‘The Christmas Chronicles’ Reimagined As Horror Film in Fan Trailer

Throughout his extensive career, Kurt Russell has become an icon of genre film, which made Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles one of the more delightful new holiday classics thanks to his turn as Santa Claus. Over on YouTube, user P.L. Boucher used footage from the film in combination with various horror movies to create the concept trailer for “Yuletide,” depicting Claus as a horrifying villain. Check out the fan-made trailer above.

The fake film’s synopsis describes, “When a primordial evil is released by a team of scientists digging in the North Pole on Christmas Eve, the residents of a small town rapidly become infected and transformed into nightmarish creatures. Their only hope is a mysterious man (Kurt Russell) held at the local police precinct who claims to be Santa Claus.”

Interestingly, in classic genre films like The Thing and the Escape From New York series, Russell sported a beard, with his appearance in Christmas Chronicles immediately demonstrating a familiar look for the actor with his earlier roles. Various fans have previously delivered parody posters using Russell’s latest role, yet this new trailer might be one of the more effective mash-ups yet.

The Christmas Chronicles is a holiday adventure from producer Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) and director Clay Kaytis (The Angry Birds Movie), tells the story of sister and brother, Kate (Darby Camp) and Teddy Pierce (Judah Lewis), whose Christmas Eve plan to catch Santa Claus (Russell) on camera turns into an unexpected journey that most kids could only dream about. After staking out Santa’s arrival, they sneak into his sleigh, cause it to crash and nearly derail Christmas. As their wild night unfolds, Kate and Teddy work together with Santa – as you’ve never seen him before – and his loyal Elves to save Christmas before it’s too late.

The film doesn’t only appeal to devout fans of Russell, with Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos having previously revealed what a success the film’s launch was.

“Even in his successful career, he’s never had that many people see one of his movies in the first week ever,” Sarandos shared at UBS’s 2018 Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, per Business Insider. “That’s a testimony to what we can bring to the market for storytellers today that we couldn’t have ten years ago.”

He noted that Kurt Russell has “never had as many people see one of his movies in the first week ever.”

You can check out the film on Netflix now.

Would you like to see this trailer become a real feature film? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!