Holiday horror films like ‘Gremlins’ and ‘Thanksgiving’ turn jolly tropes on their heads

(CNN) — “Gremlins” turned a benign Christmas holiday into a snowy backdrop for cartoonish murders. “My Bloody Valentine” turned the February 14 obsession with hearts into a ghoulishly literal conceit.

In November, blood-and-guts impresario Eli Roth will come for Thanksgiving with an eponymous new horror film starring a killer dressed in Pilgrim finery who’d rather gut small-town victims than turkeys.

Horror movies set against the backdrop of the holiday season now make up their own subgenre in a field crowded with animated classics and comic capers — except the body counts outnumber gifts under the tree. Holiday horror films include gritty slashers with pitch-black hearts, like 1974’s influential “Black Christmas,” supernatural scares with a campy bent (see, 2015’s “Krampus,” costarring evil gingerbread men) and grindhouse gore-fests like “Thanksgiving” promises to be — its red-band trailer ends with a woman roasting to death in a human-sized oven.

Many of the best-loved holiday horror films courted controversy upon their release — critics claimed they were gratuitously violent, harmful to kids or downright offensive to anyone who preferred their holidays on the merry side. And yet they’ve become classics in their own right, bewitching audiences for whom happy endings have little appeal, even during the “most wonderful time of the year.”

George Mihalka, the Canadian filmmaker behind 1981’s influential “My Bloody Valentine” who also helmed a documentary about the legacy of “Black Christmas,” told CNN that holiday horror is effective — and satisfying — because the subgenre subverts the “comfort and feel-good aspects” of stereotypically cheery holidays.

“The familiar becomes menacing, the known becomes unknown terror,” he said.

Some viewers might enjoy a nasty respite from the standard merry-and-bright holiday fare, which can range from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Once the onscreen terror of holiday horror ends, those viewers can return to their gift exchanges and holiday spreads — unless watching horror is the more comforting option, noted Mihalka.

“For others, it reminds them of the horror of actually having to visit relatives for the holidays,” Mihalka said.

Horror subverts holiday tropes with gruesome aplomb

Matthew DuPée, a filmmaker and author who wrote ”A Scary Little Christmas: A History of Yuletide Horror Film, 1972-2020,” told CNN that most Americans have some sort of connection to holiday traditions. So much of holiday entertainment emphasizes the importance of family, of home, of coming together in the dreary cold that audiences come to expect it on and offscreen.

Holiday horror films work for the same reason holiday tearjerkers do: There’s already an “emotional foundation” with holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, DuPée said. Films set during these beloved holidays don’t have to impress upon audiences why a murderous rampage during a holiday party is upsetting or why it’s especially sad when Krampus decides to punish children for their lack of hope.

“Holiday horror films, especially the better ones, maximize this social intimacy of the viewer and turn everything we love about the holiday on its head, creating that perfect backdrop for dread and terror,” DuPée told CNN.

Take last year’s twisted “Adult Swim Yule Log,” which starts off with a few innocuous minutes of a smoldering fireplace — a holiday tradition for the streaming era — before zooming out to reveal an isolated cabin (a beloved horror setting for a reason!) where holiday tension gives way to murderous mayhem.

Holiday horror is especially taboo because so many of its tropes are sacred — innocent children in footie pajamas! Snowmen! Santa Claus! The 1984 film “Silent Night, Deadly Night” was condemned even before its release because of its Santa suit-wearing murderer who decapitates teenagers and inspires orphans to take up killing. The film was even pulled from theaters shortly after its debut for the furor it caused among parents and petrified children disturbed by the ads of an ax-wielding St. Nick, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

And yet, “Silent Night, Deadly Night” clearly struck a chord with viewers who prefer their holiday fare with a graphic mean streak: It spawned several sequels and a 2012 remake starring Malcolm McDowell.

“The fun lies in usurping the viewers’ expectations of these otherwise benevolent aspects of the holiday and turning them into something that is menacing and horrific,” DuPée said.

Holiday horror knows holidays aren’t always merry and bright

Holiday horror understands a difficult truth about the holiday season: It’s often incredibly stressful and deeply upsetting for many people whose memories of the holidays aren’t rose-tinted or bedecked in tinsel.

“It can be exhausting to be constantly faced with scenes of happiness, togetherness and love,” said Alexandra West, an author of several books on horror films and co-host of the “Faculty of Horror” podcast. “Putting a horror spin on these holidays offers an antidote and, in some cases, a reprieve.”

Horror movies get to the occasionally rotten heart of holidays by criticizing the culture that values those holidays: Mihalka’s “My Bloody Valentine” is ostensibly about a group of young people who just want to host an amorous party in a mine, but it takes jab at the commercialized holiday by painting its richest characters as the villains. “Black Christmas” picks off the final girl’s friends one by one in the relative comfort of a sorority house until inept police leave her to a Christmas party of one with little hope for survival. Even “Gremlins” criticizes American consumerist culture and the country’s penchant for attempting to dominate that which it doesn’t understand.

“Horror presents an alternative, giving us stories where everything isn’t resolved at the end, where relationships are complicated, messy and even bloody,” West said. “They feel more real than the expectations Hollywood thrusts upon us.”

That’s why horror fans like West might cozy up with “Black Christmas” on a frigid night in December instead of more saccharine holiday classics. Horror is disturbing and electrifying, revolting and revelatory, DuPée said — and sometimes, it’s even a welcome escape from holiday cheer.

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