'Tis the season to hang colorful lights, wrap presents, and dig into holiday-themed horror movies. Whether they're cheesy films about anthropomorphic killer snowmen or more serious flicks about deranged tweens who stalk their babysitters, the snowy, end-of-the-year horror tradition remains strong in filmmaking.

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Fans of horror may be surprised by how many under-the-radar titles fit into this festive subgenre. While unhinged Santa Clauses are definitely featured in some of these films, quite a few take holiday celebrations into completely new, and completely terrifying, territory. From demons to zombies to cults, the bizarre and supernatural are given the Christmas treatment in these more obscure productions.

The Lodge (2019): Hulu

The Lodge (2019)

Devoid of any camp or color, The Lodge is a deeply disturbing tale of psychological terror about a brother and sister snowed in at a remote cabin with their soon-to-be stepmother. Riley Keough plays the stepmother, Grace, a former member of a doomsday Christian cult.

Jaeden Martell and Lia Hughes play the kids, who are still reeling from the death of their biological mother. As the three wait out the snow together, strange and hallucinatory events eventually roll into a shocking finale.

Silent Night, Deadly Night: Part 2 (1987): Amazon Prime

Ricky in a Santa suit holding a weapon over his head in Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

The second installment in the Silent Night, Deadly Night slasher franchise doesn't take itself seriously at all. The sequel centers around Ricky Caldwell, whose brother Billy Chapman embarks upon the murderous rampage depicted in the original 1984 film.

Ricky follows in his brother's footsteps and goes on the attack while donning a Santa Claus outfit. Silent Night, Deadly Night: Part 2 maintains a large cult following - thanks to its so-bad-its-good acting, extremely low budget, and problematic handling of mental health issues.

The Children (2008): HBO Max

The Children (2008)

The British horror movie The Children is technically set around the New Year, but it is rife with Christmassy vibes and icy landscapes. In the film, two families shack up in a remote home in order to wrap up the holiday season together.

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The only problem: the younger kids in the group slowly turn on their parents, transforming into murderous demonic kids intent upon shedding blood. When the adults aren't able to reign in the violence, a rebellious teenager named Casey must defeat the evil brood.

Dead End (2003): Tubi

Someone screaming in a car in Dead End (2003)

An English-language French production, Dead End follows a family on their way to visit grandma and grandpa on Christmas Eve. When the father, Frank, decides to take a shortcut through the woods, he drives his family straight into a haunted expanse that lacks any exits.

Influenced by the entities working their magic around them, the family starts to turn on each other as ghostly entities converge around them. Dead End stars beloved cult horror actors Ray Wise and Lin Shaye.

Red Christmas (2016): Amazon Prime

Red Christmas (2016)

Red Christmas is known for its cringe-inducing and nasty scenes that are often countered by goofier, B-movie sequences. This film that contradictorily takes its subject matter too sincerely and not sincerely at all stars Dee Wallace as Diane, a mother reunited with her long-lost son Cletus over the Christmas holidays.

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Cletus arrives at Diane's home in a long, black cloak - the first of many signs he's not interested in a happy gathering. It turns out Cletus is set upon destroying all of his relatives in order to avenge what happened to him as a child.

Anna And The Apocalypse (2017): Hulu

Anna And The Apocalypse (2017)

What's better than a British Christmas movie that centers around a zombie apocalypse? How about a zombie-filled British Christmas movie that is also a musical?

Anna and the Apocalypse is a cross-genre sing-along full of blood, brains, and the walking dead. This ensemble flick stars Ella Hunt in the title role, whose small-town Little Haven is overrun by hungry zombies around the start of the Christmas season.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010): Amazon Prime & Hulu

Rare Exports A Christmas Tale (2010)

Dark comedy blends with Christmas horror in the Finnish romp Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. A group of archaeologists stumbles upon the real Santa Claus while conducting an expedition in mountainous, rural Finland - but this Santa is far from the golly ol' fellow of lore.

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When local children go missing, the research crew decides to capture Santa and sell him off to the corporation paying for their dig. Enter Santa's elves, who will stop at nothing to free their boss from the chains of contemporary society.

The Day Of The Beast (1995): Tubi

The Day Of The Beast (1995)

Christmas-time Madrid is the backdrop for The Day of the Beast, a Spanish-language movie about a small group of locals who band together to defeat the Antichrist. The Odd Couple meets The Omen as a priest, a death metal enthusiast, and an occult TV show host track down a group of Satanists making deals with the devil.

The Day of the Beast disavows all expectations about Christmas horror movies and presents a refreshingly original tale. It's also genuinely frightening.

All Through The House (2015): Amazon Prime

All Through The House (2015)

The Santa slasher tradition carries on with 2015's All Through the House, a true gorefest focused on a suburban neighborhood whose residents are obsessed with Christmas. 20 years after one of the neighborhood girls goes missing, a deranged Santa slayer appears on the block - conducting one act of homicidal mayhem after another.

Low budget, tasteless, and jam-packed with more Christmas decorations than any department store in November, All Through the House is an excellent example of a film aware of its own shortfalls. Instead of adding more drama to combat its deficits, this film just revels in excess and inanity.

The Phantom Carriage (1921): Criterion Channel

The Phantom Carriage (1921)

One of the most influential Scandinavian films of all time, The Phantom Carriage is an experimental masterpiece based on a New Year's legend. With Christmas looming in the near distance, the film revolves around a drunkard who inadvertently finds redemption after experiencing a run-in with Death's Phantom Carriage on New Year's Eve.

Relying on double exposure techniques, the titular vehicle is visualized roaming around the countryside collecting the souls of the dead. If the main character David wants to survive the night, he must come to acknowledge and seek redemption for his past indiscretions.

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