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A cream paper house stands amid deep snowdrifts and falling snow. A wreath hangs on its red door, while one roof window glows red and green.
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Essential Christmas · 2023

A Creature Was Stirring

26/100Festive FactorWhy it scores 26 ↓
UK certificate 1596 min
Horror

A blizzard traps a mother, her locked-away daughter and two intruders in a house glowing with sickly…

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Explore this film 5 sections

The CineClaus Christmas score

Festive Factor

A different kind of Christmas.

Two paper elves inspect a snowbound model house with a brush and magnifying glass. A red and green dormer glows above its wreath-covered red door.

A little magic in the making.

Five ingredients make the Festive Factor.
Open an ingredient to find out more.

Christmas in the storyChristmas is only the occasion.10/30

What we ask: Take Christmas out. Does the plot survive? Worth up to 30 of the 100 points.

A world dressed for ChristmasVisibly Christmas for about half.10/20

What we ask: How much of the running time is visibly Christmas? Worth up to 20 of the 100 points.

The little seasonal details2 of the 10 kinds of Christmas icon we count turn up on screen.3/15

What we ask: How many kinds of Christmas icon turn up on screen: trees, lights, snow, carols and the rest? Worth up to 15 of the 100 points.

A Christmas heartHow far the ending rests on goodwill, family and belief: not at all.0/20

What we ask: Does the ending depend on what Christmas means: goodwill, family, redemption, belief? Worth up to 20 of the 100 points.

A returning traditionNiche at Christmas (under 25,000).3/15

What we ask: Is it actually watched at Christmas in the UK? Worth up to 15 of the 100 points.

13/100

Cosiness Rating Rating

Chilly in tone. Grim. A bleak ending.

How we score →
What do these scores mean?

Festive Factor measures how Christmassy a film is. Five ingredients add up to 100: story (30), setting (20), seasonal details (15), emotional heart (20) and returning tradition (15).

Cosiness is a separate score for warmth of tone, sense of safety, visual comfort, a reassuring ending and how easily you can settle into it.

How the Festive Factor works →
Your next film night

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The story

About A Creature Was Stirring

On the coldest Christmas Eve anyone can remember, a former nurse keeps her teenage daughter locked in her bedroom, dosing her with a homemade regime of drugs to hold back a condition that turns her into something with quills. Then a blizzard drives two siblings, a recovering addict and his devout sister, to break into the house for shelter. Their curiosity about the girl upstairs sets loose more than one creature, and a late twist rewrites everything that went before. Practical monster effects and lurid coloured lighting carry a strange, divisive Christmas horror.

The CineClaus verdict

A blizzard traps a mother, her locked-away daughter and two intruders in a house glowing with sickly Christmas lights.

Chrissy Metz plays the controlling nurse with real conviction, and the practical creature effects are a treat for anyone who misses rubber monsters. Then a late twist asks you to reread everything that came before.

Some will call that brave; plenty will feel cheated. Christmas is mostly the lighting here, and the ending is grim enough to empty a room.

The family desk

Can the kids watch?

15

Our take: not for children: the BBFC lists strong language, violence, gore, horror, drug misuse and self-harm, and the ending is very dark.

Content advice & accessibility
Our age guidance
Editorial, separate from the official 15 certificate, and never looser than it.

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In this collection

Ho Ho Horror: the best Christmas horror films

A Creature Was Stirring is in this collection

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Collection

The best Christmas films for adults

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Stay for another story.All collections · The Christmas Edit