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Christmas is my favorite time of year to watch holiday themed horror movies. Maybe because they’re non-traditional, but Christmas themed horror movies are especially fun. Every year I watch old favorites, but I also like to watch new (or new to me) Christmas horror movies.
Here are two Christmas horror movies that I watched for the first time this season:
Red Christmas – A stranger connected to a dysfunctional family’s past show up on Christmas to terrorize them. The characters in this movie were believable and well acted. The antagonist, Cletus (Sam Campbell), was intriguing and at first almost sympathetic. I wasn’t wild about his unmasking scene, but he was an interesting character. Also, it’s always great to see Dee Wallace. In this movie, she plays Dianne, a woman who has faced heartache and difficult decisions. This movie includes political and ethical topics, so if you don’t like that kind of thing, you might want to skip this one, otherwise add it to your Christmas horror list.
Good Tidings – This is another slasher-type horror movie with good character development and believable acting. The sadistic Santas are creepy, but at times I almost couldn’t tell if they were human or if they had some kind of supernatural characteristics. Most of the other characters were sympathetic or at least understandable. For many, we got enough backstory or enough meaningful interaction with other characters to know what kind of people they are and what issues they were dealing with. If you’re looking for a combination slasher movie and drama, Good Tidings fits the niche.
This season I also watched the Christmas with Cookie movies and will be writing about them in a separate post.
What Christmas horror movies have you watched for the first time this year, or what are your some of your old favorites?
Links courtesy of IMDb.