Top 10 Christmas Themed Horror Movies!

Oh the humanity…

Only joking! It’s time to be jolly, a time to be happy & definitely not the time to go on a killing spree….well maybe just a small on, eh?

This list has the top 10 Christmas themed horror movies that I have seen. My choices were determined by how much Christmas spirit the film portrayed. Enjoy…

10 – Santa Claws (‘Tis The Season) (1996)

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Like many Christmas themed horrors, Santa Claws opens with a young boy seeing his mother getting it on with a man dressed as Santa. This causes some serious issues later on in life when it comes to Christmas. Years later thinking he is actually Santa he becomes obsessed with a horror movie actress & sets about murdering her co-stars dressed as Santa & with a claw.

Let down by a lack of gore but filled with topless shots, Santa Claws is an odd Christmas horror. It uses classic themes but seems to get scared of going to much towards violence. My interest in this movie came from hearing that John Russo (Writer – Night of the Living Dead & Return of the Living Dead) was involved…he has done better.

9 – Black Christmas (2006 remake)

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A remake of the classic 1974 movie of the same name, it tells the story of a group of sorority sisters terrorized & murdered by the houses previous occupant.

This sneaks its way into the top 10 thanks to its extremely graphic content. The deaths are both inventive & brutal with ice impalement as one very clever death & an ice-skate used as a weapon. It doesn’t quite manage to live up to its original mainly thanks to an unnecessary killer back story but I’ve seen way worse.

8 – Silent Night (2012)

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Another remake albeit one described as loosely based on the 1984 movie, Silent Night, Deadly Night. A murderous Santa Claus is terrorizing a local community on Christmas Eve. The local police’s job has been made all the more difficult thanks to the annual Christmas parade meaning the streets are full of Santa’s!

It delivers nothing fresh but what it does give is plenty of gore & some excellent black humour. I like my Christmas horrors to be all about the killing & Silent Night delivers with sleigh-full’s!

7 – Don’t Open Till Christmas (1984)

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A killer is stalking the streets of London & murdering people who are dressed up as Santa. The police have no leads & the murders are getting more & more gruesome. Just who has such a hatred for the jolly red fat man & will he ever stop his murdering ways?

Looking dated now but with a clever story, Don’t Open Till Christmas uses the classic ‘previous traumatic Christmas incident’ as motivation for our killer. I really like this movie because of the Christmassy ways in which Santa’s are dispatched, such as one Santa getting his face pushed onto a grill where he was roasting chestnuts on an open fire.

6 – Christmas Evil (You’d Better Watch Out) (1980)

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A young boy witnesses his mother being ‘touched up’ by Santa Claus (his actual father though unknown to the boy) & takes it quite badly. Many years later the boy is all grown up & believes he is the one true Santa & has decided to cast judgement on his neighbourhood. Realising that no-one respects him & that he is the butt of jokes he snaps & goes on a murderous rampage.

Pre-dating (the more well-known but very similar) Silent Night, Deadly Night by 4 years, Christmas Evil’s story is well written & interesting. I like this movie as it tries to set up our killer as more of a sympathetic character. It also has one of the strangest endings of any of these movies.

5 – Silent Night, Zombie Night (2009)

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A week before Christmas a viral outbreak causes the citizens of LA to become zombies. 2 police officers are forced to work together even though they are both love rivals for the same woman.

There are very few Christmas themed zombie movies which makes this one a winner no matter what. I wouldn’t have chosen a warm looking LA to represent Christmas but seeing a gory looking zombie in a Santa outfit had me convinced!

Possible the best acted horror movie on this list with a clever story that went further then just ‘zombie outbreak’!

4 – Santa’s Slay (2005)

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Santa Claus is actually the devils son who lost a bet with an angel & has had to be nice for 1000 years. Well that time is up & Santa is back to his naughty old ways…

I love this movie for 2 reasons:

1. It comes up with an original take on the whole evil Santa thing.
2. It stars Bill Goldberg as the evil Santa.

Yes…the ex-wrestler, Bill Goldberg. Oh & lets not forget that his reindeer are actually mean-as-hell buffalo! It’s a tongue-in-cheek horror that pokes fun at many Christmas-themed horrors that have come before & nothing will beat Goldberg reciting Christmas carols as he goes about his slaying.

3 – Jack Frost (1997)

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Arrraaggggghhhhhh! My eyes! My damn eyes, it’s just so horrible. Only messing…it’s actually this:

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A serial killer is mutilated by a chemical truck during a crash on his way to his execution & returns as a murderous snowman hell-bent on getting revenge on the people who put him away.

A classic in every sense, a snowman with a homicidal thirst for murder…it is the ultimate cheesy Christmas-themed horror movie with some great death scenes & genuine puzzlement of how it might end. (Antifreeze! Genius!)

2 – Black Christmas (1974)

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A group of sorority sisters are stalked & murdered over Christmas by a killer hiding in their house.

Considered by many as the first slasher movie, Black Christmas starts off running & rarely let’s up. Still a brutal watch it manages to tell an multi-character story while murder happens all around them.

I love its down-beat ending that (like most horror movies should) leaves the door slightly ajar for a sequel. One of the best horror movies ever let alone one of the best Christmas-themed.

1 – Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

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A young boy witnesses his parents being murdered by a thief dressed as Santa & ends up in an orphanage. The nun in charge has a very dim view on sex further twisting his mind. As an adult he gets a job in a department store & is doing fine until he is ordered to dress up as the department store Santa. He snaps & goes on a killing spree in the local area.

A controversial movie on its release that saw parent groups standing against its release because of its depiction of Santa as an axe murderer. Its a gory movie that does a fantastic job of showing how twisted one mans mind can get because of everything that has happened to him at Christmas.

It also has one of my favourite horror movie deaths ever, impalement with the antlers of a trophy deer!

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