| “ | I'm going to kill you. | „ |
| ― Billy over the phone |
Billy (also known as William Edward "Billy" Lenz in the remake) is the main antagonist of the 1974 slasher film Black Christmas, as well as its remake (in which he earned his second name).
In the original film, he is a mysterious, and sexually perverted madman who regularly calls a local sorority house, until insulted by one of the sorority sisters, which sends him on a murderous rampage. In the original film, he is portrayed and voiced by several uncredited actors, including director Bob Clark and Nick Mancuso.
In the remake, he was a deranged serial-killer who managed to escape a mental asylum while his sister/daughter Agnes (when Billy's mother raped him) started killing and slaughtering the girls in a sorority house which was his old childhood home, In the remake, he is portrayed by Cainan Wiebe, and Robert Mann.
Black Christmas (1974)[]
Billy, as he is seen in Black Christmas (1974)
Little is known about the killer, or even if his name is really Billy, what is known is that he is a mentally disturbed and sexually perverted man who regularly makes obscene phone calls to a local sorority house. Due to the regularity of the phone calls, the inhabitants have given him the nickname "The Moaner".
During one such phone call, Billy is insulted by Barbara "Barb" Coard, one of the sorority sisters, and an enraged Billy threatens to kill them. Billy then goes on a killing spree, murdering most of the house's inhabitants. He subsequently attempts to murder sole survivor Jess Bradford, but she manages to elude him. Billy seemingly flees the scene, hiding in the attic as Jess' boyfriend Peter Smythe arrives at the scene. Mistaking Peter for the killer, Jess bludgeons him to death with a fireplace poker. Later, the police clean up the scene and put the traumatized Jess to bed, stationing a police officer outside as a precaution before leaving. Billy begins conversing to the corpses of Clare and Mrs. MacHenry, whom the police have yet to find in the attic. After this, Billy emerges from the attic as Jess sleeps in a nearby room. A phone suddenly begins to ring, presumably from Billy, implying that he has murdered Jess.
Victims[]
- Clare Harrison - Suffocated with a plastic dress bag.
- Mrs. MacHenry- Stabbed in the neck by a crane hook and hanged.
- Janice Quaife (off-screen/Implied)- Raped and mutilated.
- Barabra Coard- Stabbed to death with a glass figurine.
- Officer Jennings- Throat slit.
- Phyllis Carlson- Killed off-screen.
- Jess Bradford (Implied)
Black Christmas (2006)[]
Billy (William Edward Lenz) as he appears in the 2006 remake
| “ | You see, serial killers murder repeatedly for sexual thrill. Billy Lenz was a spree killer - dude just f**** lost it. | „ |
| ― Melissa Kitt about Billy Lenz |
William "Billy" Edward Lenz suffered from a rare liver disease that gives him jaundice. His mother and father hated each other, but his father Frank Lenz cared about his son while his mother Constance Lenz hates Billy so much for reminding her of her husband. One Christmas, Mrs. Lenz, and her boyfriend murder Billy's father, burying the body underneath the house. Witnessing the murder, Billy is locked in the attic by his mother in order to keep him from telling anyone.
When Billy is twelve, his mother, unable to conceive a child with her new husband, rapes Billy. His mother later gives birth to Billy's sister/daughter, naming her Agnes. Agnes is treated like a princess and given the life that Billy never had. On Christmas Day in 1991, Billy finally snaps, escaping from the attic, he viciously attacks Agnes, gouging out one of her eyes.
Hearing her screams, Billy's mother and his stepfather rush to the kitchen to find a disfigured Agnes. Billy subsequently ambushes them, brutally murdering them both, and is caught by the police as he is eating "Christmas cookies" which he made from his mother's corpse. Declared criminally insane, Billy is sent to a mental asylum. During the intervening years, Billy's house is later bought and converted into a college sorority house. Every year, the house's inhabitants send Billy Christmas presents as a part of a tradition.
In 2006, fifteen years later, Billy escapes from the asylum, killing a security guard before heading to his former home. Calling the house, Billy begins ranting about Agnes, Christmas, and Santa Clause. During the phone calls, Lauren Hanon insults him, enraging Billy who then threatens to kill them before hanging up.
Billy then goes on a murderous rampage with his sister/daughter Agnes, who had begun murdering the house's inhabitants sometime earlier. After murdering most of the inhabitants, Billy and Anges converge on the survivors but are presumed dead after they become trapped in the house as it burns to the ground.
However, both Agnes and Billy manage to escape, with Billy severely burned as a result. The two enter the hospital with the intention of killing the two survivors, who are recovering there.
Agnes is killed by Kelli, after a brief chase with Kelli, Billy and Kelli end up in the stairway of the hospital, Billy attempts to attack her, but Kelli hits him by crutch and tells him "Merry Christmas mother-fucker", she then ends up throwing Billy off the stairway in which Billy falls and gets impaled on a Christmas tree, finally killing him and ending his killing spree once and for all.
Victims[]
- Unnamed Asylum Security Guard- Stabbed in the neck with a sharpened candy cane.
- Unnamed Department Store Santa- Killed offscreen.
- Beauregard Rice- Impaled through the eye with a Christmas ornament.
- Constance Lenz- Strangled with Christmas lights and bludgeoned to death with a rolling pin.
- Heather Lee-Fitzgerald- Murdered.
- Barbara MacHenry- Impaled through the head by an icicle after being he scared her and caused her to fall against a wall.
- Unnamed Morgue Attendant- Killed offscreen.