12 best holiday horror movies

3. 3615 code Père Noël (1989)

Believe it or not, the director of 3615 code Père Noël, a French horror film, threatened the makers of Home Alone (1990) with legal action. Writer and director Rene Manzor alleged that director John Hughes and other involved with Home Alone had “remade my movie”. Once you get past the obvious differences between the family-friendly tone of Home Alone and the more violent one of Père Noël, you kind of see his point.

Père Noël focuses on young Thomas, a very intelligent boy who loves to make gadgets and watch action movies. He uses a Minitel (basically, a very early version of instant messenger) to get in contact with Santa Claus. Thomas unknowingly connects with a deranged vagrant, who proceeds to steal a Santa costume and makes his way to Thomas’ home.

That would be bad enough if there were plenty of adults around, but Thomas’ mother, Julie, is out. That leaves only Papy, his disabled grandfather, and J.R., the family dog (warning: something very bad happens to the dog in this movie). Given the vagrant’s taste for murdering practically anyone who crosses his path, Thomas is in for a dark night.

The rest of the movie plays out like a twisted version of Home Alone (or, perhaps we should say that Home Alone plays out like a sanitized, saccharine version of Père Noël). Thomas sets up a series of booby traps and makeshift weapons to defeat the man.

Oh, and he also believes that the intruder really is Santa, who has become viciously angry upon learning that a young boy in France has stayed up late in order to see him. That’s definitely not going to leave deep psychological scars that will later turn Thomas into a holiday murderer. Probably not, anyway.