Christmas Chillers: Five Holiday Horror Watches for December

Robert Dunakin ‘25 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

One of the most effective tools of the horror genre is its ability to make the familiar eerie and the safe scary. This is probably why there’s such a surfeit of holiday-centric horror: for many, the holiday season is a time of joy and celebration – certainly not a time to be worrying about a maniacal killer lurking behind the Christmas tree, or a zombie amidst the inflatable lawn decorations. And yet, exactly for that reason, there is a fantastic subgenre of horror films set at and around Christmas, dating back to silent European films like Haxan and The Phantom Carriage. After all, Christmas celebrations began with the winter solstice, designed to bring light to the longest, darkest nights of the year. With long, dark nights come ample opportunities for things to go bump. 

In the sinister spirit of the season, here are five superb holiday horror watches, ranging from psychotic Santas to the yuletide world’s end. For the purposes of this list, two conscious and key exclusions have been made: Gremlins and Krampus, perhaps the quintessential Christmas horror films. The logic for this is that anyone reading this article is likely not only aware of these two films but probably watches them as part of their holiday repertoire – if they aren’t, they should be. Instead, this list is designed to spotlight some more obscure and unrecognized Christmas horror films. The number of “Santa slashers” has also been limited: an absolute deluge of holiday-themed slasher films followed the 1978 release of Halloween, ranging from the reasonable My Bloody Valentine to the patently absurd Leprechaun. Logically, this meant numerous Christmas slashers as well, the majority of which can really only be recommended to diehard fans of subgenre. That said, the list will include a requisite quantity of axe-wielding Saint Nicks. How could it not? 

5) Tales from the Crypt (1972) 

As a preface, Tales from the Crypt is an anthology film, with only its first segment, “And All Through the House,” being Christmas set. Based on a story from the E.C. Comic The Vault of Horror #35, “And All Through the House” follows Joanne Clayton (Joan Collins) hiding the evidence of her husband’s murder – a murder that she committed. Soon, Clayton finds herself stalked by an escaped lunatic dressed as Santa Claus. Unable to call the police, Clayton must rely on her wits to escape the killer outside her door. 

Clayton is played to perfection by Joan Collins, a fifties matinee idol of fifties British and American film, who by the seventies had become a fixture of b-horror like Tales from the Crypt and Hammer’s Fear in the Night. Made by Hammer competitor Amicus Productions, Tales from the Crypt drips with a quintessentially British gothic horror atmosphere. Coupled with the gothic flourishes in “And All Through the House” is fluorescent, tacky early-seventies Christmas decor, earning it bonus points as a time capsule. 

4) Night of the Comet (1984) 

Night of the Comet is lopsidedly festive, heavy on the holiday atmosphere at its start and finish, although losing the thread for much of its middle. After a passing comet irradiates the Earth and annihilates mankind, a strong-willed movie theater projectionist (Catherine Mary Stewart) and her ditzy younger sister (Kelli Maroney) find themselves some of the only survivors of the world’s end – some of the only human survivors. The girls battle their way across Los Angeles in search of other humans, facing roving packs of survivors who have been hideously mutated into homicidal zombies. Holiday decorations become a disquieting background motif in Night of the Comet, lending an eerie cheer to the desolate, post-apocalyptic world – perhaps one of the best examples of the “scary familiar” that holiday horror is so good at. Paying tribute to classics like The Last Man on Earth and It Came from Outer Space, Night of the Comet is one of many eighties horror films that feels like a “plussed-up” fifties shocker: the story and characters are right out of the fifties, but given a jaded, cynical edge reflective of Reagan-era America. Maroney and Stewart make a charming pair of protagonists, lending levity that makes an interesting counterpoint to the bleak setting. Their sibling bond provides a strong central character dynamic to anchor the story, engaging enough to keep the audience’s attention through an occasionally meandering plot. Night of the Comet is a film that makes the most of its ninety-odd minute run time, filled with bizarre, intriguing ideas of how an end-of-the-world scenario might play out. 

3) Trancers (1984) 

If an article about the horror genre goes on long enough, Charles Band’s name will come up. As with hundreds of other eighties and nineties films, Trancers was produced by Band, this time through Empire International Pictures. Conceived as a cash-in on the recent success of that year’s The Terminator and the growing cult popularity of 1982’s Blade Runner, Trancers seeks to combine elements of both films. Its protagonist is a Rick Deckard-esque hard-boiled private detective, the improbably named “Jack Deth” (Tim Thomerson), thrown into a Terminator-style plot to prevent a criminal from traveling back in time to change history. 

The titular “Trancers” are a secondary element in the proceedings, the zombified thralls of the villainous Whistler (Michael Stefani). Trancers’ status as a Christmas movie has been championed by YouTuber Brandon Tenold since 2022, and rightfully so: once Deth time-travels, the rest of the film is set during the holiday season, with a major action- horror set piece playing out at a mall during the Christmas shopping rush. It makes comparable use of the holiday setting to later eighties action movies like Die Hard or Lethal Weapon, subverting holiday imagery in a deadpan, but self-aware fashion. 

2) Black Christmas (1974) 

The best-known entry on this list, Black Christmas is perhaps the Christmas horror movie, earning the first half of its title as a grim, gritty little slasher – argued by horror historians as the first of the subgenre. The “Christmas” part of its title is more dubious, with the holiday relegated predominantly to the background. Black Christmas has an odd bit of additional holiday pedigree through its director, Bob Clark, who would go on to direct A Christmas Story in 1983. Starring Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder in an early leading role, Black Christmas sees a group of sorority sisters stalked and eventually murdered one by one by a mysterious masked killer. Establishing many genre tropes and codifying others, Black Christmas’s fingerprints can be seen all over later slashers – despite the killer’s gloves. Threatening phone-calls from the killer evoke 1996’s Scream, while the looming threat of an escaped lunatic anticipates 1978’s Halloween. Along with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas began the era of the North American slasher – preceded by early seventies Italian murder mystery or giallo films. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre itself has a surprising Christmas connection, as director Tobe Hooper claims to have been inspired to make the film by Christmas shopping. Speaking in a 2008 interview, Hooper explained: 

“[The chainsaw] came from holiday shopping. I was in a department store. There were always such high expectations put on me when it was seasonally the time to go buy the presents. I had this real phobia of going shopping and getting into a crowd of people. So I found myself thinking: I have to get out of this store. I was at the hardware department. I was sweating. I wanted to leave. So I look up and see this rack of chainsaws and the thought hits me: if I start up this saw, these people will move and I can walk right out of here. Obviously, I didn’t” (de Voogd, Flashback Files). 

Evidently, Christmas is as much to thank for slasher movies as Halloween! Watch Black Christmas for a look at the genre’s foundations, and for goodness sake, avoid the remakes. 

1) Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

This unconventional Scandinavian holiday film is functionally tied with Black Christmas for the number one spot, with Rare Exports edging Black Christmas out for holiday atmosphere, but Black Christmas winning for being more easily recommended. Rare Exports is difficult to describe, let alone explain. It begins with the disappearance and deaths of a number of children and reindeer in northern Finland, where young Pietari (Onni Tommila) lives. Near Pietari’s home, an oil drilling expedition has uncovered an unearthly eldritch tomb belonging to a supernatural entity predating human history, a creature known as “Santa Claus.” Yes, the central conceit of Rare Exports is that Santa is real, and he is not something one wants to find crawling down his chimney. As is expected for Scandinavian film, Rare Exports is equal measures creative and disturbing and it will make you admire its inventiveness while you cringe and shut your eyes. Ostensibly a horror comedy, Rare Exports is not conventionally scary but is vividly unique and engaging, helped immensely by its settings and unusual premise. For those who enjoy strange films, watch it, but prepare yourself for unanswered questions. 

Though not known for it, December can be just as much a time for a good scare as October. Maybe you find yourself like Tobe Hooper, a little fed up with holiday shopping and needing a change of pace. Maybe the sun setting at five in the evening leaves the nights a little too dark for your liking. Then again, for many, Christmas cheer might be more their aim than Christmas fear. Should that be the case, these films might still prove appropriate. Although certainly a little more grown-up than Frosty the Snowman or How the Grinch Stole Christmas – narrated by none other than Frankenstein’s Monster himself, Boris Karloff – many of the above films feature a surprising amount of Christmas spirit. Rare Exports and Night of the Comet are rather earnest underneath their fright-film veneer. Regardless, if you’re seeking an antidote for a few too many Rankin-Bass holiday specials and sit-com Christmas episodes, look no further than one of these holiday horrors … just beware of any creatures stirring come the twenty-fifth!