This infamous holiday-themed slasher film caused major controversy upon its US release in 1984 and was withdrawn from cinemas a short time after. Because of the film’s subject matter (a degenerate spree-killer dressed as Santa Claus) and the fact that it was released at Christmas, there was condemnation from a number of different sources, including the American Parent Teacher Association who lobbied to have it removed from cinemas.

The film critics Siskel and Ebert infamously blasted the film and read out the names of the people and studios involved in its making followed by saying ‘shame on you’. Apparently there were also protests at cinemas around the US. Eventually the distributor of the film relented and started by pulling all print ads for the film, before withdrawing the film entirely.

Two years later it was re-released by a small distributor called Aquarius Films. The poster for that release was poor in comparison to this original design.

Here in the UK the film was never submitted to the BBFC and so wasn’t released at the cinema back in the 1980s. Independent distributors Arrow Films released it uncut on DVD in 2009.

This original release US poster surely ranks up there with one of the best slasher posters of all time. The tagline is something of a classic and neatly references the earlier holiday-themed slasher Halloween.

Here’s the superb original trailer on YouTube.

This American one sheet for Starcrash, Luigi Cozzi’s 1978 Star Wars ‘homage’, has excellent artwork by John Solie, featuring Caroline Munro as the superbly monikered Stella Star. Critically panned on release, it has since gained cult status thanks to the camp script and infamous special effects. It was recently re-released on blu-ray under the ‘Roger Corman Cult Classics’ series. The film also features a score by the late John Barry – I like this bit of trivia on IMDb.

Witness David Hasselhoff battling space droids with a ‘lightsword’ on YouTube.

Check out the original trailer on YouTube (edited by the great Joe Dante) and bear witness to the quality of the effects.

Director Eli Roth has recorded a commentary to the trailer on the Trailer From Hell site.

This is a ‘review’ one sheet and was originally meant to have local reviews printed into the blank space on the right side, as seen here.