Holiday horror
Year Film Country
1970 La Noche de Walpurgis Spain
1971 Whoever Slew Auntie Roo ? United Kingdom
1972 Tales from the Crypt United Kingdom
1972 Home for the Holidays United States
1972 Silent Night , Bloody Night United States
1973 The Wicker Man United Kingdom
1973 El Retorno de Walpurgis Spain
1974 Black Christmas Canada
1975 Night Train Murders Italy
1978 Halloween United States
List of films -- 1970s
Holiday-themed horror films or holiday horror are a subgenre of horror films set during holidays. Holiday horror films can be presented in short or long formats, and typically utilize common themes, images, and motifs from the holidays during which they are set, often as methods by which the villain may murder their victims. Film scholars Chris Vander Kaay and Kathleen Fernandez-Vander Kaay explain the subgenre as such: The expression 'adding insult to injury' is an excellent encapsulation of the motivation behind the horror movie obsession with holidays (aside from the obvious desire to brand a killer with a theme and costume that can be revisited many times within a lucrative film franchise). The holiday is a place for happiness and family. The horror movie loves nothing more than irony (except perhaps a good death scene), and there is very little more ironic than the fear and isolation of a horror movie taking place right in the middle of the festivities.