Snow might not be falling just yet (depending on where you are), but the holiday movie machine is in full swing. Every year, as December creeps closer, we’re greeted by a familiar parade of cozy titles featuring snow-kissed romances, family reunions, and comedies about mismatched Santas and last-minute gift disasters. Classics like Love Actually, Home Alone, The Holiday, and Elf have earned their place in seasonal rotations for how they effortlessly wrap up warmth, nostalgia, joy, and a little chaos into one glittery package.
But Christmas movies don’t always play by the rules. Beneath an avalanche of famous, feel-good flicks is a stranger, scrappier genre of movies that twist the holiday spirit into something darker, funnier, or just plain odd. These are movies that swap sentiments for satire and sleigh bells for existential dread. They’re not always easy to categorize, and that’s exactly why they are worth watching.
So, if you’re ready to trade predictable holiday staples with something a little more weird, here are 8 weird Christmas movies that are too good to stay obscure this year.
8
‘Christmas Evil’ (1980)
Harry Sandling is a man obsessed with Santa Claus. As a child, he witnessed a disturbing moment involving his mother and a man in a Santa suit, and the trauma never left him. Now an adult working in a toy factory, Harry meticulously tracks neighborhood children in a “naughty or nice” ledger and eventually snaps, donning a Santa costume and embarking on a vigilante spree. Directed by Lewis Jackson, Christmas Evil is less slasher and more psychological thriller, following Harry as he tries to embody the spirit of Christmas while punishing those who betray it.
There’s a slow build to it all, with eerie music and dream sequences leading up to a finale that’s as surreal as it is poetic. The movie features Brandon Maggart’s unsettling yet sympathetic performance, and it walks a tightrope between horror, satire, and melancholy. There’s a haunting Christmas parade scene, a church confrontation, and a delusional final shot. It was dismissed as too weird on release, but Waters famously called it “the greatest Christmas movie ever made.”
7
‘Patti Rocks’ (1988)
Directed by David Burton Morris starring John Jenkins, Karen Landry, and Chris Mulkey, Patti Rocks is set over a single winter night. It follows two men, Billy and Eddie, on a road trip to confront Billy’s ex-lover Patti, who is pregnant and refusing to speak to him. As they drive through snowy Minnesota, the movie unfolds through raw, often profane conversations about sex, relationships, and responsibility. When they finally reach Patti’s apartment, the dynamic shifts because Patti is funny and grounded, forcing the men to deal with their own immaturity.
Praised for its naturalistic dialogue and improvisational feel, Patti Rocks was shot in just 12 days with a script that evolved during filming. Though not a traditional Christmas movie, it takes place in the final days of December, with holiday lights flickering in the background. Its strength lies in its intimacy. Three flawed people navigating messy emotions in a cold, quiet world means there’s dialogue, and it’s never dull, but Karen Landry’s performance gives it a moral center.
6
‘Metropolitan’ (1990)
Metropolitan, Whit Stillman’s debut feature, takes place during Christmas break in Manhattan, where a group of young, upper-class intellectuals gather for a series of exclusive parties like debutante balls and late-night salons. At the center is Tom, a middle-class outsider who is reluctantly drawn into their world. As Tom navigates the social dynamics of this privileged world, the movie offers a wry, affectionate satire of the customs and conventions of the “urban haute bourgeoisie.”
While Metropolitan may not feature any overt Christmas imagery or storylines, its setting during the holiday season serves as a clever backdrop for its exploration of romantic entanglements, class anxieties, and existential musings, all while treating the emotional lives of the upper-class group with tenderness. Stillman’s script is witty and mannered, filled with lines like “I don’t read novels. I prefer good literary criticism.” Though nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, it remains obscure.
5
‘Go’ (1999)
Doug Liman’s Go plays out over one chaotic Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, and it’s told through three interlocking stories that spiral from a grocery store to a rave to a Vegas casino and back. It opens with Ronna, a supermarket clerk who agrees to cover a shift for her friend and ends up orchestrating a sketchy drug deal to make rent. Meanwhile, her co-worker Simon is off in Vegas causing trouble, and two soap opera actors get tangled up in a sting operation.
What makes Go so compelling is its kinetic energy and its refusal to settle into one genre. It is part crime caper, part teen comedy, and part existential holiday spiral. The Christmas setting is subtle but ever-present. Play, Sarah Polley, Desmond Askew, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr, Katie Holmes, Timothy Olyphant, and William Fichtner round out a sharp and unpredictable cast. Go was well-received on release, but it slipped into cult status. 2025 seems like the right time to rediscover it as a holiday film that’s weird and unconventional.
4
‘Tokyo Godfathers’ (2003)
Directed by anime legend Satoshi Kon, Tokyo Godfathers tells the story of three homeless companions. Gin is a middle-aged alcoholic; Hana is a transgender woman and former drag performer; and Miyuki is a teenage runaway. They discover an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve and are determined to find the child’s parents, so they embark on a journey through Tokyo’s underbelly, encountering gangsters, ghosts from their pasts, and unexpected kindness.
Kon, known for his visual storytelling and unique style of “editing space and time” in his movies, makes sure the direction is fluid and expressive. It captures both the chaos of the city and the intimacy of small gestures, ultimately radiating warmth and compassion. Also, the Christmas setting isn’t just aesthetic, but integral to the story’s themes of forgiveness. It is beloved by anime fans, but remains undressed by mainstream audiences, and that’s a shame, because Tokyo Godfathers is one of the most life-affirming gems of all time, animated or otherwise.
3
‘Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale’ (2010)
Deep in the snowy mountains of Finland, a group of researchers unearths what they believe to be the original Santa Claus. But he’s nothing like the Coca-Cola version. In Rare Exports, Santa is a monstrous, ancient figure punished for his cruelty, and now he’s waking up. When children start disappearing, a young boy named Pietari and his father take the charge of confronting the myth and stopping the creature before Christmas is lost.
Directed by Jalmari Helander, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale combines horror, folklore, and dry Nordic humor into a tight, atmospheric thriller that is both eerie and inventive. It’s also insanely committed to reimagining Santa as something primal and terrifying. The visuals, complete with snow-covered landscapes, shadowy caves, and a herd of naked elves, are quite striking. And Pietari’s arc, from timid child to unlikely hero, gives the story its weight. If you’re tired of saccharine Christmas fare, this Finnish import offers a darker, smarter, and weirder alternative.
2
‘Anna and the Apocalypse’ (2017)
Set in a sleepy Scottish town, Anna and the Apocalypse follows high school senior Anna, who is planning to skip university and travel the world. But on Christmas Eve, a zombie outbreak hits and the undead overrun her school and town. Anna and her friends must find their way to safely using whatever they can find, from candy canes to seesaws. On, and they sing.
Anna and the Apocalypse is a full-blown musical, with original songs that range from pop-punk anthems to bittersweet ballads, all set against a backdrop of blood, holiday cheer, and teenage angst. It’s weird and special because it juggles various tones together. One moment you’re watching a giddy hallway dance number, the next you’re hit with a gut-punch of loss or a gory decapitation in a Christmas tree lot. And the songs are genuinely catchy too.
1
‘The Leech’ (2022)
In The Leech, a lonely Catholic priest named Father David opens his home to a homeless man named Terry, just before Christmas. What begins as a charitable act quickly spirals into chaos as Terry invites his girlfriend Lexi to stay too, and the couple’s hedonistic lifestyle begins to unravel David’s carefully ordered world.
A slow-burning psychological horror-comedy that leans into discomfort, dark humor, and religious guilt, The Leech wraps it all up in twinkling lights. The brilliance of the movie lies in its claustrophobic setup as well. It is funny in awkward ways, like watching Father David try to maintain composure as his guests blast music, drink heavily, and desecrate his Advent calendar. Graham Skiller’s performance is too good. It’s a small indie that did not get much attention on release, but it’s a strange little film that deserves a spot in your offbeat holiday rotation.