The holiday season is here and most of you are getting ready to watch their favorite Christmas classic, but others are excited to watch their Christmas horror movies.
Now there are not a ton of good Christmas horror movies to compile a large list, but we were able to scrape together a list of 10 films you can enjoy. Some of your favorites might be missing, but that is how the Christmas cookie crumbles.
Enjoy our Christmas horror movies to watch this holiday season!
SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT (1984)
Little Billy witness his parents getting killed by Santa after being warned by his senile grandpa that Santa punishes those who are naughty. Now Billy is 18, and out of the orphanage, and he has just become Santa, himself.
Silent Night Deadly Night is one of the most common Christmas horror movies to come to mind around this time of year.
EYES WIDE SHUT (1999)
After Dr. Bill Hartford’s wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings — and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
Some might not put Eyes Wide Shut on their list of Christmas horror movies, but if definitely is a Christmas movie.
BETTER WATCH OUT (2016)
Ashley travels to the suburban home of the Lerners to baby-sit their 12-year-old son Luke at Christmastime. She must soon defend herself and the young boy when unwelcome intruders announce their arrival.
You Better Watch Out. You better not cry. Better not pout. I’m telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town.
BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)
As winter break begins, a group of sorority sisters, including Jess and the often inebriated Barb, begin to receive anonymous, lascivious phone calls. Initially, Barb eggs the caller on, but stops when he responds threateningly. Soon, Barb’s friend Claire goes missing from the sorority house, and a local adolescent girl is murdered, leading the girls to suspect a serial killer is on the loose. But no one realizes just how near the culprit is.
Another of the classic Christmas horror movie that people tune-into every year is Black Christmas.
KRAMPUS (2015)
While the holiday season represents the most magical time of year, ancient European folklore warns of Krampus, a horned beast who punishes naughty children at Christmastime. When dysfunctional family squabbling causes young Max to lose his festive spirit, it unleashes the wrath of the fearsome demon. As Krampus lays siege to the Engel home, mom, pop, sister and brother must band together to save one another from a monstrous fate.
The Santa Claus of Christmas horror movies is Krampus. It is one of two films to make both our 30 Great Christmas Movies To Watch and 10 Christmas horror movies.
RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE (2010)
A young boy named Pietari and his friend Juuso think a secret mountain drilling project near their home in northern Finland has uncovered the tomb of Santa Claus. However, this a monstrous, evil Santa, much unlike the cheery St. Nick of legend. When Pietari’s father captures a feral old man in his wolf trap, the man may hold the key to why reindeer are being slaughtered and children are disappearing.
One of the best movies on this list is Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale.
BRAZIL (1985)
Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.
Brazil definitely on the fringe of Christmas horror movies, but it is enough of a Christmas movie to make our list.
SILENT NIGHT (2021)
From producers Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman franchise), Trudie Styler (Moon) and Celine Rattray, Silent Night follows parents Nell and Simon who have invited their closest friends to join their family for Christmas dinner at their idyllic home in the English countryside. As the group comes together, it feels like old times — but behind all of the laughter and merriment, something is not quite right. The world outside is facing impending doom, and no amount of gifts, games or Prosecco can make mankind’s imminent destruction go away. Surviving the holidays just got a lot more complicated.
Silent Night is the most recent of the Christmas horror movies on the list.
DEAD END (2003)
When a family en route to a Christmas Eve gathering decides to takes a shortcut down a wooded road, an eerie sequence of events signals trouble ahead. After nearly colliding with an oncoming car, father Frank picks up a ghostly hitchhiker and her infant child. With the sudden appearance of their new passengers, the route becomes dark and treacherous — and the family’s numbers rapidly begin to dwindle in a series of seemingly connected, grisly roadside accidents.
Dead End has been more of a hit with critics than fans, but definitely stands out.
GREMLINS (1984)
A gadget salesman is looking for a special gift for his son and finds one at a store in Chinatown. The shopkeeper is reluctant to sell him the “mogwai” but sells it to him with the warning to never expose him to bright light, water, or to feed him after midnight. All of this happens and the result is a gang of gremlins that decide to tear up the town on Christmas Eve.
Gremlins is the second film to make our 30 Great Christmas Movies To Watch and 10 Christmas horror movies.
BONUS: ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE (2017)
A zombie apocalypse threatens the sleepy town of Little Haven – at Christmas – forcing Anna and her friends to fight, slash and sing their way to survival, facing the undead in a desperate race to reach their loved ones. But they soon discover that no one is safe in this new world, and with civilization falling apart around them, the only people they can truly rely on are each other.
While Anna and the Apocalypse is considered a horror film according to Rotten Tomatoes and definitely has its moments due to the zombie aspects of the film. However, it is way more light-hearted and up beat than horror. This forced it out of the 10 and into a bonus item on this list.
