Santa Claus is an iconic figure, known not only to children but to adults as well. It's difficult to imagine Christmas without him, at least in some parts of the world. Thanks to his importance for the Christmas holidays, Santa has appeared in multiple movies over the years. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he's usually portrayed as the good guy who brings people joy.
However, some movies chose a different, more original approach, and included an evil Santa instead. This mostly happens in the horror genre, but bad Santas occasionally show up in other types of movies too, making for a refreshing and often unexpected story. The best evil Santas in movies are much more frightening than the original version of Santa.
5 Christmas Evil (1980)
The concept of an evil Santa is nothing new, having appeared in this lesser-known 1980 movie. Christmas Evil centers on a man who undergoes a mental collapse and decides to dress as Santa Claus and start killing people. That would be enough to ruin anyone's Christmas. What makes this Christmas slasher movie unusual is that it takes the time to dive into the main character's psyche and shows what lead him on the path of destruction and murder.
The movie has become an iconic B-list picture since its release. Many people like to return to it from time to time, even though it's not the best evil Santa movie out there. However, if anybody wishes to go to the roots of the evil Santa movie trope, Christmas Evil is a good place to start.
4 Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
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The 1980s saw the premiere of multiple horror movies about murderous Santa Clauses. Silent Night, Deadly Night is universally hailed as one of the best, and it became iconic. It centers around Billy, a boy whose parents are murdered by thieves dressed as Santa when he's just a kid. When Billy grows up, he decides to start killing people as well. He dons the Santa Claus costume and comes up with many brutally imaginative ways how to take other people's lives.
Silent Night, Deadly Night dives even deeper into Billy's psyche than Christmas Evil and it does so naturally. The movie keeps a fast pace and is genuinely scary, especially when it comes to the killing scenes, which there are multiple and unique. The movie became so popular that it spawned multiple sequels and movies inspired by it, but the first movie remains the best to this day.
3 Game Over (1989)
Some viewers compared this 1980s movie to a scary Home Alone movie, except for the fact that Game Over premiered a year before the iconic Christmas movie. What connects the two, other than the fact that they both take place during Christmas, is the usage of the home invasion theme. In this case, a man who poses as Santa Claus gets inside the house of the people he wants to kill. He wants to get revenge on the main character Tom's mother who fired him.
Since Tom is only home with his elderly grandfather though, it's up to the boy to deal with the intruder. Game Over builds an intense atmosphere. What makes it even more disturbing is the fact that something like this could happen in real life. It wouldn't be the first time that a disgruntled former employee would want to get revenge on the family of his employer. The movie is fast-paced and intense, making it one of the most underappreciated horror jewels that more people should know.
2 Rare Exports (2010)
Some of the best evil Santa Clauses come from Northern countries. Rare Exports is a horror comedy (a very dark one), a co-production between Finland, Norway, Sweden, and France. It offers a chilling story about a group of people who discover the corpse of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Even though it looks like the man is dead, when children start disappearing, the heroes suspect that Santa might be behind what's happening. The truth is even darker than they might be ready for.
The movie isn't for children as it offers more than one brutal scene. It doesn't spare the characters, making it difficult to guess who will survive until the end. That keeps the audience invested as all the safety belts are off in this case. Rare Export's Santa is frightening, and so are the elves. The movie is ideal for everyone who wants to see an unusual spin on the topic of Santa Claus and punishing children. It won multiple awards, making it one of the most underrated Christmas horrors ever made.
1 A Christmas Horror Story (2015)
The Canadian movie A Christmas Horror Story is an anthology movie, offering several connected horror stories that all take place during Christmas. One of them revolves around Santa who's getting ready for Christmas but has to fight the attack of zombie elves.
Even though Santa in this movie originally poses as the good guy, the ending of the movie offers a surprising twist that turns around everything Santa had previously done and said. The ending alone, as well as the scary atmosphere, leaves a strong impression, especially when combined with the solid performances from the cast.