Alternative Christmas Movies
So your partner wants to watch a Christmas movie, but you just can't get with that sentimental stuff. Here's my list of movies that fit the bill as a "Christmas" movie without laying it on thick :)
List activity
14 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
7 titles
- DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsBruce WillisAlan RickmanBonnie BedeliaA New York City police officer tries to save his estranged wife and several others taken hostage by terrorists during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.Every man's favourite Christmas movie ever! No wonder I put it straight to no. 1 on my list. And you know, despite it being a high-octane action movie, it still manages to encompass the Christmas feel; the setting of the festive office party and the music score to boot.
- DirectorJoe DanteStarsZach GalliganPhoebe CatesHoyt AxtonA young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.If it wasn't for the little critters sneaking round making horrific havoc, this would be such a beautiful Christmas movie! The entire grain of the movie, right down to lugging Christmas trees, the snow and the beautiful quaint town setting, the movie just feels loaded with Christmas spirit. That's what makes it such a fun movie when off-set to its black humour.
- DirectorRené ManzorStarsBrigitte FosseyLouis DucreuxPatrick FloersheimOn Christmas Eve, a resourceful young boy has to defend himself and his grandfather from a killer dressed as Santa Claus.Released a year before Home Alone, this is an odd little flick to say the least. Who exactly was its intended market is hard to say, but it's certainly quirky enough to give it the light of day. Much like Home Alone, a child named Thomas (Alain Lalanne) finds himself defending his house against home invaders. But this movie is much darker, dryer and cynical. The thief is dressed up as Santa Clause and Thomas is convinced he is up against the man himself.
- DirectorTerry ZwigoffStarsBilly Bob ThorntonBernie MacLauren GrahamA miserable conman and his partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid.I mean, this really is a bonafide Christmas movie ...kinda. Billy Bob Thornton as a petty thief, drunken, super mall Santa --need I say more!-- befriends a little weird kid and tries to 'toughen' him up with street smarts. It follows the conventions of a regular holiday flick to some regards but always maintains a nice dark humour throughout.
- DirectorBob ClarkStarsOlivia HusseyKeir DulleaMargot KidderDuring their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.There has been more than one slasher movie set around the Christmas period, but this is by far my favourite. Released a good four years before Halloween created a slasher craze, it manages to escape the cliches associated with the genre, or at least is naive enough not to notice them, that a movie about a killer stalker of society girl, set during the Christmas period, feels genuinely unsettling.
- DirectorThom EberhardtStarsCatherine Mary StewartKelli MaroneyRobert BeltranA comet wipes out most of life on Earth, leaving two Valley Girls fighting against cannibal zombies and a sinister group of scientists.Here is your chance to fit a zombie movie into the holidays. Actually, the original script never called for it to be a seasonal movie, but to get the shots of the empty streets on its shoe-string budget, they filmed it during the holidays when nobody would be about. There was no escaping the plethora of Christmas paraphernalia hanging on street corners or in shop windows that they more-or-less wrote the season in, no more so than with Robert Beltran's character riding round the city in a Santa suit.
- DirectorDuccio TessariStarsGiuliano GemmaFernando SanchoLorella De LucaAn 'angel-faced' gunfighter is tasked with infiltrating a ranch overrun by Mexican bandits and saving their hostages, including the fiancée of the local sheriff.So far I've had action movies, a horror movie, a slasher and a zombie movie... the natural progression feels about right to squeeze in a western too! And squeeze is just about right as, though it is set during the holiday season, there's very little else Christmasy about it. Still though, a favourite of director Quentin Tarantino, this probably remains an underrated spaghetti western. The story centres around the titular character (Giuliano Gemma) attempting in vain to get his hands on a pistol for much of the movie while being held virtual hostage to a belligerent family - a theme echoed in homage in the Grindhouse project by directors Tarantino and Rodriguez in the Plannet Terror segment when Fredy Rodríguez' character tries desperately to obtain a gun.