Top Ten Christmas Horror Movies

Christmas is a time for loving, giving, and sharing, true. But it can also be a time of creepy, unspeakable horror. Halloween and Friday the 13th are not the only special occasions which have their share of good fright flicks. If you feel like taking a break from the relentless Christmas carols, muzak and maudlin TV specials this Christmas, here are ten movies which will send a chill down your spine that won't have anything to do with walking in a winter wonderland.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

OK, not strictly a horror movie. This stop-action musical-comedy-fantasy is plenty macabre, though. The story of skeleton who decides to conquer Christmastown, any movie which features Santa being kidnapped and tortured is a horror movie in my book.

Christmas Evil

The heartwarming story of a boy who loves the story of Santa Claus...only to be psychologically scarred for the rest of his life when he discovers he isn't real. Hey, I hear you, buddy. Unlike most people who find out there is no Santa, though, he devotes his life to bringing the Christmas spirit into the world, and reacts quite violently when others don't take the holiday as seriously as he does. You know, people like...you.

Silent Night, Deadly Night

More emotional scarring, this time when a young boy witnesses his parents being killed by a criminal dressed in a Santa suit. Growing up repressed and homicidal, he goes on a killing spree during the holidays he sees a couple defiling the holiday by having sex in a store room. Spawned three more, vastly inferior, sequels.

Silent Night, Bloody Night

Similar title but done a decade earlier. Strange movie about insane asylums, threatening phone calls, arson, and murder during the most wonderful time of the year.

Don't Open 'til Christmas

A change of pace in which the the crazed killer runs amok through London, murdering in a variety of bizarre ways. This time, the killer is not the one wearing a Santa suit but is instead tracking down anyone else dressed as a Santa. All this and Scotland Yard, too.

A Christmas Carol

Come one, you don't think this one is scary? Not only does it have ghosts, but the awful, depressing future in store for Ebenezer is one of the most frightening things imaginable. This one does have a happy ending, but hey, it's Christmas. Do yourself a favor and watch the 1951 Alastair Sim version, "Scrooge".

Ghost Story

Set in a seemingly-never-ending winter, Ghost Story not only has ghosts but also shapeshifters, werewolves and Fred Astaire. The book was better, but the movie has a chilly gloss to it that makes it a good Christmas horror movie.

Let the Right One In

OK, I'm cheating here. This one has nothing overtly to do with Christmas. But I can't let the finest horror film of the past past thirty years go by unmentioned in a Top Ten list. There's snow and ice aplenty in this story, about a thirteen-year-old boy and the vampire he loves. Set in an early 1980's Sweden so snowbound and frosty that it makes me chilly just watching the trailer.

Tales from the Crypt

A British anthology movie based on stories from the vaunted "Tales from the Crypt" comic. Only the first has much to do with Christmas, but it's a doozy. Joan Collins kills her dim husband for his money in opening segment, only to find out you can't cheat karma when an escaped mental patient dressed as Santa comes to her home.

Black Christmas

Widely acknowledged as the scariest Christmas horror movie ever made. See the 1974 original and not the idiotic 2006 remake.