Holiday Horror Flicks to Get In the Christmas Spirit With

You Better Not Pout, You Better Not Cry...
Photo by: Jolyon Leonard, via Flickr.

The Holiday Season is upon us, and if you love horror movies, then you're in for a real treat this Christmas. Over the years, Holiday Horror Flicks have developed from a small, niche sub-genre, to a full blown holiday tradition of its own, with Festive Slasher Flicks, Over the Top Holiday Horror, and Christmas twists of every type hitting both the big screen and the small screen each holiday season.

To help you get into the spirit of the season, we put together a list of some of our favorite Holiday Horror Movies that are perfect for a night in this Christmas Break:

• Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) - Little Billy, a five year old who's totally into Christmas, visits his grandfather at the nursing home on Christmas Eve, and, in the spirit of the season, grandpa tells Billy that Santa gives toys to good girls and boys, and punishes the bad ones. Well, what Grandpa didn't know what that an armed burglar dressed in a Santa Suit was going to brutally murder Billy's parents in front of the boy on their way home, forever scarring him.
  
  Now orphaned, Billy is shipped off to an orphanage at a convent, where Mother Superior abuses and beats the boy. On Christmas morning three years after watching his parents get killed by Santa, Billy ends up clocking a man dressed as Santa that's come to bring the orphans toys, which of course Mother Superior punishes him for, instead of understand that you know, any small child that watched their parents get murdered by Santa might uh, have some Santa issues.
  
  Flash forward ten years and Billy's now an adult, living a mostly normal life working at a local toy store. All is well until he is forced by his boss to play Santa for the holiday party (ruthless!), and when Billy sees the gal he's been crushing on, Pamela, getting assaulted by another coworker, he snaps (shocker). He kills the man assaulting Pamela by strangling him with a string of Christmas lights (how festive!), and then proceeds to also stab Pamela to death.
  
  This is only the beginning of Billy's rampage dressed as the man in red, but one thing's for sure - you better watch out.
  
  
• Krampus (2015) - Are you familiar with the legend of The Krampus? He's Santa's cloven-hooved demon buddy that doles out punishment to the bad girls and boys while Santa benevolently hands out gifts to those who have made it onto the Nice List. Although over the past few decades, Krampus has faded into the background, he's been making a comeback in a big way over the past few years (and hey, maybe he can inspire kids to be a bit more well-behaved along the way, right?).
  
  In Krampus the dysfunctional Engel Family gets together to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, when youngest son Max writes a letter to Santa, and does his best to carry on Christmas Traditions, despite his family all basically ignoring his efforts, and decidedly not being in the Christmas Spirit. His cousins toss his letter to Santa out the window, make fun of him, and then there's a mega-blizzard that traps the family at home. After Max's snarky teenage sister Beth goes missing, most of the adults venture out in the blizzard to go look for her, leaving the rest of the kids in the care of Grandma Omi.
  
  Weird stuff starts happening to all of the family that don't have the Christmas Spirit within them, and that's when Omi, who is from "the old world" and mostly speaks German, tells Max that the family is being hunted by a creature called the Krampus (and frankly, she's pretty darn casual about it, seeing as her family is being plucked off one by one). Believe it or not, things get crazier from there - I won't spoil the ending for you - but this new Christmas Classic is definitely worth a watch if you're in the mood for a real serious horror flick.
  
  
• Jack Frost (1997) - Are you into campy horror comedies? Then Jack Frost might just be the horror flick for you. Scoring an impressively low 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Jack Frost falls into the "it's so bad, it's circled back around and is good again" category, and it does so impressively (they did give it a sequel, after all!). Over the years, the film has developed a cult following due to it's cheesy effects, over-the-top death scenes, and unapologetically campy horror scenes.
  
  In the movie, serial killer Jack Frost gets into a freak accident as he's being transported to the electric chair for execution on Christmas Eve, and somehow, through the power of Christmas and weird science, he's able to embody a snowman. Seriously. Now that he's a snowman, he decides to do the logical thing, and go on a homicidal rampage, killing all those who have crossed him, and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
  
  And, as a twist, you can't just melt Jack Frost, oh no - that would be too easy - there's many attempts to just melt the snowman, none of which work - the hero needs to get seriously creative to defeat this frozen terror. We won't spoil the ending for you, but if you like cheesy B Horror Movies, this is definitely one Holiday Horror Flick you won't want to miss out on.
  
  
• Black Christmas (1974) - The original "Christmas Horror Movie", this film has been remade in recent years, and is even sometimes shown as specialty or indie cinemas around the country during the holiday season. This film was a real game changer, and it really embodied the "The Killer is Calling From Inside the House" theme, which became a horror movie trope in and of itself not long after Black Christmas debuted. It's often cited as one of the main inspirations for the iconic Halloween horror franchise, and once you watch the film, you'll see why.
  
  A Sorority hosting their annual Christmas Party at their house is being terrorized by a creepy caller who just breathes into the phone, that they've nicknamed "The Moaner", and at the same time, sorority sisters start getting plucked off one by one by an unseen killer (who appears on screen as a shadowy figure right until the end). The calls continue as the sorority sisters continue disappearing, and finally, one of the sorority sisters, Jess, asks authorities to trace the call.
  
  Not realizing the two things are connected, things continue to escalate until the authorities call back Jess to let her know that the creepy calls are coming from inside the house, which is when everything clicks, and Jess is sent into a panic.

What's Your Favorite Holiday Horror Movie?
Let Us Know in the Comments Below!