The Best Christmas Horror Flicks

Hollywood is always glad to cater for Christmas fans, and is always outputting the same old upbeat saccharine slosh – the Christmas cinema-goer gets the choice of naff family friendly comedies or moralising rom-coms, the two crossing over if you’re particularly lucky. However, not all film fans are after this over-the-top seasonal rubbish, with horror fans being especially hard done-by – for anyone sharing a similar temperament to me, I am recommending some excellent Christmas-themed horror films. These are not the only ones, and there are a great number more that I fully encourage you to watch (among them, Dead End, a great little film starring Ray Wise), but you know how Google works so you’ll be able to find them.

 

Black Christmas

The original slasher film (although feel free to try the 2006 remake for brainless fun), paving the way for teen-murdering fun up to the present day, Black Christmas is still a film of immense quality and genuinely scary. Set in a sorority house over the Christmas holidays, the film follows a group of sorority sisters, among them Jess (Olivia Hussey) and Barb (Margot Kidder) being killed by an unseen intruder after receiving a number of obscene phone calls. The origin of such classic tropes as ‘the killer is inside the house’ and with a delightfully warped score, this film is very under-appreciated and a must-see for any horror fans.

 

The Children

This film tackles a subject often seen as taboo in horror – violence towards children – by casting them as the antagonists. A couple of families head to a secluded house in the country for Christmas, with the children coming down with an illness, the effect of which is their becoming violent and incredibly hostile towards the adults. Finding themselves under siege, the adults are forced to battle their children. The gore in this film is mostly implied but very frightening, and the premise – that children could become evil and murder the people they love – is suitably disturbing, especially for any parents watching. It delivers far more than its budget suggests it should, and it is a compelling watch.

 

Gremlins

Most definitely a horror film (officially a horror comedy, despite the assertions of everyone I know to the contrary), Gremlins is a classic film in its own right as well. Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) receives a Mogwai called Gizmo for Christmas, with three rules for caring for him – to never expose it to bright light, get it wet or feed it after midnight – unsurprisingly, these rules are broken and soon, an army of creatures are unleashed on the town. Now masquerading as a family film, the violence is somewhat shockingly vivid, but there is a great mix of humour as well – it balances the two seamlessly, and its reputation speaks for itself. If you like it, why not try the sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, featuring Gremlins in an office building and Christopher Lee as a mad scientist?

 

Jack Frost

Not the heart-warming Michael Keaton-back-as-a-snowman film, but something much more fun. Serial killer Jack Frost (Scott MacDonald) is being transported to his execution when he is involved in an accident and genetically mutated, coming back as a killer snowman. He re-embarks on a killing spree, aiming to find the sheriff who arrested him. Practically the definition of a film not taking itself seriously (although the actors play it that way, clearly enjoying themselves and adding to the humour), this film is a great laugh and full of good one-liners. Most famous for its ‘murder in the bath’ scene, it is full of inventive deaths and there are worse ways to enjoy a couple of hours. Sequels were released, but they are best avoided.

 

Silent Night, Deadly Night

This film caused an uproar on release due to its use of a murderous Santa on the advertising, and has since gained a cult following. A young boy sees his parents get murdered by a hitchhiker dressed as Santa, and winds up in a Catholic orphanage, where he is abused by the Mother Superior. He gets a job, but when he is forced to dress as Santa, he goes on a killing spree himself. The film is fairly grim, a tone amplified by juxtaposing it with the joy of Christmas, and it plays down the gore, making it seem much more real. It also encourages us to empathise with Billy, the killer, which makes the subsequent violence far more upsetting than it otherwise would be. It’s a well-done slasher, and worth your time. Inexplicably, four sequels were made, but I wouldn’t recommend them.

 

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