Ah, the holidays. When families around America gather for food and fun, and then head to the theater to watch a nice movie about a serial killer picking off sorority girls one by one.

Hey, that's not Santa!

No, really. There has been some tut-tutting over MGM's decision to release Black Christmas on December 25 — on her blog, deadlinehollywooddaily.com, L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke wrote, "Shame, shame, shame on Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and their distributor MGM Harry Sloan, for opening a holiday-themed slasher movie on Christmas Day." But even though the movie is in complete defiance of the holiday spirit, it's actually a smart business move. Horror movies have traditionally done well on Christmas Day.

Last year, gorefest Wolf Creek, about backpackers who are kidnapped by a lunatic in the Australian Outback, opened on Christmas and made $2.8 million of its $16.1 million total box office. In 2004, Darkness, starring Anna Paquin as a teenage girl in a gruesome haunted house, opened to $3.2 million on its way to $22.1 million. In 1998, Robert Rodriguez's aliens-as-instructors horror flick The Faculty made $4.2 million, 10% of its total.

"It really picks up when people realize 'I've got all these kids and I have absolutely nothing to do but go to the movies,'" he says. "Just imagine a nuclear family with a daughter and a son — and the daughter is eight years old. The 16-year-old son is not going to want to see Charlotte's Web. The parents split up and let him go on his way."

It's a counterprogramming trend that's been going on 30 years, with, among others, disaster flick The Hindenburg bowing on Christmas Day in 1975; William Hurt science project-gone-wrong creepfest Altered States opening then in 1980, and the Sidney Lumet-Jane Fonda murder thriller The Morning After in 1986.

In addition, since Christmas falls among the waning days for Oscar eligibility each year, December 25 also sees a number of Academy bait releases that aren't intended to make merry. In 1996, The People vs. Larry Flynt was released on Christmas — because nothing says the holidays like a porn entrepreneur — followed the next year by Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown. Will Smith's Ali is the top December 25 opening ever, making $10.2 million, almost 17 percent of its total box office.

But enough with the Oscar-seekers; what will Santa slay this year? Black Christmas stars Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Michelle Trachtenberg, and is a remake of a 1974 horror flick starring Margot Kidder. As of the week before Christmas, the trailer had been watched on YouTube more than 50,000 times. The TV ad for the film takes a swipe in voice-over at "people who express outrage" about the propriety of the movie's release date, while showing a scene in which it appears someone is being beaten to death in a kitchen, next to a plate of gingerbread cookies on the counter. Ho-Ho-Ewwwww.