24 October · 62 days to ChristmasThe advent calendar opens 1 December →

A bat hangs upside down above a red door framed by coloured lights. A tiny red mark breaks the snow outside the warm house, beside a quiet pine forest.

A snowed-in paper timber house has coloured Christmas lights around its porch, amber windows and a steep roof beneath a pale moon.

Essential Christmas · 2021

Red Snow

Name: Red Snow
Released: 2021
Duration: 80 min

34/100Festive FactorWhy it scores 34 ↓

UK certificate 1580 min
Comedy · Horror

A vampire romance novelist takes in a wounded bat at Christmas and gets far more research than she bargained…

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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 miniature snowy house with coloured porch lights. A small bat hangs upside down above a single red mark in the snow. — 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 most of it.15/20

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

The little seasonal details4 of the 10 kinds of Christmas icon we count turn up on screen.6/15

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.

40/100

Cosiness Rating Rating

Mixed in tone. Strong threat. An unsettled 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 →

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Where to watch

United KingdomChecked 19 Oct 2026

Apple TV

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The story

About Red Snow

Olivia Romo is spending Christmas on her own in a snowed-in house she inherited from her mother, nursing the rejection of her vampire romance novel and trying to give herself a proper holiday anyway. When she takes in an injured bat from her garage, it turns into Luke, a wounded vampire, and she sees research for her next book. Luke's far less friendly pack soon come looking for him, along with a vampire hunter. A small, dialogue-driven horror comedy with a bright festive look and a likeable lead in Dennice Cisneros.

The CineClaus verdict

A vampire romance novelist takes in a wounded bat at Christmas and gets far more research than she bargained for.

Red Snow is small and talky, and it knows it: one snowed-in house, a handful of actors and a script with more jokes than scares. Dennice Cisneros carries it as a lead you like even when she stops being entirely likeable.

The lights and baubles are mostly dressing round a vampire story that would work in any month, but the ending has a nasty little sting worth waiting for.

The family desk