Silent Fright: 10 Christmas horror films

JAWS the Revenge (1987)

Naturally, we need to start the list with JAWS the Revenge, which even juxtaposes the death of the beloved Sean Brody with carol singing - which is one of the film's standout moments - before we - and the great white shark - head off for a spot of fishing in the Bahamas.

There is a Christmas tree, presents, snow and carol singers, so yup it stays on the Christmas list. And clearly there needs to be more banana boats in Christmas films.

Black Christmas (1974)

This shocker from the future director of Porky’s and that other holiday classic A Christmas Story is the grandaddy of all holiday films, and we don't mean just Christmas, bit predating the likes of Halloween and Friday the 13th by four and six years respectively. Plus, it probably includes cinema's greatest stabbing by a unicorn head and includes a pre-Superman: The Movie Margot Kidder.

Continuing to resonate, the film saw a remake in both 2006 and 2019, which is hardly surprising with its sorority house setting and creepy phone calls.

Gremlins (1984)

Director Joe Dante, Executive Producer Steven Spielberg and Writer Chris Columbus bring us ‘E.T. with teeth’, which captivated and entertained upon release and still stands tall as a comedy horror Christmas classic, and you don’t get many of those.

It’s a deliciously wicked and rich film, even until this day and has an almost timeless charm about it like that other 80’s classic Back to the Future, which also shared the Universal backlot as its main set that created the town, Kingston Falls, and it does so spectacularly.

We get suckered into the cute, furry routine just like the Peltzers. It’s a family movie alright, but more about a family’s survival than in the traditional sense of the word. As such it caused such shockwaves Stateside (it was a 15 here in the UK) and was one of two films that year, 1984, that helped create the PG 13 rating in America, the other film being Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

For all the Gremlins’ attacking from a Christmas tree, driving a bulldozer into the Futterman house, causing mayhem in the streets it’s a very low key scene that lingers in the memory and proves to be the most distressing, that classic monologue by Phoebe Cates on why she hates Christmas.

It’s a chilling story of her family finding her dead dad stuck up the chimney dressed as Santa Claus. Inspired and perhaps only pipped by the SS Indianapolis story speech by Quint in JAWS for its powerfulness. And it is creepy as hell.

Jack Frost (1997)

No, not the Michael Keaton family comedy where he dies and comes back as a snowman, to be honest that still sounds a difficult pitch.

This Jack Frost almost sounds like a superhero origin story as the titular killer crashes into a lorry load of genetic material that turns into a homicidal snowman. It's as bonkers and off the wall as it sounds.

The Children (2008)

Two families with young children go away and spend Christmas together, but the children fall ill…and with it they turn into crazed mini-killers and the young cast of adults and children really deliver.

Think Village of the Damned meets the kid from Pet Semetery, this film is claustrophobic and is sometime difficult to watch, but it is certainly an edge of your seat effective chiller set at Christmas.

If you have children then you’ll be sleeping with the bedroom door locked for a few nights after this one.

Santa's Slay (2005)

Wrestler Bill Goldberg is an evil killer Santa Claus, and this film wants to be so bad it is good, but it is just plain dismal.

Nothing really works, from the kills to the one liners that wouldn't make it out of the Christmas cracker factory.

Outside of the title and the premise it runs out of steam very quickly and neither works as a Christmas film or tongue in cheek horror.

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

We are back in killer Santa territory, this time he is wielding an axe, but what makes this film a unique entry is that it is told from the Killer's point of view. And this murderous Santa played an active part in the film's promo campaign which was a step too far for some parents who protested its depiction of the bearded fella with the giant sack.

Treevenge (2008)

That's right, a sentient killer Christmas tree. I mean, what's not to love?

This short from the director of Hobo With A Shotgun will have you rooting for this absurdly inventive horror that does for spruces what Bruce did for sharks in JAWS. You'll never look at your tree in the same way ever again.

Krampus (2015)

The Grinch meets Groot on steroids is perhaps the best way to describe this darkly comic tale about a mythical German monster that devours humans to survive.

For me, despite an effective story, its great cast and some nice sequences it never danced the line between horror and comedy as effectively as the likes of Gremlins or An American Werewolf in London, but none-the-less it is high on the tree of Christmas horrors and has built up an ardent following.

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