10 Best Alternative Christmas Movies

The sight of twinkling fairy lights in peoples' windows, the muzak bombarding your ears in supermarkets, coffee shops and drunken office parties, and not forgetting the aggravating and creepy habit Jack Frost has of nipping at your nose. Yes, it's Christmas, and as ever the movie business is geared up with a steady supply of festive treats. Switch on your TV or go to the flicks and there's a glut of conventional fare, much of it involving a Steve Guttenberg type (or if you're very lucky Steve Guttenberg himself) mugging their way through a cloying wedge of cheery cheese.

But it doesn't have to be this way! Christmas isn't all heartwarming tales of snowy communities, rosy faces, fat men trying to fit themselves down chimneys and people learning things about the nature of humanity. New release Krampus is proof enough there's more to the season than hiding from carol singers and pretending to like egg nog. There are other types of film that use the festival a bit differently, making it an element of the action rather than the be and end all, or taking those familiar images and putting them through the shredder in various imaginative and challenging ways.

So in that spirit of seasonal rebellion, feast your eyes on this selection of subversive, Chrimbo-based treats. In these tales you're more likely to find a pudding laced with acid than brandy, and as for what Saint Nick has in his sack, well, it's best not to ask. With a ho ho ho and an OMG let's unwrap the first goodie on the list...