When you think of Santa Claus, you might conjure images of a holly, jolly man with red cheeks and a contagious smile. However, in film, Santa Claus isn’t always the happy old man he’s meant to be. In fact, sometimes Santa is the dark antagonist of some edgier holiday movies.
With entries dating at least as far back as 1972’s Silent Night, Bloody Night and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the holiday season has long been a popular setting for darker films. Along the way, there have been numerous evil depictions of Santa Claus. If you’re in the mood to darken your Christmas movie list, keep on reading to find out about some of the darkest depictions of Santa Claus in film!
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8 Silent Night (2012)
Buffalo Gal Pictures
In the dark-themed holiday movie Silent Night, Police in a small Midwestern town look for a murderous Santa Claus who is killing locals on Christmas Eve. The Covina Holiday Massacre, a real-life incident that occurred on Christmas Eve in 2008, served as inspiration for the movie in part. The events of this incident helped screenwriters create the evil Santa that appears in the film wielding a variety of weapons and wreaking cold-blooded havoc on the town. That’s definitely not the St. Nick you’re used to!
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7 All Through the House (2015)
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
A psychotic Santa-Slayer in a mask visits the area to spread holiday havoc in All Through the House. As he makes his way to the entrance of the most infamous and feared house in the neighborhood, he leaves a gory trail of dismembered dead in his wake. If you’re looking to watch something a little out of the ordinary this Christmas season, this 80s-style slasher is definitely one that shakes up the otherwise cheerful themes of holiday movies.
Most of All Through the House was filmed in just seven days!
6 Krampus (2015)
Legendary
Horror. Comedy. Christmas. That’s what you get with Krampus, a 2015 movie centered around the evil creature from Austro-Bavarian folklore that punishes children on Christmas. While the holiday season is perhaps the most wonderful time of the year, the horned and hateful Krampus is determined to cause mayhem and put fear in the hearts of the Engel family. Fun fact: director Dougherty has “always wanted to film a terrifying Christmas movie,” but it wasn’t until his buddies sent him an e-card with the Krampus figure that the concept came to life.
5 Violent Night (2022)
Universal Pictures
On Christmas Eve, an elite group of mercenaries bursts into a family compound and holds everyone inside hostage. Santa Claus is on the premises and is about to demonstrate why this Nick is no saint, but they are unprepared for this unexpected opponent. Violent Night takes a spin on Santa Claus’ normal persona, that’s for sure.
4 Once Upon a Time at Christmas (2017)
When a couple of serial killers stalk a small town while costumed as Santa and Mrs. Claus, a teenager and a rookie officer must figure out the pattern behind the seemingly random killings. If you enjoy Once Upon a Time at Christmas, there’s also a sequel that came out in 2019 entitled The Nights Before Christmas.
3 Bad Santa (2003)
Miramax Films
The grumpy Willie T. Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) and his partner (Tony Cox) get together once a year for a holiday con in the dark comedy, Bad Santa. They rob retail establishments on Christmas Eve by pretending to be a mall Santa and his elf. Willie, though, is disintegrating this year. Because of his unpredictable conduct and alcoholism, he is suspected by mall security (Bernie Mac). But when a little child he befriends brings out his softer side, Willie starts to question whether there is still hope for him.
2 Krampus: The Christmas Devil (2013)
In Krampus: The Christmas Devil, a local police officer named Jeremy has a complicated past and spends his free time looking for the person who abducted him as a child. When other kids start going missing, Jeremy pieces together the reality and learns that his kidnapper may have been Krampus, a figure from old Christmas folklore who is St. Nick’s brother and the punisher of kids who have done wrong.
Paul Ferm, who played Santa Claus, is a former homicide investigator for the Miami area. During the “cage scene,” he actually caused Sean, who was played by Benny Weaver, to cry. While Paul was there, Benny wouldn’t go back to the “cave.” Benny was so terrified of Paul that the script’s director Jason Hull had to delete a page from it.
1 Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Robert Brian Wilson, Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero, Linnea Quigley, Britt Leach, and Leo Geter are among the cast members of the 1984 American psychological slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night. The protagonist of the narrative is a young man named Billy who experiences post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of seeing his parents murdered on Christmas Eve by a man posing as Santa Claus and growing up in a violent Catholic orphanage. He experiences a psychotic collapse as an adult during the Christmas season and then goes on a killing rampage while dressed as Santa Claus.
