Over the past decade, there has been an influx of new Christmas-themed horror movies designed to scare audiences as we enter the most wonderful time of the year. But how do you write great Christmas horror movies — more specifically, slasher movies? Is there something about it that’s different than other slasher movies? Or Christmas movies?
Of course there is.
It’s not enough to write a horror movie, slap a few holiday tropes and you suddenly have created a multi-genre story. Just like any other movie, there are certain expectations from the audience and tropes you can gather from both genres. If you understand those expectations and tropes, you can use them to your advantage.
Creating the Slasher Film
Once upon a time, you could get away with creating a slasher film with enough gore and gratuitous nudity that people would watch it over and over without really caring why the killer was killing. But that doesn’t fly these days. Knife/axe/chainsaw-wielding bad guys need to have a reason to take their aggression out on seemingly innocent, generally high school or college-aged, people. An example: the villain in Black Christmas had a reason for seeking out the girls he was killing.
Christmas slasher films create opportunities for more festive deaths. Even though it’s not a horror movie, Home Alone is a great example of crafting unique methods of mayhem — just look at the creative ways Kevin protected his home from the Wet Bandits, including using broken ornaments, hot irons, and blow torches as booby traps. Christmas horror plays on the season and the everyday items that people don’t normally consider weapons — in Black Christmas, there is strangulation via Christmas lights and stabbings with icicles.
‘Black Christmas’ (2019)
If this is the route you’re going with your Yuletide terror, take a look around this holiday season and see what both the villain and the victim would use as a weapon of destruction — both could use a reindeer lawn decoration for offensive and defensive purposes.
Consider Making a Monster
Krampus doesn’t provide much horror in the first part of the film. It seems more like a dysfunctional family Christmas story not unlike the Christmas comedy The Ref. But things begin to change after a son loses all his Christmas spirit. A blizzard blows into town and suddenly evil monsters start taking out the people in the neighborhood homes. As the patriarch heads out to find their daughter (who left to check on her boyfriend) he comes across several monsters including a demon-like Krampus, an evil version of Santa.
This Christmas horror movie introduces a monster as the villain. But monsters are manifestations of something internal from the characters. This monster of Christmas represents the animosity amongst the family and to defeat the villain means the family coming together. Just like in movies like Godzilla or Planet of the Apes, the monster of the movie signifies something deeper.
For the Christmas-themed monster movie, it must have an association with the holiday to add a little bit of fun. In Krampus, for example, some of the family members find themselves fighting against tiny psychotic gingerbread men.
Read More: How to Make a Monster
Starting with Normal
When it comes to crafting a great Christmas horror movie, you’ll want to focus the first act on developing the characters. In most of the movies in this genre, they all begin with a somewhat normal vibe. Krampus is about a family whose relatives they hate come into town and the underlying animosity. It spotlights the relationships of the father, mother, and children before moving into the wider family dynamics with the relatives.
Better Watch Out takes a similar approach. There’s seemingly nothing scary about it and no horror or thriller elements exist: it’s a kid who is probably too old for a babysitter being left home when his parents head out for a holiday party. That is until ominous signs start appearing that bad guys are wanting to break into the house.
The conflicts in the first act of Christmas horror movies develop the arc that many characters will take throughout the film as they battle the respective monster/killer/villain. In fact, these movies could go a different route if it weren’t for that evil creature that wants them dead.
‘Better Watch Out’
Another example is Anna and the Apocalypse, which turns the zombie movie into a holiday musical. The singing is normal in their world and the dynamics of high school life play out fairly normally until the town becomes overrun by zombies.
When the element that makes these movies a horror film makes its debut, it’s as if the genre itself changes from a standard Christmas drama/comedy/musical into a horror film.
Christmas Elements
If you’re stuck figuring out the Christmas elements that will make your movie a fun holiday horror, watch a Hallmark movie. These campy, cozy movies are filled with tropes that make the season more festive and cheerful. From Christmas tree shopping to hot cocoa, the horror movie writer can transform these wholesome things into some wicked ways to cause damage. Turn the hot cocoa into a scalding means of escaping the knife-wielding maniac or have fun with the axe used to chop down the tree. You have pokers for fireplaces, strings of lights, and the star on top of the tree as a means of destruction.
In Krampus, there were evil gingerbread men. So, if there’s a demonic twist to your Christmas horror, think about turning the inflatables on people’s lawns or reindeer atop the roof into something more sinister.
Don’t Forget the Gore
Remember, slashers are known for two key elements — violence and gore. Don’t be afraid to include buckets of blood and guts in your script, as well as the terrifying actions that led to those things being outside of the body.
There’s a great scene in Anna and the Apocalypse in which Anna makes her final stand against her tyrannical high school principal Mr. Savage in the school’s auditorium…where he is using her father as bait…for zombies. Did I mention this is also a musical? Well it is, and this scene manages to showcase the blood-soaked slaughter of a hoard of zombies through a catchy song and dance number.
This scene is proof that violence and gore can mix well with holiday hijinks — and your Christmas slasher flick will be all the more entertaining if you’re able to find a good balance.
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If you don’t want to use the Christmas elements, then stick with a straight-up horror movie and don’t worry about the holiday genre. All of the Christmas-horror films have an expectation though and if they aren’t met, the audience will be let down. Look no further than a recent film titled Silent Night which was billed as a Christmas comedy/horror. That was the expectation and the actual movie is far different – it’s not a bad movie, but it’s not what you expect when you start watching it.
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Author: Steven Hartman
