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Holiday-themed horror films or holiday horror are a subgenre of horror films set during holidays. Holiday horror films can be presented in short or long formats, and typically utilize common themes, images, and motifs from the holidays during which they are set, often as methods by which the villain may murder their victims. The genre has its own subgenres, such as Christmas horror.

Film scholars Chris Vander Kaay and Kathleen Fernandez-Vander Kaay explain the subgenre as such: "The expression 'adding insult to injury' is an excellent encapsulation of the motivation behind the horror movie obsession with holidays (aside from the obvious desire to brand a killer with a theme and costume that can be revisited many times within a lucrative film franchise). The holiday is a place for happiness and family... The horror movie loves nothing more than irony (except perhaps a good death scene), and there is very little more ironic than the fear and isolation of a horror movie taking place right in the middle of the festivities."

List of films

The following is a list of holiday horror films that depict or are set during a holiday or holiday season.

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

See also

• Into the Dark, a holiday horror anthology TV series
• Lists of films set around holidays
  • List of films set around Christmas
  • List of films set around Easter
  • List of films set around Father's Day
  • List of films set around Halloween
  • List of films set around May Day
  • List of films set around Mother's Day
  • List of films set around New Year
  • List of films set around St. Patrick's Day
  • List of films set around Thanksgiving
  • List of films set around Valentine's Day

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Works cited

• Jones, Alan-Bertaneisson (2010). Fright Xmas. AuthorHouseUK. ISBN 9781452061993.
• Muir, John Kenneth (2012). Horror Films of the 1980s. Vol. 1. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN 9780786472987. OCLC 840902442.
• Vander Kaay, Chris; Fernandez-Vander Kaay, Kathleen (2016). Horror Films by Subgenre: A Viewer's Guide. McFarland. ISBN 9781476622835.

• Holiday horror films
• Lists of horror films
• Lists of films set around holidays