It’s almost the most wonderful time of year. Even though Halloween is over, the holiday season provides a unique opportunity to explore one of the most bizarre sub-genres of horror: Christmas horror movies. Two of the most iconic films to come out of this sub-genre are Bob Clark’s Black Christmas and Charles Sellier’s Silent Night, Deadly Night. Now, to celebrate these classic festive slashers, the jolly folks at Gutter Garbs are releasing a new Holidays of Horror Double Feature collection featuring the two films.
The chilling collection’s main design features two iconic images from both films. Billy from Silent Night, Deadly Night in his toy store Santa Claus outfit holding a candy cane red ax with a menacing look on his face while the other part of the image depicts the aftermath of Black Christmas’ first plastic bag-centric kill. That particular film’s killer, only known as “Billy”(unrelated to Silent Night, Deadly Night), hides their first victim in the attic of the sorority house they’re praying upon. We see that haunting image mocking us throughout the film. Around those two creepy images on the collection’s design are other notable key pieces from the holiday horror tales like the phone and Billy’s eye from Black Christmas along with the snow-covered chimney from Silent Night, Deadly Night’s classic poster. This design will come in both a t-shirt and sweatshirt form, but Gutter Garbs is providing a 12×18” poster of the image as well.
Both Black Christmas and Silent Night, Deadly Night are not only some of the best slashers ever made, but they’re also oddly some of the best Christmas movies. The films were also very ahead of their time in both their genre and sensitive subject matter. Black Christmas paved the way for slashers like Halloween and Friday the 13th, but in the center of its brilliant atmospheric horror that’s cold to the touch is a tragic tale about an abusive relationship. A relationship that leads to the “final girl” Jess becoming pregnant and wanting an abortion. This subject is still a sore spot in today’s world, with most genre works not daring to touch it, but when this film was released in 1974 that kind of conversation was unheard of. Besides the fact that Jess is one of horror’s most underrated final girls, her abortion plot-line adds so much complex dread and terror to this already horrifying Christmas vacation on campus.
Then there’s Silent Night, Deadly Night which is an engagingly somber and sick exploration of childhood trauma. The main character Billy watches his entire family get brutally murdered by a mall Santa in one of the most horrific opening moments in horror history which leads him to be scarred for life. He gets sick just at the thought of the jolly Christmas icon and, when he’s forced to dress up as Santa at his toy store job, he just snaps. It’s one of the darkest holiday horror stories ever told and the blood-soaked carnage, on top of its morbid themes, makes this film a must-watch every Christmas season for any horror fan.
You can pre-order this Holiday of Horrors Double Feature collection on Gutter Garbs’ website now. Pre-orders end on Sunday, November 6, and are expected to ship the week of December 4. While you wait you can stream Black Christmas on Shudder and rent Silent Night, Deadly Night on all major VOD platforms. You can watch the trailer for both slashers down below.
