and Barb and grabs a fireplace poker and goes upstairs. She discovers the corpses of her friends and then sees the eyes of the caller who reveals himself as Billy looking at her through the door crack, telling her not to "tell what we did, Agnes..." before she slams the door on him. He then chases her downstairs and grabs her hair as she tries to unlock the front door. Jess manages to escape, fleeing to the basement with a fire poker for protection. She locks the door just as Billy starts to bang on the door in rage. As Jess wanders the basement, she sees Peter looking into the window, and Jess kills him, believing him to be the killer. The police then hear her screams. They sedate Jess and unknowingly leave her in the house with the real killer, Billy, who is in the attic. Her fate is left ambiguous. 1976 novelization The character returns in the 1976 Lee Hays novelization although she is known as Jessica Bradley in this adaptation. The story retains the same plot as the film. Development Casting Hussey, who had previously garnered international fame for her role as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), signed on to appear in the film after being told by a psychic that she would "make a film in Canada that would earn a great deal of money". Approached by Clark to portray the lead role of Jess, Hussey agreed and left Los Angeles for eight weeks to film in Toronto, Canada in the winter of 1973. She described shooting the film as a positive experience despite the dark subject matter and stated that she worked well with Clark and two of the other leads, Keir Dullea and John Saxon. While admiring and respecting Margot Kidder as an actress, Hussey revealed she was intimidated by Kidder’s straightforward and serious demeanor she had on set, causing Hussey to keep herself distant from Kidder due to their differing personalities and performing styles. Design As the Black Christmas films take place in a winter setting, the characters wear the apt attire. Jess begins the film in a black Christmas jumper that features two large, white hands stitched across the chest worn on top of a yellow collared undershirt and matching pants. Later on in the film, she wears a black vest and black bell-bottom jeans over a mustard collared