Six Christmas Horror Movies To Kill Your Festive Spirit
Susi Holliday
It’s no secret that my favourite Christmas film is Die Hard. Who doesn’t want to see Bruce Willis crawling around inside lift shafts in his vest, while a psychotic German terrorist tries to blow up Los Angeles? Yippee-kai-ai motherf**ker! Anyway, it’s not really a horror film, so I thought, to tie in a bit more with the weird folklore mentioned in my festive serial killer thriller, The Deaths of December, I would delve into a few proper Christmas horror films and see which, if any, would have me ripping the threads off my tinsel…
6. A Christmas Horror Story (2015)
Four interconnecting stories. Started well with a proper jump scare during a video-taping moment, leading to some very creepy ghostly bits, a creepy old lady with a horrible Krampus figurine and a terrifying changeling. Let down by zombie elves. Partially redeemed by William Shatner.
5. Silent Night Deadly Night (1984)
This started so well. Very creepy grandpa moment, followed by madman dressed as Santa massacring a young boy’s parents. The young boy escapes, and is understandably traumatised – even more so when he is abused by nuns in an orphanage. Roll forward a few years, and he is asked to dress up as Santa… and it seems that his trauma is not too far under the surface. Cue ridiculous amounts of fake blood and lots of grotesquely killed (bra-less) females. Leaves you with a feeling of extreme ickiness.
4. Krampus (2015)
Starts out as a dark comedy, throws in a few genuinely creepy moments, goes completely bonkers for a while with rabid gingerbread men and possessed toys… then turns horribly bleak and ends with a brilliant moral twist. Be careful what you wish for!
3. Gremlins (1984)
Aww, who doesn’t love Gizmo? This film is so much fun. I have loved it since I first saw it as a kid. It’s not quite as scary as it was back then, but I can appreciate the perfectly hilarious bar scene now with much more clarity.
2. The Box (2009)
Apart from the weird sci-fi sequence in the middle featuring water tanks and some sort of weird teleportation, this is a perfectly twisted tale of choices and consequences. Just before Christmas, a strange man delivers a box to your house, all it contains is a button. Push it, and you get $1,000,000 – but a stranger has to die. Think of the money though. And strangers die all the time. Except, you’re not the only one who’s going to be given this choice… and you might be someone else’s stranger. Chilling and with a heart-breaking ending, this is definitely worth a watch if you fancy something a bit different.
1. Black Christmas (1974)
This is a genuinely creepy old movie set in a sorority house just before Christmas featuring the classic horror tropes that influenced so many others. The weird krank caller, the madman in the attic and the gradual bumping off vulnerable girls while the police take too long to take it all seriously. Something about the caller reminded me of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and it was great to see a couple of actors who went on to star in more of the classics – Margot Kidder (The Amityville Horror) and John Saxon (A Nightmare on Elm Street). And those carol-singing children. Urgh! Massively underrated and highly recommended for fans of classic horror.
Susi Holliday
S.J.I. (Susi) Holliday is a pharmaceutical statistician by day and a crime and horror fan by night. Her short stories have been published in many places and she was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham prize with her story ‘Home from Home’, which was published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in spring 2017. She is the bestselling author of the creepy and claustrophobic Banktoun trilogy (Black Wood, Willow Walk and The Damselfly) featuring the much loved Sergeant Davie Gray, and the festive serial killer thriller The Deaths of December. Her latest psychological thriller, The Lingering, is modern gothic with more than a hint of the supernatural, inspired by her fascination and fear of ghosts.
You can find out more about Susi by visiting her official website www.sjiholliday.com
Follow Susi on Twitter @SJIHolliday
Married couple Jack and Ali Gardiner move to a self-sufficient commune in the English Fens, desperate for fresh start. The local village is known for the witches who once resided there and Rosalind House, where the commune has been established, is a former psychiatric home, with a disturbing history
When Jack and Ali arrive, a chain of unexpected and unexplained events is set off, and it becomes clear that they are not all that they seem. As the residents become twitchy, and the villagers suspicious, events from the past come back to haunt them, and someone is seeking retribution…
At once an unnerving locked-room mystery, a chilling thriller and a dark and superbly wrought ghost story, The Lingering is an exceptionally plotted, terrifying and tantalisingly twisted novel by one of the most exciting authors in the genre.
You can buy The Lingering from Amazon UK & Amazon US
It looks like a regular advent calendar.
Until DC Becky Greene starts opening doors . . . and discovers a crime scene behind almost every one.
The police hope it’s a prank. Because if it isn’t, a murderer has just surfaced – someone who’s been killing for twenty years.
But why now? And why has he sent it to this police station?
As the country relaxes into festive cheer, Greene and DS Eddie Carmine must race against time to catch the killer. Because there are four doors left, and four murders will fill them . . .
It’s shaping up to be a deadly little Christmas.
You can buy The Deaths Of December from Amazon UK & Amazon US
I’ve been looking for some new books. These sound great! And all of these movies but one are on my holiday watch list each year. The Box is one I haven’t seen yet.