Jess Bradford

Full name

Jessica Bradford

Alias

Jess Ms. Bradford

Birth

17 april 1951

Age

22-23

Appearance

Black hair; brown eyes; yellow shirt; black vest.

History

Jess is initially introduced as the most level-headed of Pi Kappa Sig, an older student dealing with numerous problems, such as an unwanted pregnancy and obscene phone calls. Some time before the events of the film, it is implied that the killer had already been harassing the girls for a while, making obscene phone calls and even possibly committing an unsolved rape. Eventually, after killing a young girl in a nearby park, the same assailant arrives at the sorority house, where he climbs up a trellis and into the attic, watching the sorority sisters and their significant others partaking in a Christmas party. Before murdering Clare Harrison, the killer made another obscene call using the housemother, Mrs. Mac's, separate phone line. Jess was usually the one who answered the killer's calls, listening as he used different voices and personalities to taunt her, such as a disturbing encounter between a crying little girl named Agnes, and a boy named Billy. Jess's friend and fellow sorority sister, Barb, seemingly pushed the caller over the edge, cursing him, which led to him threatening to murder her. Eventually, the caller made good on his word and proceeded to violently murder Mrs. MacHenry, Barb, and another sorority sister named Phyllis. He also killed an on-duty police officer named Jennings, by slitting his throat. Unaware of the caller's presence in the house, or the murders of her sorority sisters and housemother, Jess had informed the police about the phone calls, hoping to stop the man responsible. On Christmas eve, Jess is the recipient of one final phone call, following Phyllis's murder. The police instruct Jess to leave the house immediately, but she decides to go against their instructions to save Barb and Phyl, unaware of their murders.

History

Arming herself with a fireplace poker, Jess crept upstairs and subsequently discovered Barb and Phyl's maimed bodies, before encountering the unseen killer, who referred to her as Agnes, the girl referenced in his phone calls. Jess slams the door up against the killer, momentarily incapacitating him, before running downstairs and to the front door, which she discovers is jammed. Soon, the killer appeared, screaming in a violent rage, and chased Jess around the house, before she locked herself in the basement. The killer beats on the door, before seemingly leaving the house; as Jess descended into the dark basement, her boyfriend, Peter, who seemed to be suffering some sort of emotional breakdown earlier in the film, due to Jess revealing her plans to abort their unborn child, appeared and smashed a window, having heard Jess's screams. Believing Peter is the killer, Jess bludgeons him to death with the poker, before passing out from shock. Eventually, Jess is discovered, along with Peter's body, in the basement of the house by the local police and Clare's father, who had also come to the conclusion that Peter was the killer, having suffered a psychotic break. Jess is sedated and put to bed, with a police officer outside the house. However, the police and Jess are unaware of Clare and Mrs. Mac's corpses in the attic, where the real killer is still hiding. The caller climbs down from the attic, lurking around the upper level of the house, while Jess lays unconscious in her bedroom. The film ends as the phone is heard ringing, before the camera pans to the exterior of the house, leaving Jess's ultimate fate unknown.