Christmas is a holiday for not only good cheer but also good horror. The cold, wintry feeling mixed with dread and scares makes for the most eerie elixir. When we think about why we love Christmas so much, it’s because it simply makes us feel happy. And for a number of people out there, macabre merriment involves homicidal Santa impostors and mischievous creatures that stir.
Anyone with a curiosity for the dark side of the holidays has surely found Christmas frights and delights in Silent Night Deadly Night and Gremlins. Yet, there’s more to this niche of Yulish terror. And, just in time to deck the halls are these 10 underrated Christmastime horror movies.
Wind Chill (2007)
The opposite of a meet-cute would have to be a ‘creep-cute,’ and one lies at the core of the often misunderstood spooker Wind Chill. What starts off as a stalker flick ends up being a supernatural redemption story. As in, the characters are personally challenged, or else they are doomed to live their malcontent lives over and over.
In Wind Chill, two unnamed characters share a car ride from college to Delaware. The problem is, Emily Blunt’s character thinks there’s something shady about her chauffeur. She’s right. However, none of that matters when they get caught in a snowy ravine with no way out. As night falls and the temperature drops below zero, the unlikely pair are visited by ghosts of the past who roam the area.
Dead End (2003)
Traveling with family for the holidays can be stressful. This is definitely the case for Frank Harrington and his kin. Rather than taking the same ol’ way to grandma’s house, the patriarch moves away from the highway and takes a detour down a road that never seems to end. As the family stays on this endless, desolate road, they come across both the unexplained and horrifying.
Dead End is an amusing indie horror whose only glaring flaw is its overly familiar ending. Other than that, this is a spooky romp elevated by its cast and its refined, twisted sense of humor.
Xmas Tale (2006)
Before Stranger Things and It popularized the throwback style of the 1980s, the decade’s pop culture was expertly pilfered in this little-known Spanish telefilm. Director and writer Paco Plaza is best known for the [REC] films, but he predates his zombie laden found-footage horror with a killer Santa Claus chasing some mischievous kids. Though, that’s not to say there aren’t zombies in Xmas Tale (or Cuento de Navidad).
It all begins in 1985 when five Karate Kid-loving tykes find Santa Claus at the bottom of a hole in the forest. When they learn she’s really a bank robber, the delinquents leave her down in the hole until she coughs up the dough. What they didn’t count on, however, is Santa escaping.
While She Was Out (2008)
Christmas is thought to be a happy time for families, but, as we learn in While She Was Out, it’s nothing of the sort for Kim Basinger’s maltreated character. It’s Christmas Eve, and one discontent mother goes to the mall in search of supplies. Bad idea. Not just because of the traffic and rude fellow customers either. The woman crosses paths with some unruly miscreants, who then chase her into the woods. It soon becomes a fight for survival on this holy night.
While She Was Out does not boast the most original concept. Some might even see this film as a lesser vehicle for someone as talented as Basinger. Nevertheless, her skills are put to good use as she battles off her attackers and reclaims the self-esteem she’s lost along the way in life.
Body (2015)
If you can’t be with your family on Christmas, or, you simply choose not to, then being around friends is a safe bet for a happy holiday. That seems to be the case for three friends as they ditch the familials and go carousing around town on Christmas Eve. They stop by one woman’s uncle’s mansion in the meantime, taking full advantage of the fact that the owners are away on vacation. All seems right until the other two women learn things are not what they seem at the house.
Body is an indie thriller about three people trying to get away with a serious crime. It has vile moments and choices that go against the good tidings vibe of Christmas, but it never makes for a dull watch.
The Children (2008)
All we seem to know and accept about children being innocent is thrown out the window in this British scarefest. Following Christmas, a family spends New Years at an isolated house in the countryside. An unknown element then turns their kids into unstoppable agents of violence. The adults, not wanting to harm their offspring, are left to fend for themselves as no one can hear their screams.
The Children sounds pretty silly on paper, but the execution is better than expected. It’s a chilly massacre movie that makes good use of its maniacal minors as well as the victims.
Await Further Instructions (2018)
This obscure Christmassy sci-fi flick from across the pond is an insidious holiday horror, too. Await Further Instructions entails an estranged son returning to his family that fateful night in December, with his partner in tow. His reasons for staying away become clear quickly. His parents and sister are not the most open-minded folks. Also, their house is barricaded off by an unknown, external force. All communications are cut off, too. Who — or what — is behind this potentially global threat?
If you love the thought experiments found in The Twilight Zone, you’ll be pleased with the results in Await Further Instructions.
P2 (2007)
One of the worst things about the holidays is how lonely they can make someone feel. After all, not everyone has a family or friends to spend those dreaded days with. Might sound like a blessing to anyone who doesn’t like being social, but what if you were the villain in P2? He definitely wants some company this Christmas.
It’s Christmas Eve. A kind, single woman named Angela is working late before she’s off to see her family. On her way out of her work building, she gets caught in the parking lot. And, now she’s forced to keep one deranged security guard company.
Home for the Holidays (1972)
Not enough people credit Aaron Spelling as being a prophet of the entertainment landscape. But his 1972 production Home for the Holidays assures us he knew what was going to be trendy in just a few years. This telefilm predates the slasher craze that overtook the horror genre following John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s 1978 film Halloween. The tropes we all know and love (or love to hate) were product-tested in this holiday-set mystery.
Sally Field and Jessica Walter star as siblings who visit their ill father at Christmas. Along with their other two sisters, the patriarch tells his daughters he thinks his new wife is trying to murder him. As (bad) luck would have it, someone is out to kill him. The spree doesn’t stop there, though. In time, the sisters will feel the sharp end of an unseen assailant’s pointed wrath.
Silent Night (2012)
Remakes honk off plenty of horror fans. And, while most are undeniably average at best, some defy the odds and outdo their predecessors. It’s controversial to rebuke the charm of the classic 1984 slasher Silent Night Deadly Night. That film alone enraged many PTA members during its initial release. The thought of a killer Santa Claus was taboo. Still, kind of is today, but the horror genre as a whole struggles to be accepted as well.
In this wonderfully grim and ruthless reimagining, a small town is besieged by a Santa-suited slayer whose bloodlust cannot be sated. It is up to one police officer to stop him—or there won’t be anyone left to celebrate Christmas next year.
