Celebrate a Lawless Holiday with These Christmas Crime Movies
Christmas is a time of togetherness and warmth, but it can also be a time of mayhem and murder. There’s a long tradition of dark, violent movies set during the holidays, and cinematic villains often take advantage of yuletide distractions to commit various illegal acts.
These holiday movies range from comedy to horror, but all of them showcase the obvious connection between Christmas celebrations and criminal activity.
Bad Santa
The vulgar humor in this dark Christmas comedy is so indelible that it’s easy to overlook the fact that it’s also a heist movie. Billy Bob Thornton’s Willie T. Soke and his partner Marcus Skidmore (Tony Cox) pose as Santa and his elf assistant, respectively, so they can rob a department store on Christmas Eve. Willie is too drunk to be particularly effective as a thief, but he reluctantly bonds with a naïve child who mistakes him for the real Santa. Even 20-plus years after its release, Bad Santa remains hilarious and sometimes shocking, with a pleasantly amoral attitude toward both crime and the holiday spirit.
Better Watch Out
This darkly comedic thriller offers a gleefully nasty take on the holiday home invasion, combining the kid-focused slapstick violence of Home Alone with an intense story about a sadistic stalker. It effectively makes multiple tonal shifts in its story of a babysitter being attacked at Christmastime while watching two disturbingly horny preteen boys. With its proto-incel protagonist, it’s both disturbingly timely and just plain disturbing, and its dark sense of humor and focus on psychological manipulation set it apart from typical B-movie holiday horror.
Christmas Evil
Although it’s often lumped in with other Christmas slasher movies about killers in Santa suits, this grubby exploitation movie is more of a grim psychological thriller, with an excellent performance from Brandon Maggart as an unhinged loner who just really, really loves Christmas. Maggart’s Harry would love nothing more than to spread Christmas cheer while he’s dressed as Santa, but he can’t possibly excuse any naughty behavior, which must be punished. He’s closer to Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle than to any horror-movie villain, and his descent into holiday madness is riveting.
Die Hard
The debate over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie has become a pop-culture cliché, but whether you categorize it as a holiday classic or not, there’s no denying that it takes place on Christmas Eve. It’s also one of the best action movies ever made, with an elegant, streamlined premise and brilliant use of its single location. Bruce Willis’ star-making performance as world-weary cop John McClane is still just as impressive, and he’s matched by Alan Rickman as delightfully sleazy villain Hans Gruber.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Screenwriter Shane Black is so enamored with the cinematic possibilities of Christmas that nearly every movie he writes is set during the holidays. Black’s directorial debut uses Christmas as the backdrop for its quippy, twist-filled crime story, starring Robert Downey Jr. as a small-time thief who inadvertently ends up involved in a criminal investigation alongside a private detective (Val Kilmer). The odd particulars of Christmas in LA, with no snow but plenty of inappropriately sexy holiday attire, infuse Black’s self-reflexive neo-noir, which is as much about the nature of storytelling as it is about the mystery itself.
The Ref
Denis Leary was at the height of his MTV-fueled fame when he starred in this dark comedy, playing a suburban burglar who unexpectedly ends up in the middle of a dysfunctional family’s holiday breakdown. On the run from the police, Leary’s Gus hides out in the home of affluent couple Caroline (Judy Davis) and Lloyd (Kevin Spacey), but their constant bickering makes him feel like he’s the one who’s actually being held hostage. Gus becomes part stand-up comedian, part marriage counselor as he tries to escape from both the law and his captives’ endless griping.
The Silent Partner
This sardonic, cynical thriller stars Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer as two equally devious criminals fighting over the loot from a bank robbery. The rush of a shopping mall at Christmastime provides cover for the crime, with Plummer as an outlaw who disguises himself as a mall Santa. Initially an innocent bystander, Gould’s bank teller thwarts the robbery so that he can take the money for himself. He may hide his sociopathy behind a veneer of corporate respectability, but that just makes his true nature all the more insidious.
Violent Night
Santa Claus himself stumbles into the middle of an elaborate robbery and hostage situation in this holiday action movie. David Harbour’s disillusioned Santa is fed up with modern holiday greed and has turned to heavy drinking, but thwarting a gang of armed mercenaries brings back his Christmas spirit. Harbour delivers beatdowns and one-liners with equal enthusiasm, and director Tommy Wirkola remains committed to the movie’s absurd premise. Amid the gruesome violence and sarcastic humor, Violent Night even finds room for some sweet reflections on the true meaning of Christmas.
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Josh Bell is a freelance writer and movie/TV critic based in Las Vegas. He has written about movies, TV, and pop culture for Vulture, IndieWire, CBR, Inverse, Crooked Marquee, and more. With comedian Jason Harris, he co-hosts the podcast Awesome Movie Year.