20 Best Christmas Horror Movies You NEED To Watch

5. A Christmas Horror Story

A Christmas Horror Story
RLJ Entertainment

It's honestly surprising there aren't more Christmas horror anthologies out there, especially as 2015's A Christmas Horror Story proves how solidly effective they can be.

This anthology contains four horrific yuletide tales, including a run-in with Krampus (Rob Archer) and one in which Santa Claus (George Buza) discovers that his wife and elves have become zombies, alongside a wraparound starring William freakin' Shatner as a radio DJ.

A Christmas Horror Story is unavoidably constrained by its budget, but credit where it's due. The practical makeup effects used to bring Krampus to life in particular are fantastic, there are a number of memorably OTT death scenes, and it offers up a fun final twist you probably won't see coming.

Like just about all anthology films, it's fundamentally uneven, but all of the stories have their charms, and the decision to intercut them throughout the runtime rather than run them consecutively helps maintain a strong sense of pacing.

 
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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.