10 Greatest Christmas Movie Villains Ever
It's not just the Grinch who fancied stealing Christmas - the holiday season is full of wrong'uns!
Christmas is a time for good will to all men, peace, giving, love, understanding, and so forth. You spend time with family, eat, drink, and be merry, and certainly stay away from committing any evil deeds. That works for most of us - but not for the Christmas villain.
Villains at Christmastime can be motivated by all manner of grievances or desires. Some hate Christmas, and wish to see an end to the foolish frivolities. Others are career baddies - they’d be committing these misdeeds any time of the year, it just so happens they’re ruining Christmas with their crimes. Sometimes the pressure of the season gets to you and you act unacceptably with the best of intentions. Sometimes you’re just not all that good of a person to start with.
No Christmas hero would be complete without a Christmas villain, it’s fair to say, and so we should be thanking these festive fiends for adding a little spice to our Yuletide entertainment. But whether they’re truly monstrous or just misunderstood, you can bet this Xmas rogues’ gallery have earned themselves a place on the naughty list.
10. Stripe (Gremlins)
Gizmo is one of the cutest creations in cinema history, so anything attempting to harm him is automatically gunning for a top spot on this list. Perhaps the meanest puppet ever created, Stripe is a demon created by a teenage boy’s negligence, teaching us the important lesson: don’t let your guard down, even at Christmas.
Revisiting Gremlins, it’s surprising just how dark and violent it is. The rogue mogwais murder a science teacher, and the humans in turn dispatch of the critters in various gruesome manners.
The malicious and menacing Stripe will surely have haunted many a young viewer’s dream from its 1984 release onwards. His reign of terror is finally ended when Billy exposes the mogwai leader to direct sunlight. In a heartwarming moment, Stripe is horrendously melted, screaming with agony until his charred corpse finally tumbles into a fountain, bereft of life. Merry Christmas!
A 15 certificate, Gremlins is literally not a kids’ film, but the misleading cuteness of the creatures will certainly have convinced many parents otherwise. It’s a safe assumption that plenty of resulting sleepless nights were caused not by anticipation of Christmas Day, but fear of a Gremlin attack.