New (better!) Christmas Horror Ideas

I have been wracking my brain to come up with an original Christmas horror movie idea.

A story where Christmas is an essential part of the story; meaning that the story itself cannot exist (or, rather, would not make sense) without the element the holiday included in it.

 

I did not want to do another “killer Santa” movie… not only because I think it is incredibly cynical and Scrooge-like, but also because I think it has been done better in the past: generically (Silent Night, Deadly Night), nostalgically and with magical surrealism (Christmas Evil) and most recently very originally (Christmas Bloody Christmas and (I hope) Santastein).

 

I also did not want to do anymore “killer elves” movies, for the same reason as above. Although, the lot of killer Santa’s elves movies have been so, in my opinion, abysmal, that anything may be seen as a marked improvement. So perhaps there is some material to mine there for the future. 

I also do not wish to disrespect Dickens’s timeless tale of Christmas terror by doing any kind of variation or riff on his Christmas Carol.

 

And, truthfully, I did not want to emulate some of my favorite Christmas horror films that, while exceptionally good stories (or, rather weak stories that are held together with brilliant execution, style, characters and mood… especially when capturing the comforting and nostalgic mood of the holidays), merely seemed to be “Christmas horror” for the sake that they do indeed take place at Christmas: films like some of the better Silent Night, Deadly Night sequels, Better Watch Out, Red Christmas, Await Further Instructions and even the 1974 classic (which I only first saw a few years ago) Bob Clarke’s Black Christmas. 

 

I also did not want to take a more horrific spin on any tame Christmas creepers, such as: the Dr. Suess’s The Grinch… (The Mean One looks absolutely terrible to me), or The Nutcracker (last year’s Nutcracker Massacre was fairly abysmal).

 

Killer Christmas trees hold no interest for me and have already been mined for comedic purposes (Jason Eisner’s Treevenge and 2022’s horror-comedy The Killing Tree).

 

And Krampus has not only been done definitely (in 2015 by Michael; Dougherty), but has also been given a new story (this year by Peter Hangl) in the original and fabulous-looking Krampusnatch. Now, I know I wrote 20 pages of my own fan fiction sequel to Dougherty’s 2015 movie, but that was really so that I could mix my love of movies like Miracle on 34^th Street with the Dougherty HolidayVerse that I love so much. 

 

Having said all of this, I think I have three extremely good, original ideas for Christmas horror movies that do not involve or subject themselves to the tropes I listed above. 

I hope to write one over this year's winter break (with my Charles Dickens candle burning beside me).

 

The others I have outlined in such detail that they will be easy for me to fully realize next Christmas (as I hope to only write these scripts during the holiday season in an effort to let the mood of the season guide my writing).

 

But, if nothing else, I am glad that I am finally becoming inspired again. I actually cannot wait to get home from work to jump on my computer and start writing! 

I am grateful that new (original) ideas are popping into my head that are making me excited to write!

Now I just need to find the time an d energy to write, and to make sure that I bring my Sony digital voice recorder with me wherever I go so that I can capture these ideas as they come to me.