Ice Nine Kills combines Christmas with metal and horror films

Back in October, Ice Nine Kills included a Christmas(ish) song on their album, The Silver Scream, called “Merry Axe-Mas.” If that title sounds sinister, the song was inspired by a 1984 horror film called Silent Night, Deadly Night.

Here’s the story from frontman Spencer Chamas (via Metal Insider):

“SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is one of my all time favorite slasher flicks. In our song and video for, ‘MERRY AXE-MAS,’ I wanted to pay tribute to the film’s brilliant combination of sleaze, holiday cheer, absurdity, and vicious gore. Released in 1984 at the height of the ’80s slasher craze, the film’s axe wielding Santa marketing campaign threw uptight parents and the PC police into an unholy rage.”

Angered families staged protests in front of theaters and PTA groups across the country petitioned for the film’s banishment. Tri Star pictures subsequently caved and SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT was pulled from theaters after only one week. However, all the negative publicity only fueled the forbidden fruit factor and the infamous film quickly gained cult status. This story just goes to show you that if you try and suppress something, it’s only more likely to rear its (decapitated) head.”

Nice. Here’s the video.