“Adventure Without Shame” is the tagline for the (rightfully) forgotten b-movie The Perils Of Gwendoline In The Land Of The Yik-Yak. But it is also the mantra for Moviocrity, an excellent movie review and analysis YouTube channel that looks at various b-movies that span decades and genres. Following the Oingo Boingo Forbidden Zone theme song intro, Scott W. Davis offers synopses of films, highlighting the aspects that make them fun and worth resurrecting, while also providing analyses of the films’ broader impacts on later films or the culture at large.
Davis’ latest video focuses on perennial ’80s holiday horror film Silent Night, Deadly Night. Director Charles E. Sellier Jr.’s Santa-themed, psychosexual slasher quickly became a lightning rod of controversy as people believed filmmakers had gone too far and even protested the film’s opening due to suggesting that a figure of childhood delight was a murderous psychopath. But Davis rightfully observes the absurdity of these arguments while showing the film is an excellent example of exploitative sleaze that has a lot of surprisingly novel elements that still work with audiences today.
The video, like the film, is NSFW as it features much of the Silent Night, Deadly Night’s violence and nudity, but is worth watching to learn more about this great addition in the surprisingly large subgenre of Christmas horror films. It’s also worth watching for the aforementioned violence and nudity.