10 Great Christmas Horror Movies You Probably Haven't Seen

Finnish fantasy Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale opens with drillers in Lapland stumbling upon a burial mound. After a local boy called Pietari learns the mound contains an ancient figure, he becomes convinced the drillers have located Santa Claus. But when hundreds of reindeer carcasses are found nearby, Pietari suspects something far more sinister has been uncovered.

As tongue-in-cheek as the plot sounds, Rare Exports plays everything dead-serious, which makes everything spookier. When the town is invaded by old naked men, it's hard to know whether to laugh or scream.

Although the plot revolves around Father Christmas, the character itself is shrouded in mystery, which keeps the tension permanently heightened. There isn't much gore, but that doesn't stop Rare Exports from being skin-crawling.

It's also a neat idea to have a child serve as the main character. Since Pietari is a starry-eyed kid, it's emotional when he realises Santa isn't the stocking-stuffing saint that folk stories depict him as. Despite having to deal with this earth-shattering revelation, Pietari proves to be an adaptable protagonist, taking charge of the situation when chaos ensues.

Rare Exports isn't just a great horror but a tremendous Christmas flick, reinventing many aspects of Santa lore, and keeping everything fresh.