If you like holiday-themed slashers, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Out in theaters now is Thanksgiving, Eli Roth’s feature based on a fake trailer from Grindhouse, and It’s a Wonderful Knife, a parody of It’s a Wonderful Life from director Tyler MacIntyre. Fox News recently took some time off from whining about Starbucks cups, or whatever, to complain about the films.
“Even Christmas is being profane,” Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo told host Laura Ingraham during Monday’s episode of The Ingraham Angle, according to the Daily Beast. “If you’ve been to the movies lately — I made the mistake of going over the weekend — there are two holiday slashers on the big screen. I saw these posters at the cineplex. I thought they were a joke. They’re not. They’re real.”
Arroyo didn’t specify which movie he saw at the “cineplex” (I’m surprised he didn’t call movies “talkies”), but it probably wasn’t Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.
Thanksgiving and It’s a Wonderful Knife are comedies as much as they are horror movies, but guess who wasn’t laughing.
Arroyo, who hosts a news program on the Catholic television network EWTN, didn’t find anything funny about them. “This is an emblem, Laura, of our cultural decay: when you can’t even make uplifting or joyous movies around the holidays,” he preached, as Fox News shifts into its annual, breathless coverage of the supposed War on Christmas. “You have to extend killing, mutilation, maiming, and death.”
Unlike in the Bible, which is famously death free. The clip of Arroyo’s meltdown caught the attention of It’s a Wonderful Knife writer Michael Kennedy, who wrote, “IT’S A WONDERFUL KNIFE has caused moral decay! Thanks for the free press, FOX NEWS! IAWK drops on @Shudder @AMCPlus and VOD this Friday!” He added, “In a seriousness, you have no idea how proud this makes me. Our queer little horror movie is full of love and joy and I hope more people watch it because of these emotionally and mentally inept charlatans.”
You can see the video below, as well as reactions.
IT’S A WONDERFUL KNIFE has caused moral decay! Thanks for the free press, FOX NEWS! IAWK drops on @Shudder @AMCPlus and VOD this Friday! pic.twitter.com/3htgbBXGr6
— Michael Kennedy (@MichaelKenKen) November 28, 2023
This is really aggravating that Fox News has become the mouthpiece for conservatives as if we all ascribe to these talking points and fake outrage. No one refused to celebrate Thanksgiving because of a horror movie and no one is going to do that with Christmas. https://t.co/dr5BTWe9qu
— Garay Newman (@moviesmuse) November 28, 2023
Ah,
The return of “moral decay” slashers, what a time to be alive!!— Leigh B. Evans
(@Levans6081) November 28, 2023
Hell yeah, we’re at the part of this little slasher cycle where they’re being called symptoms of moral decay! Love it. https://t.co/OXYG4zL33C
— eric (@MrEAnders) November 28, 2023
Awe the poor pearl clutching snowflakes at @FoxNews must be running out of propaganda and hysteria to spread so they’ve turned to horror movies. https://t.co/qu6yPNQ2Z6
— Brandon Perras (@brandon_perras) November 28, 2023
The prophecy has been fulfilled!
(Close enough
) https://t.co/TO3YHGRBrK pic.twitter.com/WRXBMXUV4g
— BJ Colangelo (@bjcolangelo) November 28, 2023
Oh we’re doing the 80s slasher moral panic again!? YES LADS. WE ARE SO BACK. https://t.co/nfoOpcO4Ef
— Dan Drambles – Wholesome Halloween 3 now streaming (@DanDrambles) November 28, 2023
I love ruining the holidays. https://t.co/fi1nY0zxgn
— Tyler MacIntyre (@tmacfilm) November 28, 2023
It’s been 39 years since people were outraged — just outraged! — by Silent Night, Deadly Night and actually freaking got it pulled from theaters, yet they’re still pulling out the ol’ “moral decay!” bullshit because some of us like to watch slasher movies, holiday ones included. https://t.co/WqGWlk7hOL
— Eric Goldman (@TheEricGoldman) November 28, 2023
(Via the Daily Beast)