Best Christmas Horror Movies And Craft Beer Pairings

 

The Christmas movie is a genre unto itself…with classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34^th Street still very much a part of our holiday pop-cultural lexicon. But there’s a more “damaged” subset to these traditional favorites that we think goes better with high-octane craft beer – The Christmas Horror Movie. And here are some of our favorites and the beers you’ll need

Krampus

One of this growing genre’s newest entrants, Krampus last December and has fast become a popular favorite thanks to its truly sick sense of humor and coyly utilized “B-movie quality” special effects.

Semi-A-listers Adam Scott and Toni Colette star as the parents in a family terrorized by an ancient Germanic Christmas spirit.    Suggested Beer Pairing: Moat Monster Stout – Oozlefinch Craft Brewery (Fort Monroe, VA)

The Nightmare Before Christmas

First released by Walt Disney in 1993, and returning to the big screen several times after that Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is a dark stop-action musical masterpiece that tells the story of Jack Skellington, a resident from “Halloween Town” who accidentally stumbles through a portal to “Christmas Town”

With music composed and sung by ex-Oingo Boingo Frontman Danny Elman (and not without its share of frightening moments either) The Nightmare Before Christmas is as ageless as it is brilliant so the beer that you drink with it is very important. Suggested Beer Pairing: Olde Saratoga Death Wish Nightmare IPA – Mendocino Brewing (Ukiah, CA)

Silent Night Zombie Night

A week before Christmas an unknown viral outbreak overwhelms the populace of Los Angeles turning them into the walking dead in the middle of the holiday’s peak shopping season. And L.A.P.D. officer Frank Talbot finds himself trapped in a mall with them.

Zombies are super-hot right now (as is Christmas) and the beer you’ll be needing for this 1993 release is absolutely crucial!  Suggested Beer Pairing: Zombie Dust Pale Ale – 3 Floyds Brewing (Munster, IN)

Sint

Who doesn’t love a Dutch import that depicts St. Nicholas as a murderous bishop who kidnaps and murders children indiscriminately when there’s a full moon?

Released in Europe as Saint and in the states as Saint Nick Sint (2011) fiendishly ups the ante on the whole slasher film thing and given that this evil St Nickolas wannabe brutally kills both the naughty and the nice… you’ll need just the right beer. Suggested Beer Pairing: Old Nick Barley Wine Ale – Young’s Brewery (UK)

 

Elves

Combine a young woman who discovers that she was part of an evil Nazi experiment involving selective breeding (OMG) and summoned elves, in an attempt to create a race of supermen and you’ve a holiday horror flick like nothing you’ve ever seen.

Elves stars Julie Austin as Kristen a teenager who accidentally cuts her hand during an “Anti-Christmas” pagan ritual with her friends (we’ve all been there right?) and things get increasingly horrifying from there. She and two of her friends end up being trapped in a department store with an elf (of course) with only a renegade Santa Claus to save them. Suggested Beer Pairing: Mad Elf Ale – Tröegs Brewing (Hershey, PA)