The Children

Evil kids are a tried-and-true horror staple responsible for some legit masterpieces—The Bad Seed, The Exorcist, The Omen, Who Can Kill a Child?, and Bloody Birthday, to name just a few.

Deadly Games aka Dial Code Santa Claus

Probably most famous for being considered the French—and more violent and traumatic—Home Alone (which came a year later), Deadly Games is a wild, visually inventive Christmas thriller that stands on its own.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Have you ever noticed how frightening the absurd can be? The less something holds with what we regard as the operating standards of reality, the more it troubles us, especially when the situation is personally, rather than communally, affecting.

Christmas Evil

The aim of slashers—at least in their early days—was to shock. They weaponized their newness and how they broke with films of the past, in which the gory details of riven bodies happened offstage after a fashion, even when those injuries were sustained in front of our very eyes.

Scrooge

Like the old cuss himself, Scrooge (1951) is a mix of the sentimental and the horrific.

Inside

If there was a prize for the worst Christmas Eve in film history, it would easily go to grieving young mom-to-be Sarah (Alysson Paradis).

Beware, My Lovely

Christmas in the company of people we call friends and/or those with whom we share a last name can often feel like Christmas in isolation or alongside strangers.