The holidays are coming, and so is the usual and unusual slew of festive-themed films. We’ve been thinking about other films traditionally watched over the holiday season that have their fair share of thrills and chills, so here are our top five scariest and most violent Christmas movies.
Black Christmas (1974)
During the holiday season, a group of sorority girls plans their time together. However, when they start to receive anonymous phone calls, things start to escalate, and before long they become victims of a serial killer. Notably, this stalk-and-slash cult hit is often named as a pre-curser to John Carpenter’s Halloween.
Although Carpenter’s classic is often associated with the start of that particular genre, Black Christmas preceded his indie triumph by four years. It would be easy to say that Black Christmas was a huge influence on Halloween, and it is often overlooked when the subject is discussed.
Olivia Hussey screams her way through this shocker, and although the kills were toned down a little before release, the film still has the power to chill. The insane and unseen monster that stalks our cast is almost more menacing than Michael Myers, and the film’s unsettling cinematography and music only add to the unease. Curl up with a blanket and the lights off on Christmas Eve and watch this offering if you want a scary holiday experience.
Silent Night. Bloody Night (1972)
Another classic 1970’s shlocker that predates Halloween but offers similar themes and scares. When Jeffrey inherits his grandfather’s house, he finds that the venue is a dumpster fire of misery.
Previously Grandpa Wilfrid had returned to his home to find out that it has been turned into a mental asylum. As if that’s not a bad enough turn of events on Christmas Eve, he is then set on fire and dies.
The event is thought to have been an accident, and young Jeffrey decides it is time to sell the house and move on. However, an escapee from another institution has moved into the building, wreaking mayhem on anyone that comes near, and it seems he has a connection to Wilfrid and the horrific events that happened previously.
This low-budget fright fest has a homemade feel to it, but this seems to only add to the uneasy feeling it conveys. The plot becomes a little too twisted for its own good, but it does come to some kind of conclusion in the third act. This grimy and seedy 70’s nasty has a high body count and some chilling imagery, but it might be hard to track down, so this might be one for hardcore fans of the genre only.
Better Watch Out (2016)
Co-written and directed by Chris Peckover, this is a home invasion movie that features a teenage babysitter, Ashley, looking after 12-year-old Luke over the festive season. Luke’s friend arrives to try and scare the pair, but upon entering the house, a brick is thrown through a window with the message “You leave, and you die” on it. Luke’s buddy runs out of the house and apparently ends up dead.
Ashley and Luke hide in the attic, as an armed madman enters the house, but things are not what they first appear, and this twisted festive psychological horror has a few tricks up its sleeve that I don’t want to spoil here. This is a very different holiday horror and is more of a cerebral frightener than some of the other entries on the list, but if you enjoy more twisted narratives, that will make you think twice this might be one you enjoy.
The film was shot in Australia and has some great performances from the small cast, and the less you know about the plot the better, as Better Watch Out deserves to be seen cold, like snow on Christmas.
Tales From the Crypt (1972)
This classic anthology horror from Amicus Films brought to life some of the most horrific stories from the 1950s comic book of the same name. The comics would go on to be vilified in the States, as groups of concerned citizens would blame the range of comics for all manner of behavioral problems in kids, leading to comic book burnings and the introduction of the comics code authority.
It would pretty much bring about the downfall of EC Comics and start a movement that would cripple the industry as a whole.
Eventually, the code itself would be worked around, and eventually just ignored, and now EC Comics are appreciated as the masterpieces that they were. Tales From the Crypt the movie would adapt five separate tales, and the first in line would be “All Through the House”. This holiday dread fest wastes no time, with Joan Collins murdering her husband with a poker on Christmas Eve.
Her young daughter is upstairs, unable to sleep due to the excitement that Santa might appear, causing Joan some problems, but not as much as the escaped maniac on the prowl in her area that has dressed up as St Nicholas too. This darkly comic story is short and sharp and was so loved that it would be filmed a second time for the Tales From the Crypt TV show twenty years later. A real Christmas treat.
Krampus (2015)
This twisted and violent comedy horror is a real festive freakout. Tensions are running high over the holidays for the Engel family, and young Max decides Christmas isn’t worth the effort anymore. This rampant disillusionment results in the release of a demonic entity Krampus, that exists to punish non-believers. The family home is now the target for a host of demonic forces that wreak havoc on everyone involved.
It is worth noting that the idea of Krampus is in fact based on actual European folklore and was not just invented for this movie. In European, particularly Alpine regions, Krampus is a horrific horned beast that would accompany Santa on December the 5th, rewarding the good kids with oranges and nuts, while dispatching beatings to the naughty ones with a birch rod.
The film too has its share of nastiness, and there is plenty of impaling and shootings on screen, but more compelling are the various kills from entities that look like toy robots and gingerbread men. Krampus has its tongue firmly in its cheek, but that doesn’t stop it from being a gory and violent Christmas classic.
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