The Best Horror Movies Streaming This Month Are Christmas Horror Movies (December 2024)

It's the holiday season, which can mean only one thing: it's time to watch Christmas horror movies! Christmas horror is nothing new. In the Victorian era, folks would gather by the fireside around Christmas time to tell each other ghost stories (this is how we got "A Christmas Carol"). Over the years, the horror genre has embraced this idea by unleashing horror films set on or around Christmas. Some of these films are quite bad and seem to recycle the same boring idea ("What if a guy dressed as Santa Claus killed people?!") over and over again. But there are others that make the yuletide bright. Hell, even some of the killer Santa stories work (just this year, we got the horror hit "Terrifier 3," which saw Art the Clown in full Santa gear). As the weird year that was 2024 comes to a close, and the horrifying uncertainty of 2025 lurks right around the corner, let's chug some mulled wine, deck the halls, and watch the following Christmas-centric horror movies. 

Streaming on Prime Video, Shudder, Tubi.

The granddaddy of all Christmas horror movies, Bob Clark's 1974 "Black Christmas" is also one of the most influential horror movies ever made. Clark beat John Carpenter to the "horror movie set on a holiday" punch and inspired countless imitators in the process. There have even been two remakes of "Black Christmas," although neither comes close to matching what Clark did in '74 (fun bit of a bonus trivia: Clark also directed another Christmas classic, "A Christmas Story," a little under a decade later). In "Black Christmas," a group of college sorority girls keep receiving obscene prank phone calls as Christmas approaches. While offensive in nature, the girls mostly shrug these calls off as harmless. Little do they know, the caller, an unseen killer who goes by the name Billy, has taken up residence in the attic of their sorority house and is proceeding to kill people off in gruesome ways. Using impeccable sound design and a prevailing sense of mystery, "Black Christmas" ratchets up the tension and creates an leaves you chilled to the bone. 

Streaming on Shudder.

Joe Begos' "Christmas Bloody Christmas"

is a stylish twist on the "killer Santa" concept. It's Christmas Eve, and record store owner Tori (Riley Dandy) and her doofy coworker Robbie (Sam Delich) set out to get drunk as the snow starts following. Little do they know that a robotic Santa Claus, originally designed as a military bot by the US Defense Department, has come to life and is about to go on a killing spree. Begos is rather lousy as writing dialogue (he comes from the Rob Zombie school of having his characters drop the F-bomb constantly as if they're naughty tweens who just started using the word for the first time), but he has a funky grindhouse aesthetic that blends nicely with Brian Sowell's frequently gorgeous cinematography that makes great use of Christmas lights.

Streaming on Max.

This list would be incomplete without "Gremlins," Joe Dante's gloriously nasty holiday horror-comedy with a Steven Spielberg touch. It's Christmas time in the small town of Kingston Falls, and local bank clerk Billy (Zach Galligan) has just received a gift from his dad (Hoyt Axton). The gift is a fuzzy little critter known as a mogwai. This adorable monster is named Gizmo, and he comes with a set of rules: keep him out of sunlight, don't get him wet, and never, ever feed him after midnight. Unfortunately, these rules end up getting broken, and poor, lovable Gizmo spawns a whole bunch of other mogwai who end up turning into nasty, horny gremlins. The gremlins proceed to run amok, murdering people and turning the town upside-down. It's up to Billy, his Christmas-hating crush Kate (Phoebe Cates), and Gizmo to save the day. The perfect blend of old school Amblin charm loaded with delightful creature effects, "Gremlins" is a holiday classic for a reason. 

Streaming on Tubi (Note: Tubi incorrectly lists the movie's title as "The Inside").

Part of the New French Extremity wave of ultra-violent French horror pics, Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo's "Inside" is a Christmas horror movie that will make you squirm. It's Christmas Eve, and the very pregnant Sarah (Alysson Paradis) is overdue to deliver her baby. Sarah isn't exactly excited about the prospect of motherhood, however — she's deeply depressed over the death of her husband, who was killed in a car crash in a few months ago. And Sarah's Christmas Eve is about to be very unmerry, as a mysterious woman (Béatrice Dalle) soon invades her home with the desire to cut Sarah's baby out of her belly for her own nefarious, psychotic reasons. What follows is a gruesome battle of cat and mouse that is definitely not for the squeamish. 

Streaming on Shudder.

"I Trapped the Devil" is a slow-burn chiller with a premise clearly borrowed from the classic "Twilight Zone" episode "The Howling Man." In the film, it's Christmas time, and Matt (A. J. Bowen) and his wife Karen (Susan Theresa Burke) have shown up unannounced at the home of Matt's estranged brother Steve (Scott Poythress). Steve acts nervous and weird at their sudden arrival, and while Matt assumes it's because he and his brother don't have the best relationship, he soon learns the real reason for Steve's anxiety: Steve has a guy locked up in a room in the basement. But according to Steve, it's no mere man he's holding prisoner, it's the Devil himself. Written and directed by Josh Lobo, "I Trapped the Devil" takes its time, building atmosphere that lends itself perfectly to its cold, wintry setting. 

Streaming on Max.

Michael Dougherty's "Krampus" always leaves me a little conflicted. On one hand, I think the movie is a triumph of production design, and it does a great job creating Christmas-based scares. On the other hand, the film runs out of steam as it approaches its conclusion, as if Dougherty couldn't figure out how to stick the landing. On top of all that, it really bugs me that the film is firmly PG-13. I'm not the sort of person who thinks all horror movies must have a hard R rating, and I completely understand that Dougherty was attempting to recreate the "family friendly horror" vibe of, say, "Gremlins." But I genuinely think that "Krampus" would've worked better had it gone for an R rating. Still, despite all of this, "Krampus" has its charms. In the film, a family is trapped in their house when the Christmas demon known as Krampus unleashes all sorts of holiday horror, including killer toys, murderous gingerbread men, and a whole lot of snow. 

Streaming on Kanopy.

If you like your Christmas horror bleak, then you should check out Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's "The Lodge." Colder and darker than a night in December, "The Lodge" is a nerve-jangling experience that never lets the light in. Following the shocking death of their mother, bratty siblings Aiden (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) are outraged that their father (Richard Armitage) is remarrying. Their new stepmom-to-be is Grace (Riley Keough), a woman who grew up in a cult that ended in mass suicide. Grace is extremely fragile, but she also seems very sweet and very kind and tries very hard to win over the kids. Unfortunately, the kids are a pair of jerks, and when they get snowed-in with Grace at a cabin during Christmas, they decide to torment the poor woman with a mean-spirited plan. Unfortunately for the siblings, this plan backfires spectacularly when Grace's sanity completely snaps. The moral of the story: children are awful. 

Streaming on Netflix.

Speaking of bleak Christmas movies, here's "Silent Night"! To be fair, this is officially considered a dark comedy, but it goes to such unsettling places that I think it qualifies as horror. In the film, a group of posh British friends gather together at a huge country estate for a Christmas party. As the evening descends and the party begins, everyone seems to be acting a little off. And we soon learn why: due to the effects of climate change, a poisonous gas cloud is sweeping across the world and killing everyone. There's seemingly no escape from the death cloud, so the U.K. government has handed out suicide pills to allow folks to take matters into their own hands. The friends, along with their kids, plan to have one last holiday blowout before taking the pills. None of this sits well with young Art (Roman Griffin Davis), who tells his parents (Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode) that he doesn't want to take the pill, much to their chagrin. "Silent Night" has moments of gallows humor comedy, but it also goes to such unrelentingly dark places that you might want to skip this one if you're not in the best headspace. 

Streaming on Tubi.

"Silent Night, Deadly Night" became a lightning-rod for controversy when it arrived in 1984. These days, movies about killers in Santa Claus costumes are commonplace, but back then, the concept was so offensive that many people got up in arms (it's worth noting that most of these people were protesting the film based on its now-famous poster alone, which had Santa's hand popping out of a chimney clutching an axe). The low-budget B-picture became so controversial that it ended up being pulled from theaters. However, all that controversy also ensured the film turned a profit, which meant a franchise was born. All-in-all, the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" franchise is rather dire. It has its moments ("Garbage day!"), but it's not very good. In my humble opinion, the most interesting film in the series is "Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation," which is a sequel in name-only. This entry has nothing to do with a killer dressed like Santa Claus. Instead, it follows a journalist (Neith Hunter) who discovers a coven of witches preparing to make a Christmas Eve sacrifice. Directed by shock master Brian Yuzna, "Silent Night, Deadly Night 4" is extremely sleazy and gross, full of weird makeup effects and giant bugs. Happy holidays!

Streaming on Shudder.

In 1968, BBC1 released the short film "Whistle and I'll Come to You," based on the M.R. James ghost story "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad." As I mentioned at the start of this article, Victorians had a tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas. While the short film originally aired in May of 1968, it lead directly to the anthology series "A Ghost Story for Christmas," a series of short films inspired by classic ghost stories that would air on the BBC around the holiday season. Several of the "Ghost Story for Christmas" specials have now been added to horror streaming platform Shudder just in time for the holiday season, including "Whistle and I'll Come to You," which is probably the best of the bunch. While the story isn't set on Christmas, it's very much in the Christmas ghost story tradition, and it manages to generate plenty of chills and thrills. Michael Hordern plays Professor Parkin, a solitary man prone to mumbling to himself. Parkin is on holiday at a seaside hotel during the winter, and one day, while walking in a nearby cemetery, he finds a whistle. Curious, Parkin blows into instrument, which proves to be a bad idea since it seems to summon some kind of supernatural force that begins tormenting this poor man. Or maybe it's all in his head? Spooky and strange, "Whistle and I'll Come to You" is the perfect holiday horror treat.