Five Thoroughly Bizarre, Demented Christmas Movies To Watch This Week

Back when Krampus made its way to cinemas, ComicBook.com talked about five of our favorite […]

September 5, 2017, 4:29pm

Back when Krampus made its way to cinemas, ComicBook.com talked about five of our favorite horror-themed Christmas movies…

…and as you’d expect, we got plenty of feedback telling us about the stuff we’d missed out on.

Videos by ComicBook.com

While Krampus isn’t a new release anymore, it’s still in theaters and with Christmas coming up this week, it seems worth reminding our readers that the movie is out there (you know — if you aren’t going to see Star Wars for the fourth time) and that it’s part of a long history of demented Christmas flicks. These might not be horror movies, exactly (although there’s some element of horror to some of them), but…yeah. Merry Freaking Christmas.

And, no, we’re not counting Die Hard. Becuase there’s nothing wrong with Die Hard on any level, and it doesn’t need a spotlight in every Christmas-movie article.

Like what? Well…

SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS

Made famous for a new generation by Mystery Science Theater 3000, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a truly bizarre film.

…which had a comics adaptation!

If that doesn’t convince you that you need to have seen the film, or read the comic, in spite of how awful it is…

…well, humbug to you, too.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

Yeah, Edward Scissorhands isn’t completely Christmas-centric, but it counts for us…

…especially when you consider that Tim Burton, who likes to reuse visual and thematic cues, has explored Christmas before in some length with The Nightmare Before Christmas.

During the Christmas season, Edward — an artificial, unfinished life-form and often a cultural outcast — is feared and cast out by almost everyone except the Boggs family. When Edward returns home he reveals that he knew it was Jim’s house they were trying to rob and that he did it because Jim asked him to, much to Kim’s shock. This in turn causes Kim to show a sour demeanor towards Jim. While the family is setting up Christmas decorations, Edward creates a large angel ice sculpture (modelled on Kim). The shavings create an effect of falling snow, which Kim dances under…but things don’t go smoothly from there, of course.

It’s a great movie that currently has a comics adaptation at IDW Publishing.

EYES WIDE SHUT

Now, this movie is just a strange one even if you remove the Christmas setting.

The film centers on a married couple who are experiencing…some issues. Dr. Bill Harford is shocked and dismayed when his wife, Alice, reveals that she had contemplated an affair a year earlier. He responds by infiltrating a massive, masked orgy of an unnamed secret society.

The novella the film is based on happens in early-1900s Vienna during Carnival, a Mardi Gras celebration, and the decision to change it to Christmastime when the film was moved to New York in the 1990s has never been fully explained. Still, the use of Christmas lights, trees and other visual iconography helps make the film’s world even more unsettling, since there’s no Christmas-friendly themes, music or cheer on display, as noted by many critics at the time.

PUPPET MASTER VS. DEMONIC TOYS

A Syfy original movie, this crossover between two schlock horror movie franchises is one of the strangest and silliest horror movies of all time…and it’s set at Christmastime!

The film stars Corey Feldman as the great-grandnephew of Andre Toulon, and Vanessa Angel as the head of a toymaking factory who plans to dominate the world using its latest line of holiday products.

Seriously — this movie is gleefully, self-consciously awful. It’s amazing.

See it.