Most of December on Cine Claus is about happy endings, and whether a six-year-old will cope with the scary bit in The Polar Express. This page is for the other evening. The children are asleep, the good biscuits are open, and you'd quite like something with teeth.
Christmas horror films are a proper genre with a surprisingly long history. The best of them understand Christmas perfectly well. Dark by four o'clock, a house full of relatives, and a stranger who is expected to come down the chimney: it was always a little bit creepy. These films just lean into it.
Gateway frights: start here
If you're new to the genre, or watching with someone who normally picks The Holiday, these are the gentle end of the list.
Gremlins · Film guide →Gremlins (1984). Joe Dante's small-town Christmas goes wrong in the most gleeful way. It's more mischief than menace for most of its running time, though one or two moments are sharper than people remember. We've already scored it, and yes, it counts.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Henry Selick's stop-motion musical, produced by Tim Burton, is the one film here that plenty of families already own. It's spooky rather than frightening. Whether it belongs to Halloween or Christmas is a lively argument. Our ratified catalogue ruling is Adjacent. For this list, it's enough that Christmas is the plot rather than the wallpaper.
Krampus · Film guide →Krampus (2015). Michael Dougherty's film starts as a sharp comedy about a family who can't stand each other at Christmas, then lets folklore in through the front door. Toni Collette and Adam Scott play it straight, which helps. A good pick for a mixed group where only half of you like horror.
Slashers: the ones that started it
The Christmas slasher arrived in the 1970s and never quite left. This is where the certificates climb.
Black Christmas (1974). Bob Clark's Canadian film, with Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder, got to most of the slasher's tricks four years before Halloween, and we'd argue it does them better. It takes its time and relies on dread more than gore, which is why it still works. If you only watch one film from this section, make it this one. The 2006 and 2019 remakes exist; the original is the one worth your evening.
Silent Night, Deadly Night · Film guide →Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984). The killer-Santa film that caused an outcry in the US on its release in November 1984. Some cinemas dropped it after protests, and the distributor abandoned plans for a wider release. Today it's more of a curiosity than a classic. Worth it if you like your horror with a side of film history.
Terrifier 3 (2024). Damien Leone's film is here for viewers who want Christmas horror at its most extreme. It is also extremely graphic, and we'd rather say so up front. It's for committed horror fans only, and its extreme gore is central to the viewing experience.
Folklore and creature features
Rare Exports (2010). A Finnish film from Jalmari Helander that treats the Father Christmas legend as something ancient and not at all friendly. The humour is bone dry, and nothing else on this list looks or feels like it. Much of the dialogue is Finnish; check your edition for subtitles.
A Christmas Horror Story (2015). A Canadian anthology with William Shatner holding it together as a late-night radio host. Several short stories run side by side, so if one strand isn't working for you, another is along in a minute.
Jack Frost (1997). A low-budget killer-snowman horror comedy with gory killings and a sexual assault scene. The comic premise does not make it a gentle watch. One important note for parents: this is not the 1998 Michael Keaton family film of the same name, and the two are easy to mix up on a streaming menu.
Action and anti-Christmas
Violent Night · Film guide →Violent Night (2022). Tommy Wirkola directs David Harbour as a Father Christmas with a past, in a film that's half home-invasion thriller and half very violent comedy. Think of it as the rowdy cousin of a certain Christmas action film.
Die Hard · Film guide →Die Hard isn't horror, but if Violent Night appeals, it's the obvious companion. Our Die Hard guide explains its Essential ruling.
Santa's Slay (2005). David Steiman's film casts the wrestler Bill Goldberg as a Santa with a very different job description. It knows exactly how daft it is, which is most of the fun. One for a group who've had a mulled wine or two.
British picks
Anna and the Apocalypse (2017). A Scottish zombie musical, which is exactly as unlikely as it sounds and much better than you'd expect. John McPhail directs Ella Hunt in a film that is, at heart, a coming-of-age story with some very catchy songs. Choose it for the musical comedy, while expecting bloody zombie violence.
Black Mirror: White Christmas (2014). Strictly a television episode, but it turns up on most lists of Christmas horror, and for good reason. Charlie Brooker wrote it, and Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall carry it. There's barely any blood. What stays with you is the idea, and it will stay with you for a while.
What counts as a Christmas horror film?
Our test is the same one we use everywhere on Cine Claus. We look at how Christmas shapes the plot, setting, imagery and ending, alongside evidence of seasonal interest. That is what Festive Factor measures. A high body count does not prevent a high festive score, and the score is not a rating of quality or scariness. The linked film guides show each film's current figures on the same scales used for Elf.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best Christmas horror movies?
For a first-timer, we'd start with Black Christmas (1974), Krampus and Anna and the Apocalypse. Between them they cover proper dread, folklore horror and a musical, so you'll quickly find out which kind you like.
Are there any scary Christmas films the kids can watch?
The gentlest options are The Nightmare Before Christmas and, for older children, Gremlins. Check the certificate first, because Gremlins has a couple of moments that are sharper than people remember. Everything else on this page is for grown-ups.
What are the best Christmas slasher films?
Black Christmas (1974) is the classic, and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) is the notorious one. Terrifier 3 is the modern extreme, and only for viewers who know what they're signing up for.
Is Gremlins a Christmas film?
Yes. It's set at Christmas, the story begins with a Christmas present, and the season runs through the whole thing. We've given it a full score, and the viewing advice is in our Gremlins guide.
If the kids are still up, save this list for later and put on Elf. The monsters will keep until bedtime.
