10 Underrated Horror Movies To Watch Over The Holidays

If you felt sorrow over not receiving an advent calendar this year, just be thankful you weren’t gifted one of the antique wooden (and haunted) varieties. The 2021 French-Belgian film The Advent Calendar tells the story of Eva (Eugénie Derouand), who is gifted an unusual advent calendar by her friend Sophie (Honorine Magnier) on her birthday.

But instead of the usual sweet treats behind each door, each day Eva unveils an unusual gift that has real-world repercussions that become increasingly horrific. But if she follows the rules of the calendar, it promises to grant a wish to its holder – something paraplegic Eva can use to her advantage to walk again, even if it causes the deaths of those around her.

Nothing makes horror fans feel jolly quite like supernatural entities and gore – something 2020 festive flick Hosts has in abundance. Set on Christmas Eve, Lucy (Samantha Loxley), Jack (Neal Ward), and their children prepare to enjoy a Christmas dinner together. They invite their neighbors Michael (Frank Jakeman) and Cassie (Jennifer K Preston), but something immediately seems amiss when they arrive as they harbor something sinister deep within that leads to devastating consequences for Lucy and Jack’s family.

Sitting around the TV is a holiday season staple, but you may think twice about those days-long binge-watches after watching this 2018 sci-fi thriller. Await Further Instructions, directed by Johnny Kevorkian, sees Nick (Sam Gittins) travel home with his girlfriend Annji (Neerja Naik) to spend Christmas with his dysfunctional family – including parents Tony (Grant Masters) and Beth (Abigail Cruttenden), his sister Kate (Holly Weston) and her husband Scott (Kris Saddler), and his grandfather (David Bradley).

Tensions soon rise, made worse by the fact the family discovers their home is surrounded by a strange black mass, which means they cannot leave. Soon, they begin receiving instructions from their TV that informs them one of them is infected (by what they do not know), kickstarting their fight for answers and survival.

At just 20 years old, Alice Maio Mackay has achieved more than most filmmakers do in a lifetime, and her latest feature shows her expertise expands to holiday horror. Carnage For Christmas, released this year, follows true crime podcaster Lola (Jeremy Moineau) as she visits her hometown for the first time since her gender transition. Once there, she is forced to fight for her life as a local urban legend comes back from the dead and begins terrorizing the local community to deadly effect.

There’s nothing quite like New French Extremity to channel the cozy Christmas spirit, right? And as it happens, this notorious flick takes place squarely in the festive season. Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s shocking 2007 film Inside focuses on Sarah (Alysson Paradis), a heavily pregnant woman who, just months after the tragic death of her husband, is preparing to give birth to her first child on Christmas Day. But her life is soon thrown into disarray after a mysterious woman (Béatrice Dalle) arrives at her home.

After Inside, you’ll probably need a little bit of comic relief – that’s where The Leech comes in. Eric Pennycoff’s 2022 horror-comedy follows struggling Catholic priest Father David (Graham Skipper), who meets Terry one morning after Mass (Jeremy Gardner). Terry has fought with his girlfriend Lexi (Taylor Zaudtke), and so David offers him a place to stay – it is almost Christmas, after all. But David’s act of kindness soon turns into a test of faith as Terry and Lexi aren’t all they appear.

The journey home for Christmas can be an arduous one, but hopefully, yours doesn’t end up as bloody as Dead End. Released in 2003 by Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa, the film sees Frank Harrington (Ray Wise), his wife Laura (Lin Shaye), son Richard (Mick Cain), daughter Marion (Alexandra Holden), and her boyfriend Brad (Billy Asher) driving on Christmas Eve to spend the holidays with Frank’s mother-in-law.

During their travels, they spot a mysterious woman (Amber Smith) holding a baby at the side of the road, and they offer a ride to their cabin. As she disappears, bodies begin piling up and the Harrington family are plunged into a living nightmare.

The 1970s saw the release of iconic festive slasher Black Christmas, but it also saw the lesser-known Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? Hit cinema screens. Curtis Harrington’s 1972 thriller takes inspiration from the folk tale Hansel and Gretel as we follow Mrs Forrest (Shelley Winners), aka Auntie Roo, who invites orphans to her mansion for a party every holiday season. At her latest party, Katy Combs (Chloe Franks) sneaks into the mansion with her brother Christopher (Mark Lester), only for Katy to be abducted by Auntie Roo who hides a deadly secret.

Spending quality time with family is what many look forward to over the holidays, but it doesn’t always go to plan. Josh Lobo’s 2019 directorial debut I Trapped The Devil takes the horror of dysfunctional families and dials it up to 11 as married couple Matt (A. J. Bowen) and Karen (Susan Theresa Burke) visit Matt’s troubled brother Steve (Scott Poythress) unannounced to spend Christmas together. Steve insists they leave but Matt and Karen refuse, something they would come to regret as they are shown a padlocked room at Steve’s home in which he claims to have trapped the devil.

What if Home Alone was a horror film? First off, it pretty much is. But secondly, it would probably be a lot like 1989 action-horror Deadly Games (also known as Dial Code Santa Claus). In René Manzor’s deranged Christmas flick, action-obsessed child prodigy Thomas de Frémont (Alain Lalanne) lives in a remote castle with his widowed mother Julie (Brigitte Fossey), and his vulnerable grandfather (Louis Ducreux).

On Christmas Eve he attempts to contact Santa Claus on his Minitel, unknowingly talking to a local killer (Patrick Floersheim) who targets the home when Thomas is alone with his grandfather. What the killer doesn’t know, however, is that Thomas will stop at nothing to protect his family, using what he has learned from action films to aid him.