At the close of the 1960s, a young American writer and producer who was working in England, named Milton Subotsky teamed up with fellow American Max J Rosenberg to form Vulcan Productions and make a horror movie. The script has been a pilot for a a proposed television series starring Boris Karloff, but the show never got made. However the script found it’s way to Subotsky who expanded into a feature length production. The resulting film starred Christopher Lee and was the classic black and white chiller City of the Dead (1960), known over the pond as Horror Hotel.
Subotsky and Rosenberg then formed a more permanent business partnership, Amicus Productions and started out making teen musical movies such It's Trad Dad and Just for Fun. Now Rosenberg was very much all about the business, he thrived on raising finance and doing deals, but Subotsky was a dyed-in the-wool fan of fantastic fiction, with a huge collection of books, magazines and comics.
One of his favourite films was Ealing’s Dead of Night and as far back as 1948 he had been working on a script for a television series inspired by it. Now when Amicus found its feet in the early 1960s, Subotsky resurrected the stories he has written and crafted them into an anthology horror of his own, and the resulting movie Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965), starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and a young Donald Sutherland, was a smash hit.
Amicus followed this up with more anthology horror movies , as well other single story films in a variety of genres. However Subotsky has another burning ambition. Back in the 1950s, he had been hugely impressed by the horrors conjured up by the short-lived but legendary EC Comics, relishing the ghoulish fun found in the pages of Tales From the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear. Hence he pestered Rosenberg to set up a deal with EC owner Bill Gaines.
Now there had been offers for the film rights for the EC horror comics before, but Gaines had turned them down as he didn't care about the money, he just wanted a good film made that would do the comics justice. Now of course Amicus by this stage had a proven track record in delivering quality horror. And so Subotsky got the rights and set about selecting tales for a movie version of Tales From The Crypt.
The production was helmed by veteran cinematographer and director Freddie Francis, and has an all star cast featuring Peter Cushing, Ian Henry, Joan Collins and Sir Ralph Richardson as the Cryptkeeper! Also featured was another star from Whoever Slew Auntie Roo, young Chloe Franks. Bringing five classic EC stories to the big screen, the film was a huge hit, incredibly even giving The Godfather a run for its money at the box office. However it also contains a hugely important milestone for Christmas horror in the shape of the very first story.
This segment brings to the screen the tale All Through the House written and drawn by Johnny Craig from The Vault of Horror #35 published back in February 1954. We open in a pleasant well to do home, decorated for Yuletide. It's a snowy evening, carols playing on the radio, and Father is just settling down to read his paper. Mother, played by Joan Collins, has other ideas, and promptly murders him…
However this is not the time of year to be naughty, and indeed Santa is watching. However this Santa is a dangerous lunatic who has escaped from a local asylum, and has found a Father Christmas costume…
Co-starring Chloe Franks as the couple's innocent daughter, All Through the House is a brilliant shocker, effectively told in about a dozen minutes. Dialogue is kept to a minimum, with Francis conducting a masterclass in show-not-tell film-making. And this dialogue-light approach is enhanced by the choice to have the only music in the segment as traditional Christmas carols playing on the radio. Using bold colours and dynamic cinematography, Freddie Francis really captures the feel of a comic book come to life, and the cosy home and Christmas ambience contrasts brilliantly with the dark events unfolding on this particular snowy Christmas night.
Indeed this opening segment is very much the blueprint for countless Christmas horrors to come. It's the first appearance of a proper cinematic killer Santa, something that would become a staple in this festive subgenre. But also there a generous helping of jet black humour served up alongside the festive frights, something else that would be a key component in many Yuletide horror movies.
This little story in this movie has been hugely influential too. And the influence All Through the House is clearly visible in many Christmas horrors down the years, from the original Black Christmas that came a couple of years later, right up to this year’s Yuletide mega-slasher Terrifier 3. And what’s more it’s still a hugely effective slice of Christmas horror. Rarely has a dozen minutes of film been so influential.
