It's around this time of the year that countless lists will abound detailing those Christmas classics that you absolutely have to watch, from the heart-warming thrills of It's A Wonderful Life to the hare-brained hilarity of Elf, but less commonly do people discuss the weirder side of Christmas fare. Though studios love their generic holiday mulch, it's fantastic when a film manages to evoke the Christmas spirit while encompassing bizarre behaviour that's somewhat at odds with it, whether it's drug use, murder, or more fantastically, Santa Claus himself being appropriated as either our saviour or someone we should be afraid of. Whether tonally or through sheer barminess, here are the 10 weirdest Christmas movies of all time, strange and unconventional, but we wouldn't have a winter around the TV without them.
10. Go
Go is among the most unconventional of holiday movies given that while it's centred on heavy drug use, guns, burning buildings, rampant sex and (possible) vehicular manslaughter, it's also a light-hearted, hilarious and very smart look at a number of lives interconnecting during the 24 hours leading up to Christmas Day. The film begins with Ronna (Sarah Polley) working her crummy job at a supermarket, and through a constantly revolving plot structure, we see her botch a drug deal, run someone over, and try to find a way to come up with the cash necessary to reimburse dealer Todd (Timothy Olpyhant) before he kicks off at her. Throw into this a story about two TV actors who are helping a cop (William Fichtner) with a drug sting operation, and a road trip that goes very, very wrong, and you have the makings for one of the wilder rides this side of Tarantino. Unlike most Christmas movies, Go doesn't have families staying in for Christmas dinner; here people are out late in the night, hoofing drugs and causing mayhem, a very different portrayal of the madness that the holidays can bring.