The holidays are upon us so ‘tis the season for slashers, demons and french extremity cinema! Call it the ultimate counterprogramming, but there has long been a thriving subgenre in which yuletide cheer collides violently with horror tropes. So from our CineFix family to yours in this merry time of year, please enjoy the Top 12 Christmas Horror Movies of All Time!
What’s great about this particular little corner of the genre is that for every type of Christmas movie, there’s a Christmas horror answer for it. From classic slasher films like Black Christmas, to Home Alone impersonators, evil Santa Claus and all the way to creature features like Krampus and Gremlins, Christmas Horror cinema has it all. And because there are 12 Days of Christmas, we tacked on 2 extra picks to our usual 10!
Our Picks:
12 – Home Alone, But Horror – Deadly Games (1989) dir. René Manzor
11 – Religious Horror – The Day of the Beast (1995) dir. Álex de la Iglesia
10 – Christmas Horror Remake – Silent Night (2012) dir. Steven C. Miller
9 – Child’s Play Knockoff – Jack Frost (1997) dir. Michael Cooney
8 – The Ruined Dinner Party – Silent Night (2021) dir. Camille Griffin
7 – Christmas Horror Anthology – A Christmas Horror Story (2015) dir. Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban, Brett Sullivan
6 – Feel-Bad Christmas – Inside (2007) dir. Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury
5 – Horror Musical – Anna and the Apocalypse (2017) dir. John McPhail
4 – Best Krampus Movie – Krampus (2015) dir. Michael Dougherty
3 – Animated Christmas Horror – The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) dir. Henry Selick
2 – Christmas Slasher – Black Christmas (1974) dir. Bob Clark
1 – Christmas Creature Feature – Gremlins (1984) dir. Joe Dante
This video was written by Matt Donato and edited by Justin Donaldson with graphics and animation by Casey Redmon.
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42 Comments
How could you possibly forget Violent Night??!! I don’t like horror movies, but I sure loved this one. The Bruce Willis of Santa Claus! Die Hard and Home Alone! Truly, an instant classic; and I will watch it every year.
I made a holiday that’s on the same day as Christmas and it’s called horrormas
No way is Gremlins better than Black Christmas, and I love Gremlins, but NO WAY!!
Black Christmas should have NUMBER ONE! It's the BEST!!
The fact the newest looks the worst, sums up modern filmmaking
Scrooged, anyone?
Black Xmas the 2006 remake was GREAT!
The original Black Christmas sucks! Watch the early 2000's remake. It's a million times better and darker.
Where is Better Watch Out, Silent Night Deadly Night and Christmas Evil? Silent Night(2012) should have been number 1 here that movie is awesome
Great presentation
Very good list and mentions💯
I love Christmas and horror movies these would be a perfect horror movie to watch!
Terrifier 3 gonna jump to spot #1 or this list forsure
Oh wow I love this page simply for placing the best horror Christmas movie I've ever seen! Black Christmas 74 thank you for respecting this movie 💯💯💯❤️
I never thought of Inside as a Christmas horror, but … yeah. It is. And its brilliant.
This list is absolutely pathetic.
Gremlins has become staple viewing for me around Christmas times. I haven't even re-watched Black Christmas, after being immensely creeped out by it the first time I watched it. Maybe this year…
Bit disappointed Rare Exports (2010) wasn't on here. It's one of rhe Yulemas movies we watch every year. I am so happy Anna & the Apocalypse (2017) was on here tho. I really enjoyed it and it doesn't seem to be as well-known as it should be.
Not even mentioning 'Rare Exports' is a complete travesty…
didn't even know there was 12 you live and you learn
Rare Exports
There's a lot of movies that make my thumper grow three sizes… A Nightmare before Christmas is not one of those
How was Rare Exports not even mentioned on this list?
Forgot to mention The Spirit of Christmas. The original one that pitted Frosty vs Jesus in the quiet mountain town of Southpark 😉
That said, great list and I saw Gremlins in the theater at 7 years old. Easily the most scary movie experience of my life.
I really liked this video.
4:23 ARRIBA ESPAÑAAAA
Beatrice Dalle is the random woman outside, not the pregnant woman, just for clarification.
Great list.
Deadly Games, Rare Exports, and Sint are my favorite Christmas horror films.
Nothing says Christmas like a little gore on a well lit up tree
Downvoted for that vomit sequence, eff you! >:(
Actually a great list , happy holidays to all.
I don’t know how Rare Exports: A Christmas Story didn’t make this list? Archeologists finding a frozen Santa Claus while excavating a mountain in Finland, only to find out Santa is evil and wants to take and eat children and not to mention his “elves”. Very underrated movie!
several friend i knew that worked at video stores said they would switch out the two jack frost movies vhs tapes
New horror is the least scary genre out there. It's not horror.
Call me stupid, but I find Gremlins really problematic. All that fuss about gremlins being a metaphor for immigrants!
Black Christmas isn’t just a great holiday horror film, but it is, in fact, the OG progenitor of the North American slasher film. It is possible to pinpoint October of 1974 and the release of this movie as the film which would become the first to possess all of the ingredients of the modern slasher. Bob Clark’s under appreciated gem would go on to directly inspire John Carpenter’s Halloween, which is, of course the movie that would go on to propel the genre to its mainstream box office success. Basically, Billy is the OG Michael Myers, who owes much to this absolute masterpiece. And I don’t think it’s by chance that Scream’s killer was named Billy Loomis. No one ever talks about that.
I love how this video cheats and uses each entry to showcase several similar themed movies for further exploration.
So I'll forgive your nomination of the Silent Night remake over it's predecessor, Silent Night, Deadly Night, — for now…
beatrice dalle is the name of the actress that plays the intruder not the victimised woman in inside – she’s actually well known for playing evil antagonistic characters
So glad to see Krampus honored on here. That movie gets so much undeserved hate. I absolutely love that movie, and think it is a great dark humor horror entry for the Christmas season.
I think you can get a mogwi plushie from off the internet.
…and then in part 2, Pheobe Cates tells the story of the worst Abe Lincoln's Birthday!!!
DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNNN!!!!!
For once I'm surprised you missed Rare Exports
Im really surprised Jack Frost got a spot. In the rental i went this film only got attention because the vhs cover was a hologram with the snowman being happy or evil according to were you would look. Then you look at the back and see a still of him grabbing that woman on the shower but her bottom is fully visible. Probably everyone tought it was one of those so-bad-its-funny.