Christmas is supposed to be all snow and snuggles with films about family and happiness and it nearly always snows just before Christmas Day if you live in the right climate. Here are snowy Christmases stained with blood, as I look at my top 5 Christmas horror films I say top 5 but that is open for debate because who knows what is around the corner. There is always room for a good slasher Christmas film.
Silent Night (2012)
Silent Night follows the police of a small Midwestern town as they search for a killer Santa Claus who is delivering bloody Christmas kills for all those on the naughty list lucky I was not on his list. Finally, someone makes a slasher movie right. This film takes everything fun in the genre and throws it on its head to deliver and old school fun gory ride. The story is simple and to the point keeping just enough mystery to keep you guessing on who is donning the red suit.
For this kind of film, it sports a great unsuspecting cast including Jamie King, Donal Logue, and the always-awesome Malcolm McDowell. They all give good performances, but the real reason anyone is watching this film is to see Santa unleash his unique brand of Christmas gore and it does not disappoint.
The kills are over the top and awesome with plenty of gore to keep the most obsessive gore hound satisfied. The film plays dark and creepy while maintaining a dark sense of humour.
This version of the Santa killer is given a disturbing mask to take his presence to new level along with his clear rage makes him easily the most demented of the Santa killers to date. No punches making sure it is clear that no one is safe and makes this fun Christmas ride that special film that the holidays have been missing.
Black Christmas (2006)
A tale of a group of sorority sisters holed up in a house together on Christmas. Previously it was the home psychotic nut job Billy, who slaughtered his mother, step dad, and attach his sister who is his daughter Christmas of 1991 and made their flesh into cookies.
Billy is now in a mental hospital with his old home a sorority house now. With Christmas around the corner, Billy is restless promising to escape and of course he does and heads straight home where is sister/daughter as got the ball rolling has the sorority sisters start to disappear.
Before long, the girls begin to get menacing phone calls from a mysterious caller. One-by-one, over the course of the night, the girls are killed off in a most grotesque fashion by a dark figure. Everything comes full-circle in a frightening conclusion.
With all of its elements combined, Black Christmas makes for a thrilling, creepy, and very fun horror film. Black Christmas was very surprising in that it was a better movie than the original. That said this remake is certainly not for everyone Black Christmas is certainly among the best.
A Christmas Horror Story (2015)
A slow starter but I found myself committed to continue to watch has the film moved along. William Shatner plays a radio DJ host that helps intertwine the stories and provides some spots of levity along the snowy roads to where the film journeys.
The stories themselves do not play out in their entirety before moving to the next segment. Instead, the filmmakers jump between the stories, which allow them to keep audiences on their toes and ensure that the lesser terrorizing / more dramatic scenes are broken up with the moments horror fans relish. The stories are a family brings home more than a Christmas tree, a student documentary becomes a living nightmare, a Christmas spirit terrorizes, and Santa slays evil.
There is plenty of blood and gore for the diehard horror fans as well as an interesting collection of narratives, filled with black humour and intrigue. What a surprisingly great film!
'Krampus' 2015
Definitely not Christmas with the Kranks. The film focuses on a young, somewhat troubled boy named Max who is struggling with some Christmas-blues during the holiday season. In trouble for causing a fight, he worries that his parents are drifting apart and that he is similarly losing his friendship with his older sister. To top it off, he has to contend with his irritating extended family who have come to spend Christmas with him and his parents.
After the disastrous dinner, Max loses all faith in the holiday spirit, and tears up a letter he had written to Santa Claus, casting it out of the window, unaware that his actions will summon a dark force- the "Shadow of Saint Nicholas"- "Krampus." Now, Max and his family (under the guidance of his elderly German grandmother will have to struggle against Krampus and his legions of demonic toys, killer-gingerbread-men and freakish devil- elves to survive.
Christmas Evil (1980)
Also known as “You’d Better Watch Out!” and “Terror in Toyland”, this film is very straightforward. With his mother and brother Harry, they watch Santa drop down the chimney before rushing to bed. After a squabble with his brother Harry heads back downstairs and is stopped in his tracks as he viewed mom and Santa all touchy feely. After what he saw, he develops this weird obsession with St. Nick into adulthood.
He works at a toy factory, and walks around his apartment -- in the full red and white costume -- and spies on neighbourhood children, writing their names down on a “naughty list”.
The film might be more amusing than horrific, but it is still very twisted at times; certainly what little graphic violence is shown is surprisingly nasty, such as when Harry attacks a group of church-goers, poking an eye out with a toy soldier and then axing a couple of guys in the head.
As Harry's murderous rampage continues, and local people begin to eye anyone in a Santa costume with suspicion, it's not long before our jolly psycho is confronted by an angry mob, who chase him down the streets with flaming. Finally, Harry winds up driving his van (which is painted to look like a sled) off a bridge; however, rather than plummeting to his doom, his vehicle flies off into the night sky.
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