12 best holiday horror movies

6. Santa’s Slay (2005)

For all of the utter cheesiness of Santa’s Slay, I can’t help but reserve a special place for it in my heart.

Its whole plot rests on the central conceit that Santa is actually Satan’s son. After losing a curling match to an angel, he’s sentenced to deliver presents and be a harbinger of good cheer for 1,000 years. 2005 is the end year of his contract, meaning that Santa is more than ready to get back to his more gore-heavy days. Given that he’s played by muscular wrestler Bill Goldberg, you can see that it’s going to be a, shall we say, messy return to form for the demon spawn.

While I’m not at all advocating for murderous rampages, you almost feel bad for evil Santa. I certainly can’t imagine that 1,000 years of forcible cheer would put a smile in your heart.

At first, the people of Hell’s Township (yes, really) don’t know any of this backstory. As far as they know, Santa just showed up and started killing their neighbors in brutal, if thematically appropriate, ways. He first appears at the Mason family home, popping out of their chimney and killing them all.

Afterward, the truth is revealed via Nicholas Yuleson, whose not-so-crazy grandfather has built a Christmas-proof bunker in their basement. Why so afraid of the holidays? asks Nicholas. His grandfather then reveals “The Book of Klaus”, which relates the above backstory.

Nicholas and his girlfriend, Mac, are forced to run about town, fleeing the bloodthirsty Santa and his “hell deer”. They eventually survive, thanks to some surprising intervention via Grandpa, but Santa escapes to wreak havoc the next year.