside her room. And she’s going and she’s taking still a lot of dry cleaning and puts it into her, suitcase. But we see there is someone standing behind her clothes in the closet. Alison. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, from her, from their POV or like—

 

Halle Kiefer: From our P.O.V. as as sort of the third party. She doesn’t see it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay, got it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But we see a little bit of, like, a face an eye peeking from behind the clothes. And from the closet we hear meow. And Clare goes. Claude? Alison apparently Claude—

 

Alison Leiby: Aw Claude. What a great name for a cat.

 

Claude. I assume we all know that famous book, The Tiger’s Revenge by Claude Balls. I just assume that this, cat’s name is Claude Balls. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: She said Claude, apparently. So he went missing, and everyone’s been looking at him. They know he’s in the house. They just couldn’t find him. So she goes over the closet and the killer leaps out. And again, this is all. Once, all the murders are from the killer’s P.O.V., the killer leaps out and wraps the dry cleaning bag around her face, suffocating her. And she’s, of course, trying to scream. But everyone downstairs is, like, going nuts and, like, yelling. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And they reveal the gift. It’s just a nightgown. And she’s like, okay, thank you girls. And they make her try it on over her clothes like she still has her pillbox head on—

 

Alison Leiby: Over a suit?

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh, basically. Yeah, like over a winter coat frankly [laughs] and Alison, we see the attic door swing close. This is when we see Mrs. Mac is in her office and takes a swig from a bottle of sherry that she has hidden in the cut out of interior of a of a book. But what makes no sense is Barb is literally just like, has, like a handle of whiskey. Like everyone’s drinking openly. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Why is she hiding this. 

 

Alison Leiby: Maybe because she’s supposed to be. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: The responsible adult in charge. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That makes sense. Because I was like, girl, you could probably just put it on a shelf or something. 

 

Alison Leiby: It seems like a lot of trouble to go through. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Alison. Jess calls her boyfriend Peter and says, we have to talk face to face tomorrow. It’s important. It’s also 1974, so we can safely assume she is pregnant and that we are going to have a conversation about that. 

 

Alison Leiby: Absolutely. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We, see Mrs. Mac fishing another bottle of sherry out of the toilet tank and then looks at herself with the nightgown, says, I wouldn’t wear this to have my liver out. Excellent. [laughter] Excellent dialogue. Jess goes to talk to Clare, just to check in and make sure Clare’s okay after that little tiff with Barb, but the door is closed and she doesn’t reply, so she kind of assumes Clare went to sleep. Unfortunately, we know where Clare is. She’s now in the attic. She is, still wrapped in the, dry cleaning bag, which has been sucked into her mouth. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: She’s, of course, struggled to breathe before she died. 

 

Alison Leiby: That was, like, scary like that. Really? 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And her corpse is person a rocking chair near the window. So which again? Excellent. All the visuals in this are perfect because you sort of get, like, the reflective, exterior lights from outside, like Christmas lights. The sort of white light bouncing off the snow and her staring face and her wide open mouth. We then hear a terrifying man’s voice, of course, the moaner from the, phone saying, Little baby bunting, daddy’s gone a hunting gone to fetch a rabbit skin to wrap his baby Agnes in. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The next day, around about 1 p.m., we meet up with Clare’s dad, Mr. Harrison, who has arrived on campus to pick her up, and unfortunately, she has not arrived. It’s been about 30 minutes. Somebody, a frat boy, throws a snowball and knocks Mr. Harrison’s glasses off, but at least has the decency to come over and help him. And the guy says, do you know my daughter Clare? She’s part of the sorority. And the frat boy says, well, you know, I don’t know her, but I know the sorority. I could take you over there. It’s right down here. We then see that everyone at the sorority is over at the, holiday event for the kids. And Patrick is there playing Santa, and Patrick is pissed because Phyl has agreed to go skiing with Barb and Patrick’s like she was supposed to come with me away for two weeks. Barb, what a bitch. And Barb says, well, isn’t Santa naughty everyone and all the kids are like, he is Santa said, bitch. So they’re having the time of their lives. Mr. Harrison gets to the sorority. Mrs. Mac tells him, like, I’m sure Clare’s around. She’s probably at the party. She probably lost track of time. But I’ll. I’ll take you over there. We can go find her, you know. Don’t worry. I’m sure Clare is around. Meanwhile, Mr. Harrison is very scandalized by, like, what it feels so truly mild. Like again, like a nude hippie’s butt on a poster of a peace sign. And Miss Miss Mac tries to, like, put her lean with her hand over it so she doesn’t see it. And he’s like [laughter] wait a minute. And then he sees a photo like the a bunch of photos of the girls there, and it’s a photo of Clare with Chris, her boyfriend, and he’s. And he says, who’s this? She says oh, that’s her boyfriend, Chris Hayden. He’s such a lovely person. And he says, I’m not sending my daughter here to drink and pick up boys. Well, that’s what college is, baby. That’s absolutely—

 

Alison Leiby: That’s the whole thing. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. What are you talking about. Yeah. She’ll learn what learn to read. What is she gonna know? You know. But Mrs. Mac says, don’t worry, I’ll. I’ll let me put my coat on and we’ll head over to the party. I’m sure she’s there. And we see her in the mirror in the bathroom, but she’s like, for God sakes, these broads would hump the the leaning tower of Pisa? If they could get up there, what am I supposed to do? I get out, I’m only one woman, which I again— 

 

Alison Leiby: Really fun. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Just funny bits. She also then hears the meowing and she’s trying to figure out because it’s sort of like this old echoey house. Did you hear Claude? And she hears him and she runs down the hallway, and she has like a fourth of her lipstick on, and she runs into the landing and dumps her purse out of the stairs. And I wrote, I am Mrs. Mac. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s she’s bringing my energy to this, the proceedings. But she doesn’t have time for Claude. We see Mrs. Mac and Mr. Harrison get in a taxi to go find Clare at the party. Unfortunately, Alison, again, we see another side of Clare’s plastic wrapped body near the window. Meanwhile, Jess meets with her boyfriend Peter, who has been. He has a huge audition. He’s in the conservatory. He’s basically like, auditioning to, like, pass on to see whether or not he’ll be a professional pianist. 

 

Alison Leiby: Sure. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So he has been up for three days practicing the piano. She’s like, yeah, I know you have your big audition tomorrow, but I got to let you know. I’m pregnant and I am not keeping it. I’m going to get an abortion. 

 

Alison Leiby: Go, girl. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Peter flips out and he’s like, you didn’t even ask me. Don’t you think about anything. Anybody but yourself. And he’s sort of berating her, and she’s like, this is why I’m going to do it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like, this is what I knew your reaction would be. And he says, get out of here. I have to practice my piano, but I want to talk to you. So I’m going to come by at 9 p.m. and she’s like, listen, clearly, maybe things aren’t going great in our relationship, but this seems like the right move. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But I will meet with you tonight and we can talk about it. Over at the party, Clare’s not there, Mr. Harrison decides he’s going to stay the night and, like, figure out where Clare is. Everyone’s still convinced. Like she is at some party. She went skiing with somebody else. Like we’ll find her boyfriend Chris. Maybe they’re together. Don’t worry. It’s just like the kerfuffle of the holiday season, you know? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We’ll also see Barb, give a kid a beer at the party. Back at the sorority house, Jess returns after that hard conversation with Peter, and the phone rings. And it is, of course, the moaner. And now he’s doing different voices. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, he has a whole repertoire of impressions. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And we hear it in a woman’s voice and a man’s voice, or at least his approximation of the two. He says, Billy, why did you do with Agnes? Billy what did you do with the baby? And just hangs up in horror? Alison, at this point, what would you do? 

 

[voice over]: What would you do? 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean, I think you have to, like, tell the cops that, like, people are calling your house and saying fucked up things. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, because it’s two things and both do require doing, telling the cops just so a connection can be made. Which is why there’s a caller at the house calling the house over and over again. And also Clare is missing. So it’s like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Those things are obviously related. How do we get those pieces parts together? 

 

Alison Leiby: You got to tell someone. And then also I’m going to be like, I’m going to leave now for a break. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Hightail it out of there. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I would at least call my parents or stay at a hotel staying at one of the fraternity’s, stay at a sorority—

 

Alison Leiby: I don’t like. Yeah, like go. There’s still other people on campus, so maybe, like, go crash somewhere else until, like, Clare is found at least. I mean, found. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I agree. 

 

Alison Leiby: Then you’re definitely not going back. 

 

[AD BREAK]

 

Halle Kiefer: So, fortunately, Barb, Phyl and Mr. Harrison take your advice, and they go to report Clare missing at the police station.

 

Alison Leiby: Okay great. For the first time in a movie, people are—

 

Halle Kiefer: Exactly. 

 

Alison Leiby: We should actually deal with this, as if it’s a crime, because it probably is. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And so, unfortunately, they are tasked with, talking to the dumbest police officer in any movie we’ve ever seen. His name is Sergeant Nash and I do appreciate the movie. Kind of like, makes a point of, like, you could go to the cops, but if you get this guy, he will fuck this up. And so he says, completely waives them off, like, 90% of the time, if a girl is missing, she just holed up with a boyfriend in a cabin for the break. Like we’re not going to chase down every girl that goes missing, okay? We don’t have enough time for that. And so they decide, okay, we’re going to go find Chris, her boyfriend, and find out if maybe they did go somewhere. You know, maybe she is blowing off her dad. However, before they go, Barb was fully drunk after drinking at this children’s party. 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Listen, we’ve all done it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Who hasn’t? 

 

Halle Kiefer: She goes and, talks to. She sort of gives her information to Sergeant Nash, and he says, what’s the sorority number? And this is back when, phone numbers had, like, exchanges. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So it’d be like a, word before the numbers. Yeah. And she says, oh, this story number is Fellatio 20880. It’s Fellatio. And Sergeant Nash doesn’t know what fellatio is. So just, like, spell it out. And he doesn’t get the joke. And I was like, all right, well, I’ll just head out. 

 

Alison Leiby: Let us know if you need anything else. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So Jess goes over to the hockey rink where Chris, who is Clare’s boyfriend, is playing hockey. He’s horrified. He talked to her last night. He assumed that she already left and was like, I was going to call her, but like, he he having said goodbye the night before, he. It didn’t seem odd that he hadn’t spoken to her yet. He has assumed she was driving back home with her dad. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right, right before cell phones. So. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And she says not only that, not only is Clare missing, but the cops aren’t taking it seriously. So again, we’ve already gone to the cops and we already assessed they’re not taking it seriously. So good. We’re early in the film. What can we do to figure this out? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We then see Peter’s big piano audition, and he fucks it up horribly. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, well. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And he’s obviously just shocked over the abortion news, but it’s like, oh, I guess you could have maybe waited till the next day—

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah at least after the audition. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Tell him immediately after the audition because he sucks shit. And you cut to all the judges who were like, oh, this guy’s not getting through to whatever the net, a masterpiece. I don’t even know what you do after that. Yeah. Orchestra. So, we also see the police station that a mother who’s unrelated to all this is telling that her 13 year old Janice is also missing this. There’s a lot going on in this town in this movie. 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean, God, no wonder they’re not pursuing a lot of stuff over at the police station, because there’s too many loose threads. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And if you think they’re going to pursue this, what they are not, and we see Sergeant Nash say, okay, so this is the first time she’s a couple hours late and she’s like, no, her father is a long haul trucker. She was really excited. We’re going to go after school to go buy him a present we had planned. This wasn’t like, oh, I don’t know where she is. She is missing. And it’s Sergeant Nash is like, I, there’s too many missing girls and women. I’m not. I can’t do my job or whatever. Fortunately, Chris, guess what’s going on? So Chris storms down to the police station, starts yelling at everybody until Lieutenant Fuller agrees to talk to Chris and Jess and sort of be like, okay, let’s figure out what’s going on. Back at a sorority house, sort of the last stragglers. So it’s, Mr. Harrison, Barb, Phyl, and Mrs. Mac, they eat dinner, and Barb tells this insane story to Mr. Harrison, about going to the zoo and seeing a species of turtle that could screw for three days straight. 

 

[clip of Margot Kidder]: There is a certain species of turtle. That can screw for three days without stopping. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And no one’s laughing. But not because it’s not a funny story. And she’s just incredibly drunk. And then Barb turns on a dime and starts screaming at them, and she’s like, I know that you blame me for Clare’s disappearance because they had had to fight in front of everybody. It’s like, I know you’re blaming me, right? I didn’t have anything to do with it, you know, and Phyl says, you’re drunk. Go lay down. And fortunately, Barb does. Meanwhile, Peter goes over to the recital hall where he practices, picks up like, sort of like a stanchion, like you’d have on a velvet rope. Like the metal stanchion. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Picks up opens the top of a grand piano and just starts smashing the inside of the piano up. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So Peter is, very mad. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Chris and Jess also make it back to the sorority house, and, Chris and Mr. Harrison finally meet, and they all start mobilizing like we have to search for her. She has a, like. It’s cold. She’s been gone. If she’s in the fucking woods or something. We don’t know where this woman would be. Like, she’s. These are the two places, unfortunately. Of course they don’t think to check the attic. Right? 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean. Hit the house top to bottom before you start going outside of it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Couldn’t agree more. And also another in addition to the excellent visuals. The music is by Carl, Zittrer. And after we see Peter smashing the inside of the piano. And then after that we hear like the discordant sound of piano, like low under a lot of these scenes. And it’s like both very beautiful, but adds this level of like tension to it very subtly. I was like, this movie’s great. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s great. 

 

Halle Kiefer: A classic for a reason. So fortunately, just Lieutenant Fuller has listened to them and has organized a proper search of, cops. And there’s also, like, whoever’s still on campus, people from the neighborhood. Where searching the woods for Clare. At this point, I’m assuming for her body because it’s freezing cold. And she’s been gone for a day.

 

Alison Leiby: If she was outside for a full day with, like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Nothing. Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And unfortunately, the mom of the 13 year old is also there not, unfortunately. But like, she, it’s like you have your own missing child. You’re going to help search for this other girl. That’s very nice of you. Everyone gets puts on their winter wear. Bless you. And starts combing the park. In the attic we see Claude, the cat licking the plastic on Clare’s corpse.

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, cats are assholes.

 

Halle Kiefer: They don’t know, they don’t know. 

 

Alison Leiby: They’ll. They’ll eat you as soon as you’re dead. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Mrs. Mac, tells the girls, you know, I’m actually headed over to my sisters. So when you get back from the search, I’m probably going to be gone. So wait. Then she disappears. We won’t know to search for her. Okay? And she’s all ready to go. Her. The taxi drivers literally outside honking to take her, and she hears some cacophony from up in the attic and she says, oh, Claude, want to make sure he’s okay before going away. 

 

Alison Leiby: Of course. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We see Mrs. Mac make her way up and stick her head through the attic door, and unfortunately she, of course, sees Clare’s dead body. Immediately.

 

Alison Leiby: Glad somebody pokes up there. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then turns, and just as she turns, we see a pair of man’s hands release what looks like just a giant metal hook, and Wikipedia calls it a crane hook. I don’t know why you would have one in an attic, but they have one. 

 

Alison Leiby: Sure. 

 

Halle Kiefer: A hook on a rope. He lets it fly and it stabs her through the face. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, brutal way to die. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And catches her, basically swings her up. So now she is hanging from the ceiling. 

 

Alison Leiby: By her face. 

 

Halle Kiefer: By her face. The hook through her face. 

 

Alison Leiby: I hate that. 

 

Needless to say, she dies. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, I don’t like that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We then see the killer going, absolutely nuts. Like nuts in the attic. Like he’s knocking stuff over. He’s screaming. He’s smashing stuff. Things are ramping up, right? In the park, it’s extremely cold. It’s dark. It’s. People are trying. And now. Now it’s 9 p.m. and Jess says I have to go talk to Peter again, you know, which I realize now means she told him about the abortion literally immediately before his audition, which—

 

Alison Leiby: Right, like seconds before.

 

Halle Kiefer: Tell him now, like you’re gonna meet him. Like, of course you’re gonna have to meet him later after his audition. Tell him after the meeting—

 

Alison Leiby: She was going to, if she was leaving. And that was the last chance to talk to him face to face. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. Then that makes sense.

 

Alison Leiby: I’m still like, girl, just go on break and do it. But that’s my opinion. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: I mean. Yeah.

 

Alison Leiby: Because of how he reacted— 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So. But Jess goes back to the sorority house. The phone rings again and again. She hears an approximation of a mother to father’s voice screaming. Billy, we know what you’ve done to Billy. Tell us where the baby is. Alison. In the park, they find a body. But it is not Clare. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh cool town. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It is Janice. It is Janice, the missing 13 year old girl. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, awful. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And we never find out what happens to her. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s just like a. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Red herring. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I think it’s just to you know, keep it moving. Back at the sorority house, Jess calls. Tries, tries to find Mrs. Mac, realizes. Oh, she’s probably already left. Makes a phone call and is startled. She whips around. Peter’s already in the sorority. Jess at least at this point now calls the police to report the obscene phone calls because she’s like, this is too much. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And so Peter is kind of waiting there to talk about her abortion, and she tells the cops, you know, this is what’s going on. Of course she gets Sergeant Nash, and Sergeant Nash is just going to fuck it up. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And, Mrs. Harrison and Phyl and Chris are back at the police station, having ended the search for the night, because it’s cold. They hear Sergeant Nash blowing her off in real time, and it’s like, you can’t this guy can’t be blowing off everybody. 

 

Alison Leiby: No, you know, you don’t have the kind of job where you can, like, kick it to Monday. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And Sergeant Nash says, you know, we just found a murder. A girl murdered in the park. It’s like, girl you found because somebody came and forced you to search for another missing girl, right? And he says the obscene caller is probably just one of your boyfriends. Like teasing you. Anyways, I’m bad at my job. 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Jess hangs up, and then she and Peter get into it, and she’s like, yeah, Clare’s missing. And there’s a search party. And Peter says, oh, how noble are you helping find her? 

 

Alison Leiby: The fuck. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like excuse. It’s like, if you wanted this woman to give birth to your child, you cannot berate her. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And be cruel to her. 

 

Alison Leiby: Now is not the time to be a dick. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So they sit down and he says, look, I’ve decided I’m leaving the conservatory. I spent all this time, I don’t I’m tired of being sixth in line for the bathroom and living like a monk. I want to quit the conservatory also. He probably failed anyway. 

 

Alison Leiby: Quit or can’t go. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And he tells her we’re going to get married. And she says, Peter, I don’t want to marry you. That’s the long and the short of it. That’s the issue I don’t want to marry you.

 

Alison Leiby: That’s kind of all there is to say here. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And Peter says, okay, well, what about the baby? Meanwhile, we see, Mr. Harrison back at the police station. He’s talking to Lieutenant Fuller, and it’s basically like, look, all of these things are connected, and they’re explaining it to Sergeant Nash. Like, do you understand, you fucking idiot, how all these things are connected, Nash? Like, oh, wow, that really makes a lot of sense. This is my first day on Earth, so I didn’t think about that. [laughter] And then Fuller looks at Nash’s notes and says, what the fuck is this phone number you wrote down? And Nash goes Oh, it’s something dirty, isn’t it? And all this other copy is just laughing at him. Any who again it could be an indictment, of the police. Back of the house. Peter goes absolutely nuts and he starts smashing ornaments on the tree and he tells Jess, you selfish bitch, you talk about getting rid of our baby. Like you talk about getting a wart removed and Jess says again, see, this is why I did not want to tell you about this. And he says to her, if you get out, you try getting an abortion. You’re going to be very sorry. And she kicks him out just as Fuller, Lieutenant Fuller and Phyl come in. And Peter heads out. The lieutenant Phyl and this other guy, whose name is lineman Graham come in. And Fuller says, we’re going to put a tap on the phone to track the calls. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I want to see Clare’s room. So the lineman comes in and he does the wiretap. He says, here’s how it works. When somebody calls is going to ring here and the police station so they can pick it up, and then I’ll be down the phone station, the phone department. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I’ll be able to literally he has to run to like the actual like area where the wires are. So he’s like, I could tap it. I just need a little bit of time to get to that area of the telephone factory or whatever. 

 

Alison Leiby: Like, why don’t you just put someone there whose job is to wait? 

 

Halle Kiefer: So they’re doing that too. So there is going to be a cop outside waiting. But yes, you’d think. Just have a cop sit there and answer the phone. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s what everyone’s doing at this police station. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But it’s more about finding out where the location, where it’s coming from. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, yes, yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know what I mean, so and, like, just so and that this is a very classic thing you always hear about wire tracing. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And back in the day, you got to keep them on the phone for a couple minutes. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Halle Kiefer: It takes some time. 

 

Alison Leiby: Time to, like, register with where it’s coming from. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So you explained it beautifully, Alison. You got it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Thank you. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So he’s doing that. They go look at Clare’s room, but of course, she’s in the attic. There’s nothing unusual. And they also note that Mrs. Mac has a separate line in her, like, little en suite, but that hasn’t been getting any calls. It’s just calls to the main line that the sorority girls pick up. Fuller says there’s somebody out there. So a cop out there, an unmarked car. He’ll be watching all night. If you have any problems, literally just open the door and go to him. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You’re all, you guys are going to be fine. And Phyl at least is like, yeah, I’m sure we’ll be fine. 

 

Yeah, nothing to worry about. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. He was like seems like we’re gonna be fine.

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Just as Fuller and the lineman leave, we see Peter watching the sorority house from across the road, obviously still furious. Phyl starts to break down. She’s like, I know that Clare is dead. Like this doesn’t. There’s no other option. I’m going to go to sleep. I’m so tired. But if anything comes up or anyone calls, please wake me up. I just need to lay down. So now Barb is already asleep. Drunk. Phyl’s going to go lay down and Jess is the only one still in the house. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That we know. Well, obviously. And then we there’s so much re explanation of the wiretapping. Like, we see the lineman at the phone company, we see Fuller at the police station. There’s so much explanation, but I appreciate it because. 

 

Alison Leiby: I need it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I wouldn’t have known it. Yeah. Alison. Upstairs we see the killer is sort of kneeling in front of Clare’s corpse in her rocking chair and sort of rocking her back and forth, a little doll nestled in her arms. As he sings a lullaby to her. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately. We then see the killer enter Barb’s room. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh no, not Barb, I like Barb. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I know Barb’s got that sass. Meanwhile, downstairs, Jess hears gasping and runs up to Barb’s room. And Barb is alive, but she’s having an asthma attack, and she’s able to grab Barb’s inhaler and gives it to her, she says. Barb says, oh my God, I had a dream. Someone came into my room. That’s probably why I woke up like this. And of course, we now see the killer is in fact, waiting to kill her. 

 

Alison Leiby: Where? 

 

Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately, the killer is in the hallway so the killer’s basically, like hiding, waiting to get back into Barb’s room, but he’s right outside, and he’s ready to go. Unfortunately for Barb, carolers, children, carolers come up outside the house, and Jess goes downstairs to open the door and say thanks for caroling.

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Leaving Barb to, sleep it off. And as soon as she goes down, these kids are fucking rocking this shit. These kids are doing a great job. We see the killer slink back into Barb’s room, and she has sort of a glass menagerie of figurines, which is also a real thing. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like people had a little glass animal.

 

Alison Leiby: Little glass animals.

 

Halle Kiefer: Let’s do it, let’s do that again. 

 

Alison Leiby: I would love to bring back having little glass figurines. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We’re doing it. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We’re all having a glass menagerie 2024 glass menagerie [both speaking]. Unfortunately, she has a glass unicorn with an extremely short, sharp, pointy horn. 

 

Alison Leiby: And I take it back. I don’t think we should have those. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well just don’t have that. You can have, like, a turtle or an—

 

Alison Leiby: All things rounded. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: We hear the killer whisper. Don’t tell them what we did. Agnes. And Barb wakes up with a start at the sound of that—

 

Alison Leiby: One of the top worst ways to wake up. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Top five worst things to hear whispered to you in the night. But it’s too late. And the killer stabs her to death. And we cut between the bloody unicorn as he brings it down. And sort of the carolers. Excellent work. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. Terrific.

 

Halle Kiefer: Beautiful visuals. Outside we see a mom run up and sort of usher the car, the kids back into the cars and says, Jess, you know, there’s. They just found a little girl murdered in the park tonight. And the woman says, also, you know, your phone’s ringing, and Jess runs back inside to answer it. Alison, at this point in the film, I got asked, who will survive? 

 

[voice over]: Who will survive? 

 

Alison Leiby: Who? We got Jess. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We got Jess. We got Phyl. 

 

Andrea Martin. 

 

We got Mrs. Mac. No. Sorry, Mrs. Mac is dead. Jess. Phyl, we got Chris, the boyfriend. We got Lieutenant Fuller. We got Sergeant Nash, the dumb ass. And we’ve got Peter, the boyfriend. 

 

Alison Leiby: I think Peter’s going to die because I would like him to die. I think that Jess will survive a little longer, but maybe die at the end. Phyl will survive. And the detective. The police officer will. Die. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then how do we feel about the killer. 

 

Alison Leiby: I think they’re going to die. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Okay, great. 

 

[AD BREAK]

 

Halle Kiefer: Alison. No surprise here. She lifts the receiver and it’s the moaner. Of course, we hear whimpering, and then we hear the third voice added a children’s, a child’s voice screaming, no, Billy. No. And the woman on the phone says just. It’s just like having a wart removed. Echoing the conversation that Jess just had with Peter. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And just goes, oh my God. Because now she’s saying like, how the fuck would they know this. 

 

Alison Leiby: Who’s hearing this? Yeah.

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. The call drops, unfortunately, too early and Fuller calls. And so because he picks up when the call happens, the call drops and he says, I’m sorry. The call was too short. We couldn’t trace it. She does not tell Lieutenant Fuller about the wart thing, because I guess she doesn’t want to tell him about the abortion conversation. But girl. 

 

Alison Leiby: But it’s like, girl, you got to say, like, even if you were just like, they repeated something that I. That was just said in this house, like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I said it like an hour ago. Or whatever.

 

Alison Leiby: You don’t have to get into the weeds about it, but just like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Let them know that that’s what’s happening. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So he said, while we’re here, who is that leaving your sorority? When I was coming in with the lineman. She says, oh, that was Peter, my boyfriend. He’s fine. He was just. He had an audition. You know, it’s kind of kind of plays it up, right? Jess then wakes up Phyl and at least tells Phyl about the wart line. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But then it’s like Phyl’s another, like, she’s not a she. She’s not an investigator. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. She’s not going to help solve this. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And then she says, well, you know, Fuller asked about Peter, like, could he have done this? And Phyl says, I don’t think that Peter could do this. Like, I don’t like Peter, but this seems very extreme to be doing all this. And how would it connect to Clare, like, why would you have done it? Like I don’t understand, like, why would it be Peter? You know, and they check in the cops still waiting outside like the, unmarked car is there. It’s of course, the the phone rings again. Both Jesse, we see Jess, Fuller and the phone company all pick up. Trying to trace. It’s not the killer. It is Peter. And he is sobbing now, and he’s begging her not to hurt the baby. And he is as hysterical as the phone calls have been. But it is about something real, right? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. Right. So it’s like, oh, okay, that’s a different thing. Maybe.

 

Halle Kiefer: She’s like, just tell me where you are. I will come find you. Do not panic, you know, because she’s like afraid, like what’s going to happen. 

 

Right. 

 

But he hangs up again. The lineman’s like I couldn’t trace it. And Fuller says, I’m sorry. I have to ask. Like who that was Peter. Right? That was your boyfriend? He seems really distraught because now the Fuller’s thinking. It’s the boyfriend. It’s always the boyfriend. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s always the boyfriend. 

 

Halle Kiefer: No. Yeah. Like, oh, it’s some distraught man. Like, that seems right. And she’s like, okay, well, I’ll be honest. I’m pregnant. I just told him I’m getting an abortion. I’m not. I’m not even talking about that part. He’s a very high strung artist. But he was at the call like he’s been at the house when we got previous calls. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So I don’t think he could have done these calls. Like, I don’t think it could have been him, but Fuller’s like, yeah, I don’t know. Like, we could have, like a pervert calling and your boyfriend’s crazy. Like, we could have two different things happen at the same time. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So, he says, you know, when Peter’s obsessed, he goes down to the recital hall to play. So if you want to go talk to him, just go to the recital hall. I’m sure he’s there. Meanwhile, they’re sort of cleaning up, and Phyl sees two guys looking through the kitchen window and screams. But it’s just two guys from the search party, and they’re saying, like, hey, just, you know, we’re going to be coming through this way. These are like the these old men who have, like, agreed to do it. And so there are people out there, but just not most people. And they’re like, we’re going to keep looking, but remember to lock your doors and close your windows. And you know, and they they shut it. And Jess is like, wow, that’s crazy. Do you know that this is the only door, the only window that’s locked? It’s like girls, what are we doing here? 

 

Alison Leiby: Guys like. I don’t care how far in the middle of the. Woods you like? Wherever? If you’re just like, oh, we have like a safe little college that, like, you’re gonna lock everything in your house. I know the 70s were different, but like, right now there’s somebody who’s, like, coming to kill all of you. S

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: Lock the windows and doors. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They are now going to split up and lock all the doors and windows. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. Well, I mean, it’s like a good effort, but, like, just stay together. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And you know what’s going to happen. Phyl goes into Barb’s room and says, Barb, are you awake? Alison? The door shuts behind her. 

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: R.I.P. Barb. Fuller calls the dean for Peter’s transcript. Just to be like, if there’s anything in his past and then goes down the recital hall and finds the smashed up piano that Peter smashed up. So now Fuller’s like, oh, so this guy’s, like, destroying property? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Back in the sorority house, the phone rings again, Jess answers, and the caller says, you fat pig, you bitch pig. And then a child screaming, Billy no, and a man laughing. And the lineman’s running to trace the call, which is really long. And we’re having to watch Jess listen to this, which is like a horrible, like, long, extended, like, play from a madman. It’s a woman screaming, where’s the baby? You left Billy alone with Agnes. Where’s the baby? And the lineman calls and says, finally calls from the police station and says something that we probably already should have known. 

 

[clip from Black Christmas]: The calls are coming from number six, Belmont Street. / For Christ sakes, Nash, you got it wrong. That’s where the calls are going into. / That’s where they’re coming from too sit. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Specifically from Mrs. Mac’s personal line. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. So, Fuller calls Jennings, the cop sitting outside this house, and to be like, get the fuck in there. The killer’s in the house. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Alison. We see that Jennings isn’t going to answer that call because his window is down and his throat has already been slit. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, no. Not great. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So Fuller calls, he’s trying to make his way back. He calls Nash the incompetent cop and says, call the sorority house right now and tell them to walk straight out the front door and just fucking get out of the house. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like if they could put distance between them and this guy, that’s the—

 

Alison Leiby: Best thing they could do right now. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And he says, Nash, if you blow it, don’t tell them what’s going on. Just say, tell them to leave. And if you blow this, I’ll kill you. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well, Alison, I think you know what’s going to happen. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The phone rings, Jess answers it. And Nash says, who is this? Which is insane. That’s insane. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s insane. 

 

Halle Kiefer: In the situation. Say who is this is an insane thing to say. 

 

Alison Leiby: Doesn’t matter. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He says, put the phone down and just walk out of the door. But of course, because she’s a good person, Jess says well I have to go tell Phyl and Barb. She doesn’t know that they’re both dead. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh no. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We know Barb is dead, Phyl, we know where this headed. She’s like—

 

Alison Leiby: Have to assume. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He says, no, don’t do it. The calls are coming from inside the house. Don’t go upstairs. But because she’s a good person, Jess can’t do it. So she grabs a fire, poker, and she leaves the phone off the hook. Well, you Nash say, no I fucked up. Don’t do it. I, no, they’re gonna be mad at me. Leave the house and she starts creeping up the stairs. Alison. She gets to Barb’s room, opens the door, and finds both Barb and Phyl stabbed to death on Barb’s bed. And when she looks at the crack of the door, we see an, a man’s eye, and he says to her, Agnes, don’t tell them what we did. And she slams the door in his face and runs downstairs. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And this guy goes nuts. So we hear him thundering after her, and she falls. And basically because her fall can’t get to the front door. So she has to get to the closest door Alison and that is, the door to the basement. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh God. No. Go to front door. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But luckily she’s able to get the door closed and locked and we hear this guy like screaming and throwing himself like an animal against the, the door, and he screams until he stops. Luckily, the cops are speeding like the cops had the lights on. All the cops are descending on the sorority house like they’re on their way. So at least we got that going for us. 

 

Alison Leiby: Something. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We see Jess making her way through the basement, which is almost as cluttered as the attic, and we see a man sort of crouching down to look through the window of the basement, but it’s kind of opaque glass, so we can’t tell which man it is. And we see this figure of this man creep around the house while she’s waiting in the dark with a fireplace poker, and then we finally see the man walk down the stairs to the cellar door. So there’s like a full door leading up to stairs out. And it’s Peter. But now Jess is so freaked out, she’s like, is this guy the murderer. 

 

Alison Leiby: Is this guy killing all of us? 

 

Halle Kiefer: Is he here to kill me? Understandably. A lot of ins and outs, a lot of what have you. 

 

Alison Leiby: Absolutely. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And he sort of wipes on the glass to be like. Are you in there, Jess? And then she punches the glass in. And that with that, Jess is like, oh, he’s here to kill me. He punches in the glass. This guy’s gonna kill me. So he. You know, she’s hiding and he’s able to find her and says, why are you hiding from me? And she looks at him. Just then, the cops arrive as Jess starts screaming from the basement. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They run to the front door and they break down the basement door, and they run to the cellar to find that Peter is dead. He’s bleeding from his eyes and mouth, and because Jess has beaten him to death with a fireplace poker. Assuming he was here to kill me. She. She passes out. 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean, that’s like all you can do. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And they go, and they take her and put her in bed. And they, of course, hire an old timey 70s doctor that injects her with a sedative, they say, and he says she’s going to be out for about four hours. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay, great. Can I have that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So Fuller and Nash and everyone’s there and they’re like, I knew it was him. But then other cops like, but why would he do all that? And what about Clare? You know, and they’re like. And they and Mr. Harrison’s there and Mr. Harrison collapses because like, oh great. So there is this going on. But also I still don’t know where my daughter is. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And they find Phyl and Barb’s body. And they find Mr. Harrison, I’m assuming my daughter’s dead, but they haven’t found her. And they’re like, well, we should tell, you know, Phyl and Barb’s parents. And then tell Phyl’s boyfriend Patrick. I’m like, oh, he just dressed up as Santa. Now he has to find out his girlfriend got brutally murdered. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Poor Pat. Well, well, happy Merry Christmas to him, you know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, God. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And the media is also outside. It’s a frenzy. The cops are trying to get the media away from the house, and Mr. Harrison, obviously overwhelmed, collapses. So the cops rush to take him to the hospital, and they tell him as it go. Don’t worry, Mr. Harrison. I’m sure Clare will be back. I’m sure of it. I guess you got to say something, but no, she’s not. And in the hullabaloo, the cop that was supposed to stay in Jess’s room leaves with them, leaving her alone, and they shut out the light to let her sleep. And they all leave the house. Alison. And we see the attic door open once again. Yeah. And then we hear in the darkness a killer whisper. Hey, Agnes. It’s me. Billy. And we end on Clare’s plastic wrapped face, glimmering in the Christmas lights visible through the attic window from the street. So, like, well, I guess we’ll they’ll find her eventually when someone’s walking by. Like there’s a corpse up there. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then the phone starts ringing again. The and. 

 

Alison Leiby: So who’s the killer? 

 

Halle Kiefer: We don’t know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Just like a guy. 

 

Halle Kiefer: A mad man. 

 

Alison Leiby: Wow. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And I really like that choice. 

 

Alison Leiby: I like that. I, I, I really I like that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Because I think of the, 2006 Black Christmas. They give a little more backstory that you don’t need. Like, this to me was like, okay, this guy’s crazy. He killed, molested and or killed his younger sister, from the sounds of it. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s like, can’t we just have, like, a mysterious killer? 

 

Halle Kiefer: We get it. 

 

Alison Leiby:  Keep it moving. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I think that. Yeah. And the remake of this remake, at least they kind of overexplain. It’s like we don’t need it. 

 

Alison Leiby: We don’t need it. I it’s just like it’s scarier without all of that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, exactly. And this is, I thought. Excellent. What are some fatal mistakes you think may have been made? Because there’s a lot going on in the—

 

Alison Leiby: There’s a lot happening? 

 

Halle Kiefer: What are some fatal mistakes made in Black Christmas? Alison? 

 

[voice over]: Fatal mistakes. 

 

Alison Leiby: Not having all the doors and windows locked in your home all the time. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Huge problem. 

 

Alison Leiby: Gals, if, like, if he could have never gotten in to begin with. Then maybe none of this would have happened. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s a really great point. I feel like if you do a mistake to keep that Sergeant Nash hired. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah. Bring in somebody else. And then also. A fatal mistake for Peter, and eventually Jess is her telling him before his audition because it did, cause it gave him a lot of time to be upset, and for then them to think that he was the killer. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: And for her to think that he was after her when if she had just waited, perhaps. He could have been they. You know, maybe they could have been less suspicious. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Other than that, though, I mean, look, there’s. 

 

Alison Leiby: You know, they called the cops at the right time. They were doing their best. And now it’s like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes, yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s a sorority. Like. What else can you do? 

 

Halle Kiefer: And that’s and everyone did do what they could do. Unfortunately they it’s just hard if you if you don’t know that you have an insane madman in your in your base, in your attic. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s hard to know. How do you figure that out? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. You know. Right, right. You’re going to keep drinking. You’re going to be silly. You’re going to like. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s the holidays. 

 

Alison Leiby: Go back to the weird phone call. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Absolutely. And then finally, where would you place Black Christmas 1974 on the spooky scale, Alison?

 

[voice over]: A spooky scale. 

 

Alison Leiby: I was going to say like a five, but I think the ending brings it to a six for me. That’s a very scary ending. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I agree. Like. 

 

Alison Leiby: That really ups the spooky factor. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I agree, because I do feel like for me, I and I’ve said this before, I always find like a procedural element to make it less spooky. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like, once you have the cops in? It’s less scary, though. I think they did an excellent job of setting up, like, you can call the cops. All you want is it’s not necessarily gonna help. I’m going to give this—

 

Alison Leiby: There’s a madman hiding in your attic. He’s still going to kill you. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I’m gonna give this a five. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, that feels right. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Give it a five. All right. Well, thank you for joining us. 

 

Alison Leiby: Cold month has kicked off. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Stay warm or stay cool depending and depending on what day it is really? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, it changes all the time. And wherever you are in the country doesn’t even necessarily like Texas. Nashville getting slammed with cold and snow. I mean, good luck everybody. And. Please, please keep it spooky. Bye. Don’t forget to follow us at Ruined podcasts and Crooked Media on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok for show updates. And if you’re just as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review. Ruined is a Radio Point and Crooked Media production, we’re your writers and hosts Halle Kiefer and Alison Leiby. This show is executive produced by Alex Bach, Sabrina Fonfeder and Houston Snyder, and recorded and edited by Kat Iossa. From Crooked Media our executive producer is Kendra James with production and promotional support from Ari Schwartz, Kyle Seglin, Julia Beach, Caroline Dunphy, and Ewa Okulate.