If you’re looking for an unconventional Christmas movie that isn’t Die Hard, here’s a selection for your consideration…
Christmas is upon us again, and one of the leisure activities associated with the holiday spirit is revisiting some of the traditional Christmas movie classics such as It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, and The Santa Clause. Or maybe try to watch something different for a change. Like Die Hard, for example – the quintessential unconventional Christmas movie which often appears on (everyone’s) lists. But how about others? Well, we have curated a list of ten of the best unconventional Christmas movies worth checking out…
Lethal Weapon (1987)
With a title like Lethal Weapon, you won’t be expecting a family-friendly Christmas-set action comedy. Yes, the family value is still present from Roger Murtaugh’s (Danny Glover) perspective, a veteran cop who has a loving wife and kids. But Richard Donner’s film is pretty much a violent movie with elements of comedy added in. Even the cheerful tune of Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” plays in the opening credits is merely a too-good-to-be-true façade that follows with the suicidal death of a young woman influenced by drugs.
The movie is notable for putting Mel Gibson firmly on the Hollywood map, thanks to his iconic performance as the loose cannon cop Martin Riggs. The mismatched pairing between him and Glover’s Murtaugh brings a distinctly contrasting personality – a quintessential buddy-movie dynamic that made Lethal Weapon such a contemporary genre classic since Walter Hill’s 48 Hrs.
The Day of the Beast (1995)
A priest is out on an all-important mission to stop the birth of Antichrist on Christmas Eve in Madrid. That’s the premise in Álex de la Iglesia’s Spanish-language horror film, The Day of the Beast. It may sound like a typical end-of-the-world apocalyptic horror story, but Iglesia, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jorge Guerricaechevarría, takes a radical approach by incorporating a mix of pitch-black humor and irreverent comedy.
Even the priest, played to hilariously deadpan perfection by Álex Angulo as Father Ángel Berriartúa, is rather an unhinged type. If that’s not enough, his quest sees him teaming up with a pair of unlikely allies — a death metal fan (Santiago Segura’s José María) and an occult con artist (Armando De Razza’s Professor Cavan). The odd pairing between these trio runs riot throughout the movie to an unabashedly twisted, anything-goes dark horror-comedy vibe.
Batman Returns (1992)
Tim Burton was on top of the world after he hit the big-time with Batman in 1989. But instead of returning with a more traditional blockbuster sequel three years later, he opted for something radically different that feels more like an essential Tim Burton movie than a Batman film. The result? A dark, Christmas-set depraved Gothic horror and twisted melodrama dominated by freaks and outcasts in the guise of a mainstream superhero movie template.
It’s noticeably bleaker in its tone and style, even goes as far as placing not one but two antagonists – The Penguin (Danny DeVito) and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) – front and center. Both deliver one of their best performances to date, complete with tragic yet sympathetic backstories surrounding their characters’ unfortunate paths to darkness. Interestingly, Michael Keaton’s Batman himself plays second fiddle in his own movie, even though Burton manages to redeem his appearance by injecting a pivotal angle surrounding Batman and Catwoman’s complicated and dysfunctional love story.
The Silent Partner (1978)
This underrated 1970s Canadian thriller cleverly mixes suspense and pitch-black humor, thanks to Curtis Hanson’s genre know-how screenplay adapted from Anders Bodelsen’s 1969 novel Think of a Number. It was one of Hanson’s earlier works as a screenwriter, but the director who called the shots was Daryl Duke, primarily involved in television series such as The Bold Ones: The New Doctors and Columbo. The Silent Partner is notable for Christopher Plummer’s chilling antagonist turn as Harry Reikle, who disguises himself as a mall Santa to rob a bank during the Christmas season
And what makes the movie even intriguing is one of the tellers who works at the very bank itself played by Elliot Gould as Miles Cullen. Beneath his seemingly quiet and mild-mannered personality, Miles comes across as a deceptive character who secretly stole the money right under the bank’s nose, resulting in a subsequent deadly game of cat-and-mouse between him and Harry. The movie equally benefits from its deliberate build-up with shocking acts of violence (the brutal fate of one of the supporting characters comes to mind) and misogyny before culminating in a bloody finale.
The Ref (1994)
Imagine taking a couple hostage, only to find out the two can’t stop bickering over every petty thing. That’s exactly what happens to poor Gus (Denis Leary), a cat burglar who botches a robbery trying to steal jewelry from a mansion. Leary is no stranger to playing an antagonist role, and unlike his fearsome bad-guy turn in Judgment Night the year before, he gets to flex his comedic muscle as well in The Ref.
Seeing him forced to put up with the couple played by Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis as Lloyd and Caroline is where the movie shines the most. Here, director Ted Demme eschews the feel-good factor typically associated with a Christmas-set family comedy in favor of mean-spirited and dysfunctional family dynamics, which even extends to Lloyd’s tyrannical mother, Rose (Glynis Johns). It’s dark, cynical, and full of hilariously profane dialogue throughout the movie’s lean 97-minute runtime. Pity the movie failed to resonate with the audience back in 1994, but it has since been re-assessed and even emerged as a cult classic,
Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)
Christmastime hits different in Little Haven, Scotland. And yet, for someone like Anna Shepherd (Ella Hunt), it’s morning as usual, as she walks to school with her earbuds plugged in while singing and dancing to the catchy tune of “Turning My Life Around”. Such is the scene, and one of the many song-and-dance numbers in Anna and the Apocalypse – an odd but exhilarating mix of movie musical, high-school dramedy, and zombie horror.
Speaking of the latter, the movie may take a while to get to the “apocalypse” part, but director John McPhail does a good job setting up the story of Anna, who is about to complete school and plans to delay university study for a year in favor of travelling, has a lot on her plate. Like how she has to deal with her disapproving father, or her complicated relationship with her classmate, Nick (Ben Wiggins) and the fact that her best friend, John (Malcolm Cumming), has been harboring a longtime crush on her. But all the whirlwind dramas have to be set aside when everyone must face the zombie outbreak terrorizing their idyllic small town. McPhail doesn’t shy away from gore and graphic violence, leaning heavily on the good old practical effects over CGI overload to strike a stark contrast between the upbeat earlier stretch and the increasingly pessimistic zombie-heavy second half.
Cobra (1986)
The festive season isn’t particularly jolly in the bleak Los Angeles, overwhelmed by violent crime. The radical serial killers, led by “Night Slasher” (Brian Thompson), are terrorizing the city, and the only person to stop them isn’t Santa but rather a no-nonsense cop named Marion “Cobra” Cobretti. The latter is a quintessential Stallone vehicle: a tough, take-no-prisoners hero/antihero who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty when deemed necessary.
Not surprisingly, Cobra fulfills the ’80s action-movie template — lots of gunfights, body count, and R-rated violence. Interestingly, the story in Cobra was originally meant for Beverly Hills Cop (can you imagine a serious version of Beverly Hills Cop?), but it didn’t work out as planned, resulting in Stallone to reshape it into a movie that doesn’t shy away from blood, bullets, and brutality.
Reindeer Games (2000)
John Frankenheimer’s final film before his death in 2002 feels like an odd one out in his decades-long filmography. This is especially true with the veteran director’s primary work which focuses on political intrigue and psychological depth seen in the likes of The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May and French Connection II. Here, Reindeer Games is more playful in its tone, where Ehren Kruger’s screenplay follows an ex-convict (Ben Affleck’s Rudy Duncan) who assumes the identity of his dead cellmate and meets the latter’s girlfriend, Ashley (Charlize Theron).
What follows next is a series of twists and turns filled with deception and, of course, a casino heist dressed as Santa Claus. This movie particularly benefits from Gary Sinise’s unhinged performance as the leader of the criminal gang, while Charlize Theron shines as the manipulative femme fatale. And apart from the Christmas setting and the Santa-themed robbery, let’s not forget about Reindeer Games wrapping up with the classic “Little Drummer Boy” song playing in the background.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
The words “Stanley Kubrick” and “Christmas” sound like an unlikely pair, but it happened in his final film, Eyes Wide Shut. Not to mention a big-budget studio film starring one of Hollywood’s biggest couples at the time, where Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play the husband and wife. The story? Nothing that spells jolly here, but rather a slow descent to darkness filled with hidden desire, ritualistic masquerade-themed orgy, and sexual fantasies.
Kubrick, who also co-adapted the screenplay with Frederic Raphael from Arthur Schnitzler’s “Dream Story” novella, turns the otherwise bustling New York setting (it was actually filmed extensively in England) into a surrealistic city that mirrors Cruise’s Dr. William Harford’s conflicting nighttime odyssey sparked by his beautiful wife’s unfulfilled fantasy, despite their seemingly pitch-perfect marriage. Interestingly, the behind-the-scenes production of Eyes Wide Shut was just as interesting as the final product itself, with the movie holding the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous film shoot lasted 400 days within its whopping 15-month filming.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Shane Black, whose lucrative career as a screenwriter, sure loves his Christmas theme to contrast the festive cheer with the gritty crime/action underpinning. His script in the first Lethal Weapon demonstrated that admirably, and decades later, he finally made his directorial debut with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It’s his familiar territory in the buddy comedy genre, pairing Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer as a thief and a private investigator involved in a murder mystery connected to the former’s childhood crush, Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan).
Black, who also wrote the screenplay, gamely explores his movie beyond the buddy-comedy convention, mixing pitch-black humor and a hardboiled neo-noir angle to ingeniously entertaining results. Downey Jr. and Kilmer’s on-screen team-up is memorable, and not to forget Michelle Monaghan’s memorable scene of her character donning a Santa dress.
What are your favourite unconventional Christmas movies? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
