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AThere seems to be a bit of a lack of good news at the end of the year, at least there is no shortage of Christmas movies. whether you’re running back The entire Home Alone sagareview One of the many, many iterations of a Christmas Carol Or simply relaxing with a formulaic rom-com about a woman with a job in the big city falling in love with a charming small-town Christmas tree salesman, you can easily watch festive movies throughout December and still have plenty left over.
However, if you’ve reached the point where the sight of another real-life Santa is enough to make you reach for the off switch, there are still plenty of darker, stranger options on offer. Ahead perennial debate About this die Hard is a Christmas movie (Macaulay Culkin says no), many other great movies are ripe for re-watching, thanks to a latent yuletide theme or simply because spraying blood on the walls is their idea of putting up decorations.
Here are five underrated dark comedies and festive horrors worth enjoying this Christmas:
1. in Bruges (2008)
Almost a decade before winning an Oscar Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriWriter-director Martin McDonagh makes his feature directorial debut with this brilliant tale about a pair of hitmen hiding out in the beautiful city of Bruges, Belgium. The hilarious, tongue-in-cheek dialogue is endlessly quotable, as is Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell’s Kane and Ray Potter based around “Fairytale Town” like an Irish update. the odd Couple,
But is it a Christmas movie? Of course it is! Not only do the holidays provide the setting, with Ray lamenting about one of his victims that “somewhere in London there’s a Christmas tree with a bunch of presents under it that will never be opened”, but the entire story is deeply tied to religious themes. It is no coincidence that Kane and Ray visit a church which is said to contain a vial of the blood of the birthday boy Jesus Christ. This is ultimately a film about guilt, forgiveness, and the possibility of redemption. What could be more Christmassy than that?
2. kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Robert Downey Jr. famously made his return from Hollywood exile with a hard-boiled detective take on neo-noir in this highly entertaining comic, starring opposite The late, great Val Kilmer And Michelle Monaghan wearing a memorable Santa suit. The film was the directorial debut of Shane Black, a blockbuster screenwriter with a passion for creating setting films. lethal Weapon, long kiss goodnight And iron Man 3, During holidays.
talking to Empire In 2022, Black explores his passion of watching Christmas-set Seventies spy thrillers three days of the condor As a child, he recalled: “It sparked a spark to take a vacation and make it not just a background but a character.” related to kiss Kiss Bang BangHe added: “Christmas helped a lot. The idea of this lonely guy wandering around in a brand new city at Christmas… it’s a bizarre, ironic take on Christmas in L.A.”
3. Krampus (2015)
horror-comedy Krampus It has established itself as a traditional Christmas delight. The film opens with Bing Crosby singing “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” while families fight over toys in the supermarket and dotty grandmothers bake cookies out front. a Christmas Carol. It’s only when a nasty storm hits and the power goes out that things turn legendarily terrifying.
A great cast led by Adam Scott and Toni Collette make this a likeable watch, as their family does battle with adorable but deadly CGI gingerbread men and a truly terrifying baby-eating Jack in the Box. The film also features a cute animated sequence explaining the origins of Krampus, the “shadow of St. Nicholas” who comes “not to reward, but to punish.” A good reminder to make sure you’re nice instead of naughty this year.
4. trading place (1983)
“Christmas, huh?” spits Dan Aykroyd’s Louis in this screwball rags-to-riches and riches-to-rags comedy. “I’ll give him a Christmas gift he’ll never forget!” Shortly before this, he showed up to the company holiday party drunk, wearing a disheveled Santa suit, stuffing beef in his pockets, attempting to drug Murphy’s character, Billy Ray, and waving a gun around. Despite this, director John Landis has revealed that this was never his intention. trading place A movie meant to be seen for the holidays. “The image of Dan Aykroyd as an abusive, alcoholic, suicidal Santa is indelible, and we wanted to make it Christmassy,” he explained. forbes In 2020. “But it wasn’t my intention to make it a Christmas movie.”
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Whether Landis intended to or not, the film has become an annual tradition for many. In Italy, the film is regularly broadcast on Christmas Eve, and it’s not hard to see why. Besides the holiday setting, there’s more than a touch of Dickens a Christmas Carol The way Aykroyd’s character is forced to learn what’s truly important in life by showing an alternate reality, even if in this story it’s because she’s the victim of an elaborate bet between her wealthy bosses. Not everything about the film has aged well: Murphy’s use of the character The same homophobic slur that got “Fairytale of New York” into trouble, And another scene shows Aykroyd dressed as a Jamaican in blackface. Beyond that, however, the film remains a consistently hilarious and quotable celebratory presentation and a welcome reminder of the talent that made Murphy the biggest comedy star of the era.
5. awesome 3 (2024)
Even if you really want to shake up your Christmas movie list this year, a word of warning: Do not, under any circumstances, perform awesome 3 To small children. It may feature silent serial killer Art the Clown as Santa Claus, but this extremely bloody slasher sequel is definitely not fun for the whole family (just wait until you find out how Art got hold of Santa’s beard).
For those ready to dive into the bloody mess this December, you may be wondering if you need to watch the first two those who terrorizeAlthough it might be useful to know a little about the fictional background, especially that the art was destroyed by our hero Sienna in the end, awesome 2Frankly, the whole thing operates under nightmarish demonic logic that you just have to go along with. One thing’s for sure: You’ll never look at snow angels the same way again.