Christmas and horror have been linked together for longer than movies have existed, looking at you A Christmas Carol and all your ghosts and ghouls, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise that someone would make a killer Santa movie. What is surprising is how damn many of these things there are! From Silent Night Deadly Night which just has a guy in a Santa suit killing people to the recent Violent Night which has actual Santa Claus delivering a yuletide smackdown on some fools, we seem fascinated by this idea of a Santa Claus, or someone dressed like him, killing people. In that spirit, for the next couple of days I’ll focus on killer Santa movies, starting with a low budget indie slasher, Slayed.

In 2014, a Santa dressed man murders two women in a water treatment plant, ruining Christmastime for a small town for a long time after. 5 years later, a substitute security guard fills in on Christmas Eve at that same plant, meeting a team already on edge and expecting something dangerous. When strange things begin happening at the plant, the security guard and a paranoid technician get caught in another night of murder and mayhem.

Slayed could have easily fallen into the same pitfalls that a lot of low budget slashers do, but surprisingly manages to avoid going down those paths. Though there are moments that cater to the sleazy exploitation crowd, particularly the opening, Slayed is mostly a twisty cat and mouse type thriller about a murderer and a man who’s been waiting for years to finally get revenge on said murderer. While the movie is restrained by its low budget, its writing and acting, particularly later in the film, elevate what could be another tiresome slasher and make it something beyond a low budget splatterfest. There is also one of the funniest and most prescient sequences I’ve ever seen at the end of the film, which I have linked to below. Just watch 5 seconds and you’ll understand. And if you get curious and want to watch the rest of the movie, you can follow that link to YouTube and watch the whole thing for free.

Friday the 13th: Never Hike In the Snow

Bonus round! While there hasn’t been an official Friday the 13th set around Christmas, or even in any snowy setting, there has been an impressive fan film by the name of Never Hike in the Snow. Even though Friday the 13th hasn’t had a new movie since 2009, passionate fans have been making their own movies, shorts mostly, and the best of these rise up to, and in some cases beyond, the heights that the original films managed. I really appreciate the creativity and passion behind fan films, and the ‘Never Hike’ series of Friday the 13th fan films from Womp Stomp Films have been a great example of that. Besides snagging some of the actors from the Friday the 13th series, Womp Stomp manages to recreate the atmosphere, tension, and intensity that makes these feel like shortened versions of the actual movies. I’ve linked the Youtube video down below, and if you liked it you should check out their other fan films, they’re all a good time.