The 10 best unconventional Christmas movies A chance to leave Richie Rich home alone

Christmas movies are a must during the holidays, an expression of a shared feeling capable of renewing itself year after year. Over time, however, Christmas storytelling on the big screen has also adapted to a series of fairly repetitive and predictable clichés. For those looking for a different kind of Christmas, less predictable and less banal, the following is a list of movies that break the mold worth revisiting. Action, horror, comedies and auteur films that all have that something capable of surprising you and giving you an unusual Christmas Eve.

Here, then, are 10 alternative Christmas movies you shouldn’t miss.

Better Watch Out (2016)

For those who love spooky Christmases, you simply have to start with Chris Peckover’s Better Watch Out. A young babysitter and two kids who are truly impossible to handle are all you need to spend a memorable Christmas Eve. Better Watch Out is a horror-thriller in which we find not only a distortion of Christmas as a holiday, but also of an entire film tradition that, between comedy and children’s movies, has often turned the storytelling of this day into a monument to boredom. Here, boredom is not on the menu at all, with references to Home Alone and many iconic titles of domestic horror.

The Family Man (2000)

A tasty fantasy comedy that blends elements from Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Brett Ratner’s The Family Man stars Nicolas Cage as the wealthy and solitary Jack Campbell. Thanks to a mysterious figure named Cash (Don Cheadle), Campbell finds himself in a parallel reality where he never left his high-school girlfriend Kate (Téa Leoni), has become a father, and works as a not-so-successful lawyer but is rich in love and human warmth. The Family Man doesn’t have a revolutionary plot, but it stands out for its strong characterization and an atmosphere that is both fierce and melancholic, with an intriguing anti-capitalist message. It reminds us that Christmas is a time for reflection, a moment when we realize what we have built in our lives.

Office Christmas Party (2016)

Christmas also means office parties, an event we all fear and often try to avoid with the most absurd excuses. Will Speck and Josh Gordon’s Office Christmas Party is an outrageous and raunchy slapstick comedy, perfect for spending Christmas Eve laughing at your own miseries. The protagonists are Josh (Jason Bateman), Clay (T. J. Miller) and Tracy (Olivia Munn), three employees at a company threatening to fire half its workforce due to low productivity. The party they organize to convince mogul Walter Davis to help them turns into a masterpiece of chaos and destruction.

Krampus (2015)

The Krampus, for those unfamiliar, is a demon who, according to tradition, accompanies Santa Claus on his journey to punish naughty children. And so, in 2015, Michael Dougherty turns him into the nemesis of a dark-toned horror in which a family tries to survive the monster’s persecutions, enraged by their selfishness and superficiality. Krampus is one of the best variations on the theme in recent years, without giving up generous doses of black humor, using the most famous Christmas elements to deliver scares and laughs in equal measure. Despite its small budget, it is also visually very rewarding.

Spencer (2021)

Pablo Larraín’s biopic dedicated to Lady Diana is set during the Christmas holidays of 1991, when the royal family gathered at Sandringham, Norfolk. Kristen Stewart received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the ill-fated Princess, in a film where the Christmas atmosphere gradually gives way to a kind of psychological thriller, in which the family—supposed to be a refuge—becomes a trap and a cage. Aesthetic in every respect, Spencer is a mix of fantasy and analysis of the oppression of the female figure from both historical and familial perspectives, where even Christmas gifts and festivities become enemies for the unfortunate Princess.

Violent Night (2022)

If you’re looking for a Santa Claus that breaks all expectations, Tommy Wirkola’s Violent Night is the film for you. The protagonist is David Harbour, playing none other than Santa Claus, who after so many years has now lost enthusiasm for his job. On Christmas Eve, while delivering a gift to young Trudi, the house is invaded by a group of criminals led by Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo). From that moment on, Santa will stop worrying about reindeer and gifts, dispensing punches, blood and revenge. Violent Night is the perfect action dark comedy with which to tear Christmas to pieces—literally—now reduced to a consumerist and vulgar spectacle, here parodied in a way that is both exaggerated and satisfying.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

The final masterpiece of the great Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut is a disturbing and fascinating examination of human relationships and, above all, of social hypocrisy. On Christmas Eve, Doctor Bill Harford and his wife Alice, played by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, confess unfulfilled fantasies and forbidden desires. This marks the beginning of a hesitant and unsettling journey into perdition and the forbidden for Bill, in a New York where the Christmas atmosphere is swept away by secret societies and promiscuity. Disturbing and hypnotic, Eyes Wide Shut reminds us how often Christmas festivities are empty ceremonies used to cover anxieties, fears and regrets of lives never truly fulfilled.

Klaus (2019)

Among the most beautiful Christmas animated films ever made, Sergio Pablos’ Klaus deserved far better success at the box office, given its extraordinary visual beauty paired with an original and very enjoyable narrative. The protagonist is young and spoiled Jesper who, in order not to lose a generous inheritance, is forced to work as a postman on a frozen island at the North Pole. It is Jesper who convinces Klaus, a local woodsman, to give toys to the local children. Klaus is an origin story of Christmas that greatly differs from the norm, where themes such as altruism, selfishness and the very birth of the holiday as a collective phenomenon blend together in perfect harmony.

Die Hard (1988)

John McTiernan’s film that kicked off the legendary saga of agent John McClane and launched Bruce Willis is set on Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, inside a skyscraper owned by a Japanese corporation. McClane, who goes there in an attempt to mend things with his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), ends up facing a group of heavily armed terrorists led by the icy and ruthless Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). Die Hard is not only the best action movie of the ’80s, but also a perfect film for a much more adrenaline-filled and fun Christmas than usual, thanks to Willis’ incredible charisma and Rickman’s magnetism, who gave us one of the greatest villains ever.

Bad Santa (2003)

A must-see cult movie for anyone who appreciates an alternative Christmas viewing, Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa follows the exploits of an alcoholic and unreliable Billy Bob Thornton as Willie, a petty thief who, together with his partner Marcus (Tony Cox), pretends to be Santa Claus in shopping malls before robbing them blind. Willie’s journey toward redemption, as he tries in his own way to leave crime behind, is one of the most irreverent, hilarious and foul-mouthed ever seen. Bad Santa tops our ranking also for the complexity of its atmosphere, dominated by a vein of melancholy, as every self-respecting slapstick comedy should be.