George and Josh Bate
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, they say, and the vast majority of holiday films seem to reflect that. The classics consist of Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Story, and more. Yet, there’s a very niche, seemingly growing, subgenre of Christmas movies that tap into a different set of emotions – horror-themed stories set during the holiday season. Terrifier 3 is arguably the prime example of that right now, as the Damien Leone-directed film moved away from the Halloween setting of the first two movies to place the threequel right in the middle of the holidays. Art the Clown is even dressed as Santa Claus, such is the commitment to the Christmas bit. While Leone’s ultra-violent and gory slasher is the most well-known and most financially successful example of recent Christmas horror, the holiday horror subgenre has existed for decades. 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of Black Christmas, a seminal 1970s movie that continues to define holiday horror. Beyond the widely appreciated Black Christmas and Terrifier 3, there are plenty of other gripping and scary holiday horror films that have gone under the radar. Here are three under-appreciated Christmas horror movies that we think you should watch this holiday season.
The Christmas Tapes (2022)
The Christmas Tapes comes from none other than Greg Sestero. Yes, that Greg Sestero; the co-star of Tommy Wiseau’s infamous The Room. Unlike that film though, Sestero’s dip into the holiday horror genre is to be taken seriously (for the most part).
The Christmas Tapes is an anthology horror film (a common storytelling structure in the indie horror circle) with each vignette interspersed with a separate story that carries over the course of the entire film. This separate story sees a stranger (played by Sestero) knock on a family’s door on Christmas Eve. The kind family welcome the stranger in, only to soon realize that he is very strange and very committed to Christmas movies. The stranger proceeds to make the family watch a series of video tapes, which, in turn, encompass the rest of the anthology film. Sestero’s character prefaces these video tapes by saying he wants the family to watch some Christmas home movies, if they can be described as such. What they actually are, however, is far more sinister than that – each tape is a home recording from someone, all of whom are either committing violent acts around the holidays or are the victims of said violence. Sestero’s character acts as if the family will enjoy these movies, but not in a crazed-like way. His character seems absolutely convinced that the family will like the videos he presents, which ties back to the peculiar nature of the overarching story. At times, Sestero’s scenes border on the humorous side, but they never go far enough down that rabbit hole to disrupt the unique tone the filmmakers have found. Fans of the Creep movies and the recently released The Creep Tapes on Shudder will see a number of tonal and narrative similarities between those indie horror projects and The Christmas Tapes.
While consistently sinister, the tone and intensity of holiday horror vary across the tapes. The first is more serious in nature: a couple records themselves as they spend Christmas camping in the wilderness. With a slow-burn story, the couple find themselves in the middle of nowhere, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary happens. It differs from conventional horror stories in that regard, as the heroes are often seeing signs of the spooks and scares to come before everything truly kicks off. The only notable moment in the story prior to the climax is when the couple make a scarecrow from a children’s tale they describe and then take a picture with it. It’s that scarecrow that shows up in the middle of the night as they’re sleeping, no longer an object and instead a fully animated, moving monster. The couple are relatively quickly disposed of, and the first tape ends.
In terms of horror anthology stories, this one is pretty run of the mill. It’s not poor by any means, but the real quality of The Christmas Tapes starts to show later on with some of the latter films. The opening tale, though, harkens back to the likes of The Blair Witch Project, with a handheld camera and poor visibility that make everything that little bit scarier. The audience can’t see exactly what’s going on, but they know the characters are in danger, and the sinking feeling that they won’t make it out of this situation alive starts to set in.
Another tape played for the family, who are now even more upset as they’re forced to watch people being murdered on camera, focuses on a businessman who has an idea to surprise his children for Christmas. Despite his claustrophobia, he plans on putting himself in a massive wooden box and delivered on their front doorstep for the youngsters to open. He hires an older gentleman dressed as Santa Claus to bring him to the house inside the box, who, at this point, shows no real sign of his sinister side. As this is a horror movie and death is the primary theme throughout all of the videos being displayed, the audience is aware that this Santa is probably not who the customer thinks he is.
Santa Claus, as he’s credited as, is played by Vernon Wells, who appeared alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 80s action film Commando. He’s older and greyer, but still has the recognizable voice and sinister smile that he has brought to so many roles over the years. When things start to go south for the hero of this particular story, Santa and his wife, Mrs Claus, tie him up in a Saw-like situation and force him to play a game. He must choose from a series of boxes and hope that he doesn’t opt for a bad one, as Santa says. Wells gets the opportunity to show his villainy here, explaining that he’s out for revenge after losing his job due to the kidnapped man. Wells is still smiling, laughing, and isn’t physically threatening him personally. From a filmmaking perspective, the scene staged here can be described as amateurish of sorts. It appears to just be a basement of a house with a shelf full of hand-wrapped boxes and some poorly hung Christmas lights throughout the room. Unlike the previous anthology story discussed, this holiday horror film doesn’t have the luxury of darkness to cloud the characters’ surroundings. Here, everything is clear, which presents an interesting challenge for everyone involved.
It’s how the actors and filmmakers respond to that challenge that highlights the quality of The Christmas Tapes as a whole. The scenery may look underdone and unfinished, but Wells in particular puts in such a captivating performance that the low budget nature of the film doesn’t take the audience out of the story. Wells sucks viewers in with his smiling yet violent character, and remains unpredictable throughout, even as it’s clear that his Santa doesn’t plan on acting very Santa-like at all. His next move is always unclear, and even though the audience has a feeling that the story will end with the death of the kidnapped man, how we get to that stage remains a mystery right up until the very end. Wells hooks in the audience and toys with them in such a way that they can’t help but be entranced by this incredibly disturbing Christmas tale. That unpredictability is what the tape ends with, as the man’s head is blown right off in a bloody and violent conclusion. The outcome was expected, but the journey to get to that ending feels completely uncertain.
There are a few other tales shown to the captives in The Christmas Tapes (including a very strange story that lasts less than five minutes and shows a man strapped with a bomb to his chest constantly losing time), but the last one stands out among the rest. The concluding act of the film follows a couple moving into a new home, but they don’t have their belongings yet, so they decide to use what’s already in the house (Horror Movie 101: this is a bad idea). This includes putting up the Christmas decorations found in an old brown box around the house, adding lights to the tree as well as ornaments and candles for the rest of the room. There’s also a seemingly innocent looking miniature statue of Santa that turns into the villain of this story.
When the couple sees some strange happenings around the house in the night, including a Blair Witch-style shot of the wife standing up close to and facing the wall, they decide to bring in a ghost catcher. He calls himself Paranormal Perry, not to be confused with the other Paranormal Perry located in Michigan. His way of investigating these disturbances is so bizarre that it becomes suspicious; at one point, it feels possible that Perry himself is the ghost of the house. It’s during the practice of one of his strange and peculiar methods that Perry and the couple are killed by the Santa statue, which shows its true nature with glowing red eyes.
The contrast between the Vernon Wells-centered story and this paranormal activity-like segment highlights the strength of The Christmas Tapes. The former is dark and disturbing, while the latter leans into humor much more than any of the other anthologies. Aligning with the true spirit of Christmas and holiday horror, this varied approach means that there’s a little bit of something for everyone in this movie. Perry’s story is arguably the most memorable of the bunch, powered by the performance from Dave Sheridan, who’s a known figure in the world of spoof films like Scary Movie. Just like Sestero, Sheridan can only be described as bizarre, but unlike the mastermind of this film, the latter isn’t unnerving. As stated, there’s much more comedy in this segment, so while Sestero puts in a turn that stops just before becoming something funny, Sheridan embraces his story’s genre switch up.
It’s clear throughout the duration of the tape that Sheridan is improvising his way through scenes; even the other actors can be seen laughing and hiding their face from the camera at times. In many ways, the choice for Paranormal Perry’s story to be the last of the tapes shown is what puts a bow on The Christmas Tapes as a whole. For the last 90+ minutes, viewers have just watched people being tortured, murdered, and even having their heads exploding on camera, so Perry’s entrance serves as a pallet cleanser of sorts.
Ultimately, The Christmas Tapes doesn’t revolutionize the horror genre in any way, nor does it do anything notably different from some other scary holiday movies. The trick is that the film doesn’t need to, as the execution of the ideas is more than enough to make this an underrated Christmas horror gem.
Body (2015)
2015’s Body is another often-overlooked holiday film. Unlike The Christmas Tapes, Body isn’t quite as holiday-focused, but the events do take place on Christmas Eve and that theme remains throughout. Body follows Holly, Cali, and Mel, three college students spending time together during their winter break. Cali leads the girls to her uncle’s house, only for the two to realize soon after that the home doesn’t actually belong to a family member. Rather, Cali worked as a nanny for a wealthy family that she says spend months away during the winter months and that no one would enter the house. That assumption is quickly quashed, however, as a man comes in, hears the intruders, and begins to look for them. The trio meet the man on the edge of the staircase when, in an attempt to escape past him, the girls push him down the steps as he falls and hits his head. They investigate and discover that he isn’t breathing, and without too many spoilers, many twists and turns come throughout this horror-thriller.
If Body sounds akin to an Alfred Hitchcock film, that’s because it is. The isolated setting, small cast of characters, and constant revelations are some of the many similarities that change the way that the audience looks at the entire story. Even these twists come when you least expect them. The first major turn, for example, happens after the movie had been relatively straightforward up until that point. There were no signs of a first act plot twist, and yet one arrived, throwing the viewers off in the same way that the characters are.
In fact, there’s one Hitchcock-inspired film that Body mirrors, in style if not story. 1982’s Death Trap, starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve, is also set in one location, and the goals and motivations of the characters shift throughout. That film is based on a play of the same name, and Body’s secluded, one-location setting makes it feel like a theater production as well. There aren’t many interesting visuals or any exciting action, and instead the filmmakers are relying on the strength of the dialogue and, more broadly, the entire story, just as Death Trap does.
Body certainly leans into the thriller genre heavily, but it’s more than unnerving enough to be called a horror film. With such a small cast situated in only a few rooms of one house, the film’s immersive nature makes it so the audience feels as if they’re in this situation alongside the characters. Many viewers watching Body this holiday season will likely be asking themselves what they would do in a situation where they accidentally ended a man’s life, and if they should call the police and tell the truth or attempt a coverup instead. That also highlights another strength of this film, as the questions being asked of the characters, and by extension the viewers, pose significant moral dilemmas. This makes Body deeper than the average horror story, and one that will likely linger in the minds of the audience afterwards.
Christmas Evil (1980)
One film that continues to be on the mind of audiences is 2019’s blockbuster hit Joker. Five years after its release, the discussion surrounding the movie remains strong, as does its cultural impact. This was made even more true by the release of its controversial sequel, Joker: Folie a Deux, which was a subversion of expectations in every sense of the term. Many have questioned if the sequel has harmed the impact of the first film, and if the 2019 movie remains as gripping as it once was now that audiences know what happened next to Arthur Fleck. The answer to that question is debatable, although one could argue that Joker is simply too refined, albeit simple, to be bogged down by a misguided follow-up.
Simple is a key word there. Critics of Joker have labeled the film as such because of its very singular, individualistic narrative. Every scene essentially boils down to someone, or a group of people, mistreating Arthur Fleck for no good reason. The film begins with that right away, as kids steal Arthur’s sign and assault him afterwards. There was no clear reason for that attack, yet Arthur was the victim of a heinous, mindless crime, a fact that explains his later transformation into the Joker. The next scene? Arthur applies clown makeup to his face when some of the other employees in the room start to make fun of him for being weak and skinny. The film carries on like that until the moment Arthur snaps, and its at that point that Joker becomes a story of a rage-fueled murdering rampage.
Many have noted the similarities between Joker and other films like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, both of which follow deranged men with a capacity for violence. However, there’s another film that Joker resembles: Christmas Evil (also known as Terror in Toyland).
Christmas Evil focuses on a man named Harry, who has some strong feelings about Christmas after witnessing sexual intimacy between his parents on the eve of the holiday. His complicated views on Christmas entail a dislike for the portrayal character of Santa Claus around the holiday time as his father was dressed in the red and white outfit when the event took place. Traumatized, and likely disturbed by other things as well, Harry grows up and becomes a worker at a toy factory. Just like Arthur in Joker, Harry’s fellow employees poke fun at him, calling him a “schmuck” and looking down upon him. While off hours, Harry begins a delusional plan of becoming a real life Santa, spying on kids to see if they’re being good or bad and detailing their behavior in a notebook. From there, Harry is angered by a coworker who lied to him in order to get him to cover a night shift, as well as an encounter with his brother. With a violent fascination for the holiday, Harry is enraged by the idea that the company is giving toys away to underprivileged children, believing that the act is nothing more than a PR stunt and that they don’t actually care about the kids at all. The final straw takes place after Mass, when he impulsively kills his coworkers after they again made fun of him.
Sound familiar? A mentally ill man with an unhealthy childhood is mistreated by those around him and eventually snaps and goes on a murder spree is a description that could describe Joker and Christmas Evil. The latter is narratively simple as well, and yet it is the kind of film that makes the audience think afterwards. Joker had this same impact for many, with viewers questioning our society, treatment of others, and the massive impact that these things can have on someone. That’s why, if you’re looking for a more thoughtful, unsettling holiday horror film, Christmas Evil could tick that box.
With all of that holiday horro, Christmas Evil is also still a slasher at heart. In a way, it’s as if Halloween began with an extended sequence showing all of the horrible things that happened to Michael Myers that turned him into a serial killer in the first place. And both Halloween and Christmas Evil pose the same sort of questions to the viewer. Do these people deserve to die (like rude and sometimes cruel teenagers in Rob Zombie’s Halloween or nasty coworkers in Christmas Evil)? The answer is obviously no, but unlike Carpenter’s original Halloween, the audience still understands why Harry commits these acts. It’s not a justification, nor is it an endorsement of his actions, but the film goes deep into the psychological state of a man who does feel that it is okay to kill.
As it’s from 1980, there are some elements of Christmas Evil that can be considered dated. The acting from the supporting cast is far from Oscar-worthy, and the whole film feels a tad old-fashioned, not always in a charming way. But just like The Christmas Tapes existed as a low budget, cheap film that utilized acting and quality of storytelling to make the audience overlook that, and how Body is similarly low budget and without any massive action alongside the thrills and chills, Christmas Evil overcomes its rough edges to be more than worth a watch.
Speaking of acting in this holiday horror selection, Christmas Evil can’t be discussed without addressing the performance of Brandon Maggart as Harry. The actor plays his character as both unsettling and compelling, and captures the tragedy of a man succumbing to his mental illnesses and being consumed by his trauma. There’s a nuance to Maggart’s performance, which wasn’t always the norm in low budget horror films at this time, as he shifts from a mild-mannered, relatively sympathetic figure to a violent, dangerous, and deranged Santa Claus-dressed killer. Maggart is able to capture Harry’s internal conflict, showcasing his kindhearted, caring nature while also unearthing a dark side. Moreover, Maggart expertly plays a crazed man who’s convinced that he’s bringing justice to the world as a vigilante of sorts. That nuance is in part down to the script, which paints Harry as mentally ill and with violent urges while also harboring genuine love and kindness in his heart, but Maggart brings all of that together to bring to life a very divisive, confused, and thought-provoking killer. It’s this performance that pushes Christmas Evil over the edge, making it far from a one-dimensional slasher movie and instead being somewhat of a character study of Harry.
For many, Christmas is the time for jolly family flicks like Home Alone or A Christmas Story. But, for those with slightly darker tastes, the holiday season is ripe for more unsettling stories. The holiday horror subgenre has received increased attention in recent years, as evidenced by the mammoth success of Terrifier 3 this year. However, there is far more to this subgenre than Terrifier 3 and 1974’s Black Christmas. With The Christmas Tapes, Body, and Christmas Evil, we’ve highlighted three hidden gems of holiday horror that just may make your winter season a bit more frightening in ways you don’t expect.
