13 Christmas Horror Movies to Die For
You’d better watch out.
You’d better not cry.
You’d better not shout. Try hard not to die.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
There’s certainly no shortage of Christmas horror movies. Here are thirteen of them that might have you staying up all night, just in case the wrong Santa comes down that chimney.
- This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Table of Contents
1. Rare Exports (2010)
“This Christmas everyone will believe in Santa Claus”
Rare Exports is a Finnish comedy Christmas horror movie.
A research team in Lapland uses explosives to excavate a fell rumored to be the home of a folklore figure that helped shape modern-day versions of Santa Claus. Soon after, slaughtered reindeer are found and children start disappearing.
A boy and his father catch Santa and try to sell him back to the corporation that sponsored the dig. But they haven’t counted on Santa’s elves who really don’t like naughty children.
Ratings
IMDB: 6.6 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 70% audience score | Amazon: 4.6 out of 5
2. Black Christmas (1974)
“If this picture doesn’t make your skin crawl…it’s on too tight”
Black Christmas (also known as Silent Night, Evil Night) is a slasher Christmas horror movie. There were remakes of this movie in 2006 and 2019 but word online seems to be that the original is the best and don’t bother with the 2019 one.
As winter break begins, a group of sorority sisters begins to receive anonymous phone calls. Initially, one of the girls insults the caller, but stops when he responds threateningly. One of the girls goes missing from the sorority house, and a local girl is murdered, leading the girls to suspect a serial killer is on the loose. But no one realizes just how near the culprit is.
Ratings
IMDB: 7.1 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 75% audience score | Amazon: 4.6 out of 5
3. Better Watch Out (2016)
“You might be home but you’re not alone”
Better Watch Out (also known as Safe Neighborhood) is a psychological Christmas horror movie.
It’s Christmas and Ashley is babysitting Luke. Soon after Luke’s friend Garrett arrives, they hear a window break upstairs and find a brick with the message ‘U leave and U die’ on it. Ashley soon discovers this is no normal home invasion.
Ratings
IMDB: 6.5 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 64% audience score | Amazon: 4.0 out of 5
4. The Advent Calendar (2021)
“This year, Christmas is going to be deadly”
The Advent Calendar is a French thriller Christmas horror movie.
Ex-dancer Eva has been paraplegic for three years. When her birthday arrives, she receives a strange advent calendar as a gift. But instead of the traditional sweets, every day reveals something different; sometimes pleasant but often terrifying, and increasingly bloody.
It’s going to be a very deadly Christmas this year.
Ratings
IMDB: 6.3 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 63% audience score | Amazon: 3.8 out of 5
5. The Lodge (2019)
“You’re not welcome here”
The Lodge is a psychological Christmas horror movie.
Grace, an ex-cult member and soon-to-be stepmother, becomes stranded at Christmas at a rural lodge with her fiance’s two children. Isolated and alone, a blizzard traps them inside the lodge as terrifying events summon specters from Grace’s dark past.
Ratings
IMDB: 6.0 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 51% audience score | Amazon: 3.9 out of 5
6. P2 (2007)
“The only thing more terrifying than being alone is discovering that you’re not”
P2 is a thriller Christmas horror movie.
A young businesswoman becomes trapped in an underground parking garage in midtown Manhattan on Christmas Eve, where she is pursued by a psychopathic security guard who is obsessed with her.
Ratings
IMDB: 5.9 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 36% audience score | Amazon: 4.6 out of 5
7. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
“He knows when you’ve been naughty”
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a slasher Christmas horror movie and is the first in a series of five movies in the franchise. This movie was removed from cinemas after a public outcry about using Santa Claus as a scary figure at Christmas time.
Grandpa warns Billy that Santa punishes those who are naughty. On the way home, Billy’s parents are murdered by someone wearing a Santa costume. Billy and his brother Ricky are brought up in an orphanage run by a strict disciplinarian nun. When Billy turns eighteen, he leaves the orphanage and circumstances lead him to becoming Santa himself.
Ratings
IMDB: 5.8 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 39% audience score | Amazon: 4.4 out of 5
8. Wind Chill (2007)
“There are worse things than dying”
Wind Chill is a supernatural Christmas horror movie.
To get home for Christmas, a young woman accepts a lift from another student at her university. After they take a ‘scenic shortcut’, their car swerves off the road and becomes buried in a snowdrift.
They think help has arrived when a highway patrol cop knocks on their window but things turn weird from there. The strange cop keeps reappearing, always heralded by ‘Rocking’ Around the Christmas Tree’ coming on the car’s radio.
They find themselves in a supernatural loop as a 1953 crime repeats itself and taking new victims over the years.
Ratings
IMDB: 5.8 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 31% audience score | Amazon: 4.2 out of 5
9. Sint (2010)
Sint (also known as Saint and Saint Nick) is a Dutch dark comedy Christmas horror movie.
On 5 December 1492, villagers kill a gang led by former bishop Niklas. In following years, when the gang’s death date coincides with a full moon, they return as ghosts who kidnap and murder children.
Ratings
IMDB: 5.6 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 29% audience score | Amazon: 4.1 out of 5
10. Christmas Evil (1980)
“This Christmas you better believe in Santa… or he’ll slay you”
Christmas Evil (also known as You Better Watch Out or Terror in Toyland) is a slasher Christmas horror movie.
A toy factory worker, mentally scarred as a child upon learning Santa Claus is not real, suffers a nervous breakdown after being belittled at work, and embarks on a Yuletide killing spree.
Ratings
IMDB: 5.5 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 33% audience score | Amazon: 4.7 out of 5
10. Christmas Evil (1980)
“This Christmas you better believe in Santa… or he’ll slay you”
Christmas Evil (also known as You Better Watch Out or Terror in Toyland) is a slasher Christmas horror movie.
A toy factory worker, mentally scarred as a child upon learning Santa Claus is not real, suffers a nervous breakdown after being belittled at work, and embarks on a Yuletide killing spree.
Ratings
IMDB: 5.5 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 33% audience score | Amazon: 4.7 out of 5
11. Santa’s Slay (2005)
“Spreading holiday fear this Christmas”
Santa’s Slay is a comedy slasher Christmas horror movie.
Santa Claus, the son of Satan, lost a curling match to an angel and is sentenced to 1000 years of delivering presents on Christmas. In 2005, when the 1000 years are up, Santa is free to kill again. And he really goes to town.
Ratings
IMDB: 5.3 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 43% audience score | Amazon: 4.4 out of 5
12. Silent Night (2012)
“He knows who’s been naughty”
Silent Night is a slasher Christmas horror movie that’s described as a ‘loose remake’ of Silent Night, Deadly Night, but really the story’s quite different.
A killer dressed as Santa is on the loose. When a deputy goes missing, Aubrey is forced to fill in for him. She discovers the deputy’s mangled body as the masked Santa goes on a murder spree, killing people he believes have been naughty. Can Aubrey find him in a town full of Santas?
Ratings
IMDB: 5.2 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 33% audience score | Amazon: 4.3 out of 5
13. Jack Frost (1997)
“He’s Chillin’ and Killin’”
Jack Frost is a black comedy slasher Christmas horror movie. It was followed up by a second movie Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman.
During the week before Christmas, a truck carrying serial killer Jack Frost to his execution crashes into a truck carrying genetic research chemicals. The chemicals dissolve Jack’s body and fuse him with the snow on the ground. Jack comes back as a killer snowman to get his revenge on the sheriff who caught him.
Ratings
IMDB: 4.6 out of 10 | Rotten Tomatoes: 30% audience score | Amazon: 4.6 out of 5
Bonus: 7 More Christmas Horror Movies
Here’s another 7 if you still need more.
- A Christmas Horror Story (2015) – anthology Christmas horror with interwoven stories
- All Through the House (2015) – slasher Christmas horror
- Christmas Blood (2017) – Norwegian slasher Christmas horror
- Red Snow (2021) – vampire Christmas horror
- Home for the Holidays (1972) – thriller Christmas horror
- I Trapped the Devil (2019) – supernatural Christmas horror
- Fatman (2020) – more comedy than horror
Published: 18 December 2022
Subscribe
Horror-themed clothing, notebooks, homewares, and accessories
