Note: Permanent link availability is NOT GUARANTEED, but this list has been updated as of December 15, 2019. Some of these links are for TubiTV–which requires signing up–but it’s totally free, and available as an app for IOS, Android, Xbox Live, and the PlayStation Network).
IMPORTANT: While Christmas-related, these are still horror films. Thus, these films may contain:
Violence
Blood/gore
Jump scares
Nudity
Adult language
Adult situations
Sexual content
Staged/fake harm to animals
As I have not seen all of them, I cannot attest to the quality of each and every one, nor all potentially triggering/upsetting content. However, where I can, I will add warnings for certain situations (such as sexual assault), and I will add one of these four ratings:
🎅👌 = Recommended viewing.
🎁 = Take a look–you may find it enjoyable.
🦃 = A real turkey. Avoid at all costs.
🍻 = So bad, it’s actually good. Have the beers ready for spontaneous drinking games.
Additional ratings:
😺👍= No animal death.
If you are unsure of a film, you may wish to look up further information prior to viewing. Here are two resources I use to review content:
Scream Queens’ Naked Christmas (1996) (Only watch as a direct companion to Santa Claws, otherwise, don’t bother)
Secret Santa (2018) 🎅👌
Shake, Rattle, and Roll IX (2007)
Sheitan (2006) 🎅👌(This film is classified as “New French Extremity”, which typically explore various taboos in order to shock audiences. Not for sensitive viewers)
Sick for Toys (2018) 🎁 (WARNING: Deals with issues like Stockholm Syndrome, incest, and sexual assault against men)
“When a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.”
— Baruch Spinoza, Ethics (via philosophybits)
December is supposed to be the time of year filled with family gatherings and holiday good cheer. For medical residents, quite the opposite is true.
There are no school breaks during residency. Being a medical resident is a real job, and a stressful one at that. Residents work long shifts, as long as 24 hours straight and sometimes even 28 hours when needed for patient handoffs.
For many of our trainees — especially those fresh out of medical school — this will be the first holiday season without time off.
It’s well known among residency program directors like me that interns, trainees in their first year, enter the doldrums as daylight wanes and that they have to come to and leave the hospital in cold darkness.
At holiday time, interns are approaching the midpoint of their year. That’s long enough to feel committed to their chosen path but not nearly far enough along to see the finish line’s banners. Doubts amplify.
Combine the low emotional ebb with the knowledge that more of our patients die at this time of year, and interns feel understandably vulnerable. Many wonder at this point if they’ve made the right professional choice. In extreme cases, they wonder if they’ll survive.
I remember lamenting my first December having to work straight through. A wise mentor helped me reframe my self-pity. “It’s a privilege to work on Christmas,” he told me. “Our patients count on us. You may not want to be in the hospital, but think of what they’re going through.” He smiled, as if he were welcoming me to a special club, one that I wasn’t wholeheartedly ready to join. “Your mere presence helps reduce each patient’s sense of loss.”
