Winter is Coming
Fansided

15 best scary Christmas movies to watch this holiday season

By Ariba Bhuvad

TIM BURTONÕS THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS - Why celebrate the spookiest time of the year for only 13 nights when you can celebrate for 31!? Freeform has expanded their annual Halloween programming event to "31 Nights of Halloween" bringing more thrills and chills to the entire month. From Oct. 1, the network will be invaded by everyoneÕs favorite witches, a murderous barber, out of control dinosaurs and everything else that goes bump in the night. (DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC./ABC)JACK SKELLINGTON (CHRIS SARANDON)
TIM BURTONÕS THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS - Why celebrate the spookiest time of the year for only 13 nights when you can celebrate for 31!? Freeform has expanded their annual Halloween programming event to "31 Nights of Halloween" bringing more thrills and chills to the entire month. From Oct. 1, the network will be invaded by everyoneÕs favorite witches, a murderous barber, out of control dinosaurs and everything else that goes bump in the night. (DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC./ABC)JACK SKELLINGTON (CHRIS SARANDON) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
14 of 15
Next

Batman Returns

Is Batman Returns a true holiday movie? The short and sweet answer is…YES, IT IS! From the get-go, this sequel to 1989’s Batman has Christmas written all over it. The story takes place during the holiday season and Gotham City is decked out in Christmas decorations. Batman Returns screams, “Happy holidays” through and through.

We’ve seen many takes on Gotham’s caped crusader, but this one is definitely among my favorites. Micheal Keaton stars as Batman and faces off with Gotham’s new villains, the Penguin (Danny DeVito) and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer). I can’t wait to see Keaton reprise his role as Batman for The Flash movie.

Anyway, as far as scary Christmas movies go, this one isn’t too horrific, but anytime we’re talking about Gotham City, you know some creepy stuff is lurking around the corner. The Penguin in particular is pretty gruesome here.

The Christmas theme plays a huge role in Batman Returns. And it goes beyond the aesthetics, putting a new twist on classic Christmas stories like A Christmas Carol and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Christopher Walken’s Max Schreck is most definitely the grouchy Scrooge of this film.

We also can’t forget how Penguin’s parents threw him into the sewers on Christmas! What kind of horrible parents would do that?! He emerges from the sewers renewed and resurrected decades later to wreak havoc on Gotham City.

I think what makes this a “scary” movie is the fact that despite being set in the holidays, Batman Returns is a story about characters that are lonely and isolated. Despite having riches and people around them, they don’t have people that truly love them. No one should have to be alone during the holidays!

Batman Returns is available to stream on HBO Max.

Home/Editorial