True Christmas Evil: Silent Night, Bloody Night (1974)

When most horror historians talk about the slasher genre, one film comes to mind as being a catalyst,... Halloween. Many mainstream critics believe that it's the film that started the genre, however, there were others. Halloween isn’t even the first film about the night HE came home.  There's no denying that Halloween is a masterpiece. Nobody in their right mind would ever consider it otherwise, but it was not the first. That honor belongs to a little film called Silent Night, Bloody Night.

Christmas slays: Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

Christmas, that special time of year when people give and get, go out of their way for their fellow man, and yes, the suicide rate spikes through the roof! This holiday has always had its dark side, simply because one person’s happiness is often another’s misery. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. Not that I’m a scrooge or anything, but ones happiness and success often magnifies another’s failures and sadness. I think we do society a great injustice by not recognizing that simple and important fact.

That is why there is always at least one horror film during the holiday season. People need to get out that aggression and work though their hidden desires to hurt and maim. Horror films do this, but it wasn’t always that way. Horror films during the holiday season or more to the point, about the holiday season, weren’t always acceptable. Not until one film changed the playing field forever…Silent Night Deadly Night.

Barbara Steele's Black Sunday AKA Mask of Satan (1960)

Every year I start off the season with some key films to set the mood. Its just the thing to do. I love witches, vampires, and spooky settings and one film makes the most of these things, that film is Mario Bava's Black Sunday.