Merry and fright: Holiday horror movies not set at Halloween

No, this is not a movie about the shoegaze band. Instead, it’s a classic cult horror film set on, you guessed it, Valentine’s Day. However, for some reason the killer is in mining gear? The movie, a Canadian production, was infamously censored and lost nine minutes before getting the green light in America. The movie was remade in 2009 and billed as “My Bloody Valentine 3D,” taking kitschy, gory advantage of the renewed fascination with 3D movies.

By the way, it was really hard to avoid super-gory images for several of these movies. You're welcome/we're sorry.

It’s considered by many an all-time great film, and is often credited as the first summer blockbuster. Because of that, sometimes “Jaws” isn’t necessarily thought of, first and foremost, as a horror film. And yet, how many people were afraid to go into the water after seeing it? Plus, it’s also a holiday horror film, as it is set mostly around the Fourth of July weekend on Amity Island. The mayor needs the beaches open for tourists!

Midsommar, the holiday, is not well known in America. If you have seen Ari Aster’s “Midsommar,” though, you likely won’t be forgetting it anytime soon. Aster is… a strange man. However, he makes evocative horror films that get critical acclaim. Even when he is making us fear Scandinavia.

The first “Leprechaun” film, the one famed now for being Jennifer Aniston’s movie debut, is not set on St. Patrick’s Day. Of course, the franchise waited all the way until the second film to go, “Hey, why not make a movie about a killer leprechaun that is set on the one holiday associated with leprechauns.” In time, the leprechaun would go to space, the ‘hood', and so on.

New Year’s Eve is underrepresented in terms of holiday-themed horror. There’s “New Year’s Evil,” at least. Maybe once that title was taken, studios figured why bother? In addition to a silly poster, the framing of the film hangs on the host of a punk/new wave radio show who is called repeatedly by a killer who intends to murder one person each time a new time zone rings in the New Year. The DJ is played by Roz Kelly, best known as Pinky Tuscadero from “Happy Days.” It’s not the best horror film, and weirdly doesn’t even have a good soundtrack.

“April Fool’s Day,” perhaps fittingly, is a dark comedic take on the slasher flick, so it is not the gorefest many horror films are. The events take place over April Fool’s Day weekend for, um, reasons, and is about a bunch of college kids partying it up at an island estate, only to find there is a killer in their midst. Thomas Wilson aka Biff Tannen and Deborah Foreman of “Valley Girl” fame give the cast a nice bit of oomph to keep things moving.

“Critters” is one of those “What if we made a ‘Gremlins’ movie that was raunchier?” movies that came out in abundance in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The first one isn’t a holiday film, but the second movie decided to lean on a holiday for plot fodder. “Critters 2” is set, for some reason, on Easter. Maybe because a bunch of Critter eggs hatch and they thought that was thematic?

Why didn’t they call it “I Know What You Did Last Fourth of July?” They could have. Independence Day festivities, both in the present and last summer, are crucial to the plot. This is sort of a classic to people who were teenagers around the turn of the millennium. It also got a sequel, the delightfully-titled “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.”

May Day is a European tradition built around celebrating the first day of summer. It has pagan vibes to it, which to modern audiences makes it fodder for horror. While the Nicolas Cage led remake of “The Wicker Man” is the more famous version, that’s because it’s a fascinating train wreck. The original is actually successfully suspenseful and strange.

Larry Cohen, writer of “Maniac Cop,” is a fan of police-centric horror films. This slasher flick about a cop that comes back from the dead to exact revenge features some notable character actors, such as Tom Atkins, Robert Z’Dar, and the iconic Bruce Campbell. It also takes place on and around St. Patrick’s Day. The sequel “Maniac Cop 2” is also a holiday film, set on a notable holiday we will get into shortly.

Playing on the tropes of American horror history, “The Blackening” is a comedic slasher film with a sensibility found in the tag line: “We can’t all die first.” The low-budget movie was able to be a box office success, and it got critical acclaim as well. Fittingly, “The Blackening” is set on Juneteenth, making it the first Juneteenth horror film we are aware of.

Now we get to the trappings that “Maniac Cop 2” and many other horror films use: Christmas. Next to Halloween, Christmas is the holiday that gets the most horror movies. We also mentioned “Gremlins” earlier when talking “Critters 2,” and now we can talk about it proper. The horror-comedy is a delightful monster movie, and also the best Christmas horror film.

A lot of people credit “Halloween” with the rise of the slasher film, but before there was “Halloween,” there was “Black Christmas.” Yes, we got a Christmas slasher flick before one set during a horror-focused holiday. It’s become a cult classic that has been remade twice. Also, it’s worth noting that “Black Christmas” was directed by Bob Clark. He’s known for another holiday movie: “A Christmas Story.” Clark also directed “Porky’s.” What a weird career.

Is “Silent Night, Deadly Night” a cult classic? Perhaps, in the way horror hounds can turn almost any movie into a cult classic. It’s more infamous than beloved, though. The nasty slasher flick was heavily censored and still courted controversy. It’s about a man who dresses up like Santa Claus and goes on a killing spree. The controversy proved enticing enough to give “Silent Night, Deadly Night” an audience, and also to four sequels.

Professional wrestler Bill Goldberg plays an evil version of Santa who goes around killing those he deems naughty. Enticed yet? There are elements of “Santa’s Slay” that haven’t aged well, but it’s still a fun dark comedy mixed with plenty of horror elements. If you like bad movies, it’s worth a watch around the holidays.

Krampus, the bad cop to Santa’s good cop in some traditional lore, was mostly forgotten to history. Then, people started to become amused with stories of the monstrous character who does more than give the naughty coal, which always felt like a weird, passive-aggressive move from Kris Kringle. “Krampus” took things to a new level, adding some blood and gore and overarching terror to the mythos.

Thanksgiving is more and more lost in the shuffle between Halloween and Christmas, the two most-beloved holidays in the United States. It has also never gotten a proper horror film. There was a bit in “Grindhouse” about a Thanksgiving-based horror movie. Well, now that joke has come to life. Eli Roth has gotten around to turning “Thanksgiving” into an actual horror film. As with anything Roth, your mileage will likely vary quite a bit.

Yes, 2023 is hitting us with both Thanksgiving and Christmas horror films. You might think the title is just a riff on “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but the movie also parodies the premise of that Christmas classic. A woman wishes she was never born, which takes her to an alternate universe version of her town where it turns out she had thwarted a killer who, without her, is free to go on a spree. Is Justin Long in it? Of course he is!