Christmas-themed horror films are one of our favorite things about the holiday season. From crazed Santas to demented killers that drop bodies on the biggest holiday of the year, we’ve gathered a list of great films you will love to unwrap this month and where you can watch them.
It’s A Wonderful Knife (2023)
Theaters and Shudder
In the 2023 film starring Justin Long, “a year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve, Winnie Carruthers’ life is less than wonderful — but when she wishes she’d never been born, she finds herself in a nightmare parallel universe and discovers that without her, things could be much, much worse. Now the killer is back, and she must team up with the town misfit to identify the killer and get back to her reality.”
We highly recommend that you take a minute and check out our interview with the film’s writer-producer, Micahel Kennedy.
Santa’s Slay (2005)
Prime Video, YouTube, and Apple TV
This fun flick stars WWE’s Bill Goldberg as Santa Claus, a demon who lost a bet with an angel, so he becomes the giver of toys and happiness. But when the bet is off, he returns to his evil ways.
Santa Isn’t Real (2023)
Digital and VOD
In the film, “After suffering a brutal attack on Christmas Eve, a young woman, Nikki, struggles to convince her friends that the assailant was none other than Ol’ Kris Kringle. When Santa returns to terrorize the group in their remote cabin the next Christmas, Nikki and her friends must overcome disbelief as they fight to stay alive.”
A Creature Was Stirring (2023)
Theaters and VOD (12/12)
In this twisted holiday horror film, Faith (Chrissy Metz) keeps her troubled teenage daughter (Annalise Basso) on a tightly controlled regimen of experimental drugs, their only means of fending off a mysterious, terrifying affliction. But after two burglars (Scout Taylor-Compton and Connor Paolo) attempt to rob the home on Christmas, they stumble upon a long-kept family secret—with monstrous consequences.
The Sacrifice Game (2023)
Shudder
This 2023 film is set at the Blackvale School for Girls in 1971. It’s bad enough that students Samantha (Madison Baines) and Clara (Georgia Acken) can’t go home for the holidays, but things take a deadly turn when a gang of cult killers arrives at their doorstep—just in time for Christmas.
The Mean One (2022)
Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube,
The film stars Terrifier 2’s David Howard Thornton as the iconic green villain in a Santa suit, living on a mountain high above the town of Newville. Young Cindy You-Know-Who (Krystle Martin), whose parents were butchered by The Mean One twenty years earlier, returns to town seeking closure. But when he launches a new reign of terror that threatens to destroy Christmas, Cindy finds a bold new purpose: killing the mean green monster.
Violent Night (2022)
Prime Video, RedBox, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra
Violent Night, which we called “our new favorite Christmas movie” in our 2022 review, sees “a team of mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage. The team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus (David Harbour, Black Widow, “Stranger Things”) is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.
13 Slays Till X-Mas (2022)
Prime Video, Tubi
This indie horror anthology is set on December 24th, Christmas Eve, with five seemingly random men invited to a dive bar in a mysterious e-mail. They decide to pass the time by resurrecting the old tradition of telling scary stories on Christmas Eve. As each takes turns spinning yarns of yuletide terror, it becomes evident they may be harboring a dark and deadly secret.
