Silent Night? Not Here. 10 Christmas Horror Movies Worth Screaming Over
Killer Santas, twisted holiday traditions, and Christmas celebrations gone horribly wrong are taking over movie night. Who said the most wonderful time of the year couldn't be terrifying?
Christmas is supposed to be the season of joy, generosity, and pretending you love the questionable gift your relatives picked out. The decorations go up, the holiday music plays on repeat, and families gather around the television for another round of feel-good favorites. But let's be serious. There's only so much festive cheer a person can handle before the idea of a killer Santa starts sounding like a welcome change of pace.
Holiday horror has a special talent for turning everything we associate with Christmas into something deeply unsettling. A beautifully decorated house becomes a crime scene, a quiet winter getaway turns into a nightmare, and the person coming down the chimney might have something worse than coal in mind. Throw in a few family secrets, suspicious strangers, and enough fake snow to cover the evidence, and you've got a holiday celebration nobody's putting on a greeting card.
For horror fans who prefer their Christmas spirit with a little more screaming, Tubi has a gift worth unwrapping. The Tinsel & Terror collection brings together Christmas horror movies that trade warm holiday wishes for deadly surprises, offering everything from cult-classic slashers to twisted folklore and outrageous seasonal creatures. And since Terror on Tubi keeps the scares coming all year long, the holiday season is just another excuse to indulge in something terrifying. Our Halloween Is Over, but Terror on Tubi Is Just Getting Started article also offers more horror recommendations for keeping the frights going beyond October.
Forget the nice list. We're here for the naughty ones.
Black Christmas
Christmas break is supposed to mean heading home, exchanging presents, and escaping the chaos of college life. Unfortunately, the residents of one sorority house have a visitor who isn't interested in spreading holiday cheer.
A series of obscene and disturbing phone calls disrupts the holiday preparations of a group of sorority sisters in Black Christmas. As the women prepare to leave campus for Christmas, members of the household begin disappearing, and the threat lurking nearby proves far more dangerous than anyone realizes. Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon lead this chilling mystery, where even the most ordinary corners of the house start feeling unsafe.
Long before masked killers became a slasher staple, director Bob Clark was making audiences question every strange noise coming from upstairs. The film's unsettling camera work, eerie atmosphere, and refusal to reveal too much about its killer create a sense of dread that still holds up decades later. Kidder's sharp-tongued Barb also brings a memorable personality to the group, giving viewers characters worth caring about as the mystery deepens. For another look at the film's influence on horror, our guide to the slasher movies that defined the genre explores how this Christmas nightmare helped shape the scares that followed.
This title is available on Tubi until further notice.
Black Christmas
Apparently, one Christmas nightmare wasn't enough for this sorority house. The decorations are brighter, the body count is higher, and the holiday spirit has taken a seriously disturbing turn.
Glen Morgan takes the sorority-house slasher to bloodier extremes with his reimagining of the 1974 classic, Black Christmas. A group of college women finds their Christmas celebration interrupted by threatening phone calls and a killer with a horrifying connection to the building's past. As the sisters begin disappearing, the house's festive decorations become the backdrop for a holiday gathering nobody is guaranteed to survive.
Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Lacey Chabert bring a lively ensemble dynamic to the mayhem, giving the film plenty of personality before the festivities turn deadly. Where the original relies on uncertainty and mounting dread, the remake embraces grotesque surprises, elaborate kills, and a gleefully nasty sense of humor. The result is a much more outrageous holiday slasher that isn't afraid to get messy. Our Black Christmas (2006) spotlight dives further into the remake's cast and twisted take on Christmas traditions.
Available until
Better Watch Out
Babysitting during the holidays sounds like a pretty easy way to earn some extra cash. Keep the kids entertained, order a pizza, and make sure nobody destroys the Christmas decorations. What could possibly go wrong?
For Ashley, played by Olivia DeJonge, an ordinary babysitting job becomes anything but routine once signs of a possible home invasion disrupt a quiet suburban Christmas. Better Watch Out follows the teenager as she looks after 12-year-old Luke, who has a not-so-subtle crush on her. As the night unfolds, Ashley realizes the danger she's facing may be far stranger than she initially imagined.
Forget everything you think you know about the typical babysitter-in-danger setup. What begins with the familiar premise of a teenager facing danger in an empty house quickly challenges viewers' assumptions, making every new development feel like another reason to question what's really happening. Levi Miller and Ed Oxenbould add to the film's uneasy atmosphere, while its dark humor makes the surprises even more entertaining. Trust us, the less you know about this particular Christmas surprise, the better.
Available until
Anna and the Apocalypse
Nothing ruins the holiday spirit quite like discovering your neighbors have turned into flesh-eating zombies. On the bright side, at least there's a musical number to help process the situation.
The small Scottish town of Little Haven has more than Christmas shopping to worry about when an unexpected zombie outbreak turns everyone's holiday plans upside down. High school student Anna and her friends must fight their way through hordes of the undead in Anna and the Apocalypse, all while navigating the usual teenage problems of friendships, relationships, and figuring out what comes after graduation. Their survival strategy involves improvised weapons, questionable decisions, and a surprising amount of singing.
Who knew the end of the world could be so catchy? The movie blends musical comedy with zombie horror, turning familiar teenage frustrations into full-blown musical numbers before another undead attack sends everyone running for their lives. Ella Hunt brings plenty of energy to the central role, while the infectious soundtrack and unexpectedly emotional moments make the characters' struggles feel like more than an excuse for another zombie attack.
Available until
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Forget the jolly old man with rosy cheeks and a sack full of presents. Deep in the snowy mountains of Finland, Christmas folklore has a much darker story to tell, and Santa might be the last person you'd want visiting your house.
Young Pietari begins to suspect that an archaeological excavation near his remote Finnish community has disturbed a terrifying secret buried beneath the mountain. Strange events soon follow, leading him to question everything he thought he knew about Santa Claus. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale turns the familiar holiday legend into a chilling mystery as Pietari and his father confront a version of Christmas mythology that bears little resemblance to the cheerful figure printed on greeting cards.
The remote Finnish wilderness gives this twisted Christmas adventure a wonderfully eerie atmosphere, where the snowy landscapes conceal far more than anyone suspects. Rather than revealing its biggest secrets immediately, the story builds suspense through strange discoveries and troubling clues, keeping viewers guessing about what the excavation has unleashed. Filmmaker Jalmari Helander brings dark humor and folklore-inspired suspense to the experience, making the eventual revelations worth the wait.
Available until
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Santa knows when you've been sleeping. He knows when you're awake. And in this particular Christmas nightmare, he's taking the whole naughty-or-nice business way too seriously.
Haunted by a traumatic past, Billy is a troubled young drifter driven by a vengeful presence to punish people he believes deserve it. Rohan Campbell takes on the role of the disturbed holiday killer in Silent Night, Deadly Night, a modern reimagining of the notorious slasher franchise. His disturbing mission becomes more complicated when an unexpected connection threatens to challenge the path he's been following.
This modern reimagining of the notorious killer-Santa franchise gives its central character more psychological complexity while preserving the disturbing appeal of a Christmas icon turned murderer. Campbell's performance explores Billy's fractured sense of morality, meanwhile director Mike P. Nelson delivers the bloody slasher thrills fans of the series expect. You might want to think twice before asking this Santa what he brought you.
Available until
The Lodge
A secluded cabin, a blanket of snow, and a quiet Christmas getaway sound like the perfect ingredients for a peaceful holiday. Too bad the family dynamics are already complicated enough without adding a few deeply disturbing surprises.
Grace's hopes of bonding with her fiancé's two children are put to the test during a stay at an isolated winter retreat. Played by Riley Keough, she faces an uphill battle with the kids, who are still struggling with their family's painful past and aren't exactly thrilled about welcoming a future stepmother. The Lodge takes a disturbing turn when their father leaves them alone together and strange events begin unsettling the household, making it difficult to distinguish what's real from what might be happening inside their minds.
Filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala use the cabin's bleak surroundings and oppressive silence to create a feeling of dread that lingers long after individual scenes end. Rather than relying on constant jump scares, the movie lets suspicion, grief, and uncertainty slowly erode any sense of safety. Let's just say this is one family vacation that could've benefited from separate accommodations.
Available until
P2
Working late on Christmas Eve is already a crime against holiday spirit. Getting trapped in an underground parking garage with someone who has absolutely no intention of letting you leave? HR is going to have a lot of explaining to do.
Christmas Eve is looking less festive for ambitious executive Angela Bridges, whose plans to head home after a long day at the office take a terrifying detour. Rachel Nichols stars as Angela in P2, where she finds herself trapped in a nearly empty parking garage with Thomas, a security guard whose unsettling interest in her has crossed into dangerous obsession. As the building empties for the holiday, she must rely on her instincts to outsmart someone who knows every corner of the property.
Every locked exit feels like another cruel joke as Angela searches for a way out of the parking garage. Dimly lit corridors, endless rows of parked cars, and a security guard who knows the building far better than she does turn an ordinary workplace into a dangerous maze. Wes Bentley makes Thomas frightening through his unpredictable shifts from awkward politeness to outright menace, while Angela's determination to fight back gives the film its relentless momentum.
Available until
Santa Jaws
A killer shark is terrifying enough on its own. Give it a Christmas makeover and a taste for holiday destruction, and you've got a creature that definitely isn't interested in spreading goodwill toward mankind.
Teenager Cody is having a pretty miserable Christmas when a magical drawing brings his illustrated shark creation to life. Unfortunately, his wish for a little peace and quiet backfires spectacularly as the festive predator begins attacking people close to him. Santa Jaws turns this bizarre holiday disaster into a race to stop the creature before Cody's Christmas becomes a complete catastrophe.
Christmas decorations have never looked quite so dangerous, especially when they're attached to a shark with an appetite for holiday chaos. The movie embraces its ridiculous premise through outrageous attacks, festive visual gags, and a wonderfully unserious approach to creature-feature horror. Each new encounter gives Cody another reason to regret his magical drawing, while viewers get to enjoy a holiday nightmare that knows exactly how absurd it is.
This title is available on Tubi until further notice.
Dead End
Holiday road trips have a special way of testing everyone's patience. But when the GPS seems useless, the road never ends, and a mysterious stranger appears out of nowhere, even the most annoying family argument starts looking pretty manageable.
Frank Harrington's decision to take a shortcut while driving his family to Christmas Eve dinner proves to be one of the worst holiday travel decisions imaginable. Dead End follows the family's desperate journey as they encounter a strange woman dressed in white, an ominous vehicle, and a seemingly endless stretch of road that refuses to lead anywhere familiar. With each unsettling discovery, the passengers grow more desperate to understand what's happening and whether they'll ever make it to their destination.
Ray Wise and Lin Shaye bring an entertaining mix of frustration, fear, and dark humor to the family's unraveling journey, making their tense interactions just as compelling as the supernatural mystery surrounding them. The isolated road and limited visibility create a claustrophobic atmosphere despite the story taking place almost entirely outdoors. As the night grows stranger, the film keeps viewers guessing about what might be waiting around the next bend. Forget arriving late to Christmas dinner. This family would be lucky to arrive anywhere at all.
Available until