Top 10: Christmas horror movies

If you are looking for something that warms your heart, then stop reading, because in this post we suggest the kind of film that will block the digestion of the panettone, the perfect background to entertain the Grinch that is in you or your crew of relatives and friends. No, among our proposals do not expect the usual horror soft stories like Gremlins, Edward Scissorhands or The Nightmare Before Christmas, in the top 10 of NSS there are slasher ols school masterpieces like Black Christmas and new ones like Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, but also trash projects (a dash of kitsch is paramount during the holidays!) like Santa's Slay. Are you ready?

 

1. Black Christmas (1974)

Perhaps it will not be correct to define Bob Clark's film as the forerunner of the slasher genre (actually born a few years earlier in Italy with Mario Bava), but, certainly, is one of the first and best film projects where the traditional Christmas spirit is mocked and becomes the frame of a horror. It's Christmas night. Female students in a female dormitory are terrified of some threatening phone calls (remember Scream?) Until, one after the other, their corpses begin to accumulate. Three years before Halloween, in this thriller that inaugurates the series of maniac-murder-with-knife films there are already many of the characteristics of the genre: a nameless and faceless killer, driven by mysterious plan and motive; the subjective of the killer; the use of sound as a suggestive and sinister comment to the explosions of brutality; united with black humor, sexual disinhibition and strong themes for the time.

2. Chrismas Evil/You Better Watch Out (1980)

Another 80s Christmas cult that helped make the figure of the Santa Claus killer a mainstream. The plot? As a child Harry is traumatized seeing his mother frolicking with his father disguised as the famous character in red and, as a reaction, grows obsessed with Christmas, spending his free time spying on his neighbors' children and noting the names of good and bad. A list that will prove useful when, after yet another mistreatment in the workplace, will unleash his folly and punish all those who do not show the right Christmas spirit.

A fun fact: Christmas Evil, originally released under the title You Better Watch Out, has among its admirers John Waters, iconic director famous as "The pope of trash".

3. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

"Most of the protests were generated by the feeling that the depiction of a killer in a Santa costume would have traumatized children and undermined their traditional trust in Santa Claus." So wrote Variety in November 1984 commenting on the protests that led to the withdrawal shortly after the release of Silent Night, Deadly Night. If only all those parents had shown a little more empathy in the unfortunate story of Billy Chapman, protagonist of the film directed by Charles E. Sellier...Other the guy witnessed the massacre of both parents by a man with the famous red costume and spent a difficult childhood in an orphanage. So it is not so strange that when his employer forces him to dress up as Santa, he goes out of his mind and starts slaughtering anyone who happens to shoot. The cult scene? The one in which Bill impales a young girl on the embalmed head of a reindeer.

4. Santa's Slay (2005)

Have you ever thought about the fact that the anagram of Santa is Satan? Well, after watching this film by David Steiman, maybe you will. In this black-comedy horror, in fact, Santa Claus is actually the son of the king of the underworld, a demon who loves killing human beings. Unfortunately, the type has a flaw: it is an avid bettor. Just the loss of a bet made with an angel has forced him, for a thousand years, to bring gifts to children around the world, consolidating the misunderstanding about the classic identity of Santa Claus that we all know. When the period of penance ends, Satan Jr. can finally return to destroy and kill. The cult scene? The beginning with the demon coming down from the fireplace and slaughtering the whole Mason family, including a special guest is: Fran Drescher aka The Nanny.

5. Wind Chill (2007)

A supernatural thriller that results in horror in the second half. A student has to go home for Christmas from college and, among the announcements on the school bulletin board, she finds that of a boy looking for a car company. The two leave with a horrible time; they take a short cut, but they have an accident and get stuck in a pile of snow, in an isolated place. Meanwhile, the temperature drops and mysterious individuals emerge from the surrounding woods. They produce among others George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh, while the protagonists are Ashton Holmes, already seen in the beautiful History of Violence, and Emily Blunt, famous for The Devil wears Prada and now at the cinema in the role of Mary Poppins.

6. The Children (2008)

What's more Christmas than a bunch of kids running around at home during the holidays? And what if the sweet children rebelled against the adults until they tried to eliminate them one after the other? Tom Shankland's idea is simple, but it works. The perfect movie to evoke the right Christmas atmosphere.

7. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2011)

If you want to continue to believe that Santa is the good-natured and plump grandfather dressed in red described by Christmas fairy tales, then you better avoid this 2011 film. According to the project by Jalmari Helander, in fact, "The real Santa Claus was different. The Coca-Cola is a scam. "In this gothic fairy tale, a demonic being devours children, awakened from his prison in the mountains near Korvatunturi, a mythical place on the border between Finland and Russia that, according to a Scandinavian legend, believes it is the home and the secret laboratory of Santa Claus. No rivers of blood and splatter scenes, but only a great direction, a compelling storyline and a screaming photograph.

8. Krampus (2015)

Michael Dougherty, former director of Halloween's La Vendetta, one of the best episodes of the saga, co-scripts, co-produces and directs a project about an ancient demonic force that punishes those who do not believe in Christmas. Thus, in the family of the little Max a hell breaks loose in which all the more traditional icons of the parties become bloodthirsty monsters and murderers. The only way to survive? Rediscover unity between parents and children. A pleasant Greemlins horror comedy with special effects created by the technicians of The Lord of the Rings.

9. A Christmas Horror Story (2015)

The voice of a dj stuck at work on Christmas night, is the glue to a series of stories set in a small town seemingly idyllic, blown up, the year before by a double homicide occurred in local high school. In this anthological film there are teenagers trapped in a basement by an evil spirit, a son who wants to exterminate his family, Krampus and Santa Klausche must fight against a horde of zombie elves. For the grim Christmas we all dream.

10. Better Watch Out (2016)

Can a baby sitter haunted by a crazy murderer be missing from Christmas horror? Obviously not. Chris Peckover did it, bringing a murky spiral of fear and violence into Ashley's life. A classic film home invasion seasoned with ironic twist and teen, which, with intelligence, becomes more and more dark and violent until trespassing in the slasher. What more do you want to spend a couple of hours on long festive days?