Nothing spreads the cheer in the holiday season better than a good old horror film. However, a good plot twist is what makes a horror film worth watching unless, of course, that twist becomes too unsettling to withstand. The art of the twist is a trait that has shaped the genre since the 1950s, with the 70s and ’80s seeing more horror films keep the best twists until the very end of the film.
Over the years, the use of jump scares and suspense to end films was the trend until some directors like Joe Dante and Bob Clark decided to go all dark. From Christmas Eve trips that took a turn for the worst to nightmarish mystical encounters, here is a look at ten holiday-themed horror films with the most twisted endings.
10Black Christmas (1974)
Directed by Bob Clark, this film is famous for being one of the films that made slasher horror popular. It remains one of the scariest Christmas films of all time, although its deep storyline with balanced romance and satire makes it engaging and interesting to follow. Black Christmas was written by Roy Moore, who was inspired by a string of violent murders in Westmount, Montreal, during the holiday season. It follows a group of sorority sisters whose holiday turns into a nightmare when a killer infiltrates the house where they are having their Christmas party and starts watching them from the attic.
Eventually, the killer starts taunting them with threatening phone calls before killing them one by one. However, towards the end, one of the girls, Jess (Olivia Hussey), manages to kill the person she believes to be the killer. Unfortunately, it turned out to be her boyfriend, Peter, who was only trying to help.
In the end, the real killer remains in the attic and watches a sleeping Jess while the police assume that Peter is the killer. The ending leaves a bad taste in the viewer’s mouth as the good guys just don’t seem to get a break.
9Dead End (2003)
Dead End is one of the most underrated holiday horror films ever made. It was written and directed by French director Jea-Baptiste Andrea alongside Fabrice Canepa. The film follows the dysfunctional Harrington family, which comes face to face with the ghost of a young woman and her baby after taking a detour on a rural road. The nightmarish ordeal sees each family member attacked and killed by the vengeful woman. As the family’s woes continue, it becomes clear that reality has been altered and that the remote road the family took might bear darker secrets than the family initially imagined.
Despite its tiny budget, the creators managed to bring the ghost story to life with an excellent combination of sound, make-up, and special effects. The story is super-engaging, with a plot that becomes more intense over time, only to end in a shocking twist.
Towards the end, it is revealed that the whole family, except for the daughter Marion, died in a car crash in the early stages of the film and that the evil force that haunted them throughout the film is still lurking around. It all ends in suspense as Marion and the emergency workers attending the accident scene are revealed to still be in grave danger.
8Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
This is the film that spawned the Silent Night horror franchise, which now has five feature films with a remake in development. The film was heavily criticized and even pulled from the theatres for using a villain dressed as Santa. It follows a young man, Billy Chapman (Robert Brian Wilson), and his brother Ricky (Alex Burton), whose lives are torn apart when their parents are killed on Christmas Eve by a man dressed as Santa.
The combination of abuse in a group home and PTSD from the event lead to Billy’s deterioration, turning him into the very monsters that ruined his life.
The film ends on a sad note as Billy, now a serial killer, is killed by a police officer. However, everything takes a dark turn as the same issues afflicting Billy seem to have spread to his little brother. The film became a cult classic over the years and continues to attract a large viewership for its well-executed plot that makes it scary without being too gory.
7Better Watch Out (2016)
Ashley (Olivia DeJonge), 17, is babysitting 12-year-old Like (Levi Miller) when things turn dark, and she rejects advances from the latter. Luke’s obsession turns into a nightmare when he secures his friend’s help to kidnap Ashley before beginning a killing spree against everyone ever romantically involved with Ashley. It wasn’t a big financial success, but its storyline still makes it one of the most disturbing holiday horror films out there.
The killing spree eventually ends when Luke’s parents arrive, but the miscreant manages to frame his friend for all the crimes.
The dark twist at the end is that an injured Ashley is wheeled off to the hospital while Luke watches on, facing no consequences. The disturbing thought of someone with such dark traits getting away with such horrific crimes is sickening.
6The Children (2008)
This is a British Christmas Horror by Tom Shankland, which has been heavily criticized over the years for deploying extreme violence. The Slasher film follows a family whose two children get infected by a strange illness while on a trip to spend the New Year with their relatives.
Things turn dark quickly as all the children turn into bloodthirsty killers, putting the adults’ lives in danger. The harrowing aspect of the movie is the fact that the parents are forced to kill their children to save themselves.
At the end of the film, the family matriarch, Elaine, and her eldest daughter, Casey, are the only survivors of the ordeal. However, the final shot reveals an ending twist where Casey seems to have caught the same virus that caused her siblings to turn into killers.
5Silent Night (2012)
This is a loose remake of the 1984 Silent Night Deadly Night directed by Steve C Miller. It features another deranged villain “dressed as Santa Claus out to kill people he considers “naughty.” The mysterious killer goes on a killing spree on Christmas Eve that sees him kill almost everyone in town, including most of the police officers, leaving only the determined Officer Aubery Bradimore (Jaime King) to hunt him down.
The film wasn’t a box office success, but it remains one of the scariest Silent Night films to date. The highlight of the film is the climax scene when Killer Santa, armed with a flame thrower, tries to burn down the entire police station.
While Aubery manages to stop him, she doesn’t fish him off. The final shot of the film shows the deranged killer skipping town in his truck, which is disturbing considering the level of pain he caused on the town.
4Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)
This is another Santa Claus horror story with a straightforward plot that takes a shockingly dark turn towards the end. Directed by Jalmari Helander, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale totally reimagines Santa as a malevolent entity instead of the typical well-wishing, jolly fellow with gifts. Everything happens in a remote village in Finland where a greedy company looking to exploit an ancient burial site awakens Santa and his elves from their layer.
As the elves cause chaos and capture all the children in the remote village, the protagonists, led by Pietari, realize that they will have to capture the evil Santa to stop his elves from destroying the land.
However, after finding Santa, Pietari and his friends discover that killing Santa would only let the elves loose and cause havoc all over the world, so their ordeal is far from over.
3The Lodge (2019)
The Lodge is a dark psychological horror film by Veronika Franz which has seen increased viewership over the years despite being a Box Office flop when it was released in 2019. It follows two children, Aiden and Mia, who decide to torture and gaslight their stepmom, Grace, whom they blame for their mother’s death.
Grace was raised in a doomsday cult, something the children use to torture her while the family is spending Christmas at a remote lodge in Massachusetts. While the film doesn’t feature too much gore and violence, the psychological torture is just as disturbing.
The saddest part comes right at the end when the children reveal to Grace that they were only gaslighting her. However, their torture has gone too far, and Grace, now believing the family is dead and living in purgatory, turns into an all-out monster on the children and their father. The film then ends in suspense when it becomes clear that Grace is now a danger to the defenseless children and everyone she comes across.
2Krampus (2015)
Krampus is another Christmas horror film that has become a cult classic, especially because of the ending twist that shocked many viewers. The film is based on the European folk legend of Krampus, the demonic opposite of Santa, who punishes those who have lost faith in Christmas.
In the film, the dysfunctional Engel family squabbles into Christmas as everyone fails to embrace the holiday spirit except for the young boy, Max, who writes a letter to Santa. However, the letter ends up summoning Krampus after the boy is forced to tear it up and throw it out.
Krampus comes at night and starts torturing family members. In the climax, Max wakes up on Christmas morning from what appears to have been a bad dream. However, the film’s final shot reveals that the Engel family is just one of the many trapped in snowglobes by Krampus, meaning their nightmare isn’t over yet.
1Terrifier 3 (2024)
This is the third film in Damien Leon’s horror franchise, whose popularity has surged immensely despite being criticized for excessive use of gore and violence. The first two films are themed for Halloween, but Terrifier 3 is Christmas-themed. It features the same murderous villain, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), in a Santa costume as he ruins Christmas for Sienna Shaw (a survivor of his massacre from the first film) and the whole city. The film has become the highest-grossing unrated film of all time as slasher-horror fans flock to the theatres for the thrill of Art’s graphic murders.
In the film, a mysterious force resurrects Art and gives him a partner despite having been decapitated in the previous film by the protagonist, Sienna Shaw. Sienna, now armed with her own supernatural weapon, stands up to the deadly clown in a Santa suit.
However, the twist at the film’s end sees Sienna injured, most of her family members dead, and Art the Clown still alive and Well. To make it worse, Art gets onto another bus, meaning his reign of terror will only get worse.
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Conclusion
Darker is always better in horror movies unless that darkness becomes too much, even for horror film fans. Most horror film creators have continued to distance themselves from the traditional feel-good ending, choosing a darker and less satisfying twist instead.
However, some of the ending twists are distressing, if not disturbing, to watch, and these ten films are the best examples of ending twists that leave fans reeling.
