Movies
5 Horror Films You Might Have Forgotten Were Set Around Christmastime
If Die Hard is a Christmas movie, so is Jaws: The Revenge!
Around this time of the year, all the horror sites across the net spend a good deal of time talking about holiday horror classics like Black Christmas and Silent Night, Deadly Night, and sometimes we even get a little bit obscure by shining the spotlight on lesser-known gems like Elves and Don’t Open Till Christmas. But these are all horror movies with very obvious Christmas themes and settings, often directly noted in their titles. Other horror films, well, they’re so subtly set around Christmastime that maybe you didn’t even notice. Or maybe you’ve forgotten over the years.
Today we wanted to talk about the Christmas horror movies that are almost never actually classified as Christmas horror movies. But they totally are, and they deserve that recognition.
Here are 5 of them!
1) JAWS: THE REVENGE
One could say that the Jaws franchise “jumped the shark” in the wake of Steven Spielberg forever making the entire world terrified of the water, and 1987 sequel Jaws: The Revenge is pretty strong evidence of that fact. The film implies that sharks basically have a vendetta against the Brody family, and in it Ellen Brody (wife of Martin Brody) seeks revenge for all the torment they’ve caused her family. In the opening sequence, young Sean Brody is eaten by a massive shark on the frigid waters of Amity at Christmastime, while the local choir sings classic holiday tunes off in the distance. The quick cuts back and forth between the attack and the singing kids makes for a pretty effective opening scene, firmly establishing Jaws: The Revenge as a Christmas film.
2) MANIAC COP 2
Picking up directly after the events of the first film, 1990’s Maniac Cop 2 is the rare sequel that’s probably better than its predecessor… and it’s also set around Christmastime! Bruce Campbell reprises the role of Jack Forrest, once again coming face-to-face with the undead Matt Cordell (who teams up with a NYC serial killer). The holiday has a strong presence in the film even if it’s never part of the storyline; Christmas decorations are in the background of most scenes. Cordell never dons a Santa suit, but his second outing was undoubtedly a Christmas slasher.
3) INSIDE
The brutal 2007 French horror film Inside doesn’t exactly make for family-friendly viewing around the holidays, but what you may not remember is that the bulk of the film takes place on Christmas Eve. Alone in her house just four months after losing her husband in a car wreck, the pregnant Sarah is tormented by a mysterious woman with a vendetta. Nothing about Inside really screams Christmas, but when you consider that it’s a film primarily centered on a baby being born on Christmas day… that’s pretty much the story of Christmas in a nutshell, is it not?!
4) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION
Last year’s Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension wasn’t exactly a memorable end to the long-running franchise, but you’d be hard-pressed to find another horror movie that makes better use of the 3D technology that it employs. The other thing that differentiates it from the other films in the series? It’s the Christmas one! Yes, Ghost Dimension is totally set right before Christmas, and a massive tree in the family home is on display throughout the entirety of the movie. It’s rare that horror franchises have Christmas installments, so props to PA for getting festive.
5) THE CONJURING 2
As we told you last month, James Wan very intentionally made this year’s The Conjuring 2 a Christmas movie, explaining to us that the holiday played a huge role in the story. “My aim was to make The Conjuring 2 a Christmas-themed and set horror film,” he said. “It felt very relevant with the characters and the world.” The England-set sequel obviously takes place around Christmastime, as decorations are seen in the background and several holiday tunes are played. There’s even a memorable scene where the Hodgson kids decorate a Christmas tree.
Other unlikely Christmas genre films include The Stepfather (2009), Prometheus, and Jurassic World. Can you think of any others? Comment and let us know!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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