10 Classic Christmas Movies That Would Make Great Thrillers

10 Classic Christmas Movies That Would Make Great Thrillers

Christmas classics are loved for making audiences feel warm and fuzzy inside, but these movies feature narratives that could easily be thrillers.

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It’s strange that there are actually a lot of parallels between thrillers and holiday movies, and sometimes, the only thing that separates the two is comedy. Whether it’s drama that erupts into violence between families, characters that could very well be deranged, or kids who use their creativity for violence, there’s nothing but a few Christmas carols that keeps them from being intense thrillers.

These Christmas movies feature narratives that could just as easily be thrillers, and in the hands of the right director, they could even be better than the original movie.

10 The Santa Clause (1994)

Tim Allen’s transformation into becoming Santa is one of the reasons why The Santa Clause is the perfect Santa, but it’s easy to overlook the very reason why he transformed into old Saint Nick in the first place.

In The Santa Clause, Allen accidentally kills Santa and then ultimately steals his identity, and if that isn’t grounds for an intense, gritty, David Fincher-esque thriller movie, then what is?

9 Bad Santa (2003)

Bad Santa is a movie that is already dark for a Christmas movie, as it follows Billy Bob Thornton, who plays a mall Santa that’s completely depressed and drowns his sorrows with alcohol.

It’s one of the Christmas movies released after 2000 that could be considered a classic, but the character is scarily on edge and inhabits all of the traits that make a great on-screen serial killer. Maybe if Bad Santa 2 played on this idea it wouldn’t have been so disappointing.

8 A Christmas Story (1983)

“You’ll shoot your eye out” is one of the most iconic quotes from A Christmas Story, as Ralphie has his eyes on only one thing for Christmas, an air rifle. In the end, he actually gets the present and he, of course, ends up injuring himself when playing with it, which completely puts him off the idea of toy guns.

However, if that accident had never happened, it’s possible that Ralphie could have fallen in love with shooting guns, and possibly led him down a dark path.

7 How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Though it’d make more of a great horror than a thriller, How The Grinch Stole Christmas has all the hallmarks of a great thriller movie.

If the movie was a thriller, it would probably have been more well-received upon its release, and Jim Carey would certainly have been seen as one of the greatest antagonists ever, up there with the likes of Hannibal Lector.

6 Jingle All The Way (1996)

Jingle All The Way already takes some major liberties and pushes the boundaries as far as it can in terms of what can be shown in a children’s movie, as it follows two men lock horns and literally try to kill each other.

One of the men even threatens to bomb a building, and it’s all for comedic relief. The movie is almost already a dark movie disguised as a family film, as all you need to do is remove the jokes and it instantly becomes a thriller.

5 The Polar Express (2004)

Tom Hanks voicing several characters is one of the hidden details people missed in The Polar Express, whether it’s the stern but fair train conductor, the little boy, or even Santa Clause himself.

But there’s another character that the actor voices, which is the hobo found sitting on the top of the train who suddenly disappears. The hobo frightens the life out of the boy, and the character’s meaning was always left open-ended. But in any other movie, the character would surely have been the suspect in a murder case.

4 Deck The Halls (2006)

Deck The Halls sees two neighbors go head to head in trying to one-up each other on their Christmas decorations. The movie was completely financially unsuccessful, as it bombed at the box office and faired miserably amongst critics.

But the movie’s failure might have been due to not knowing what genre it is. As the two characters go to great lengths to ruin each others’ Christmas, it could just as well be a great cat-and-mouse thriller.

3 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is arguably the best holiday movie, as it sees Clark, played amazingly by Chevy Chase, become overwhelmed by the burden of Christmas.

Whether it’s the in-laws dropping in, the hazardous Christmas lights, or his non-existent Christmas bonus, all of that stress combined with his over the top hatred for his boss could lead to some nasty outcomes. And in an alternate reality, Clark’s sanity totally cracked under the pressure.

2 Home Alone (1990)

The fact that Kevin could very well be the Jigsaw killer, which is one of the many dark theories about lighthearted movies, is proof enough that he is capable of some very horrific things.

When Kevin sets up dozens of traps to catch some thieves in Home Alone, it showed how clever, creative, and heroic the child is, but if he was pushed in the wrong way, the kid could use that creativity and braveness in much more psychopathic ways.

1 Elf (2003)

Buddy The Elf could very well be mistaken for a lunatic, as many of his stories are completely ludicrous and he is borderline stalking who he thinks is his father, making Elf the perfect candidate for a thriller movie.

It’s very possible that Buddy is even hallucinating being in the North Pole, as the art direction for those scenes is entirely different to the rest of the movie, leading to the possibility that he is imagining being an elf and is completely deranged.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/classic-christmas-movies-could-be-thrillers/

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