This 1974 Canadian horror, originally produced and released as Black Christmas (opens in a new tab), is often credited as being the first in the slasher sub-genre (opens in a new tab) that went on to spawn countless others in the years that followed, including John Carpenter’s Halloween (opens in a new tab) and Friday the 13th (opens in a new tab). It was one of the earliest films to feature the concept of a mysterious psychopath hunting down and murdering teens one by one, and it also was one of the first horrors to feature scenes shot from the killers point of view. Director Bob Clark (opens in a new tab) was an American who worked in Canada for over a decade, producing some of the country’s most successful films, of which this was the highpoint. He had previously helmed the low-budget zombie horror Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (opens in a new tab) (1973) and would later see great success with the teen comedy Porky’s (opens in a new tab) (1982) and the classic A Christmas Story (opens in a new tab) one year later. Clark was tragically killed along with his son in a head-on car crash in 2007.

Although the film had seen great success in Canada with its production title of Black Christmas (for its release in 1974) the American distributor Warner Bros apparently changed the title to Silent Night Evil Night (and later Stranger in the House) because it feared audiences would think the film was an entry in the then burgeoning blaxploitation genre. After flopping in its first release in the USA (in 1975), the title was later changed back to Black Christmas and the posters that had already been printed with ‘Silent Night…’ had a snipe with the original title glued over the top, as can be seen on this one sheet.

The artwork is by the American artist Robert Tanenbaum (opens in a new tab). See other posters I’ve collected by him.