I love Christmas, but usually, by this time of the year, I’m done with all the cute and cuddly stuff. Or at least that’s my excuse for why most of my favorite Christmas movies are spooky. If you’re looking for a festive movie that’s lower in sugary sweetness, give these a shot.

Krampus

From the opening montage alone, Krampus won my heart. Seeing people deck each over a toy during Black Friday sets the tone of Krampus. This is a movie that borrows the moralistic slasher rules of older horror movies, like Friday the 13th, and applies that framework to Christmas. Being greedy and only wanting presents? Watch out for Krampus. Bullying your cousin? Watch out for Krampus. It’s refreshing to have a Christmas movie that brings up that the holiday isn’t very jolly anymore and gives us a better reason than coal to be good.

Gremlins

Gremlins is one of those movies that’s more a Christmas movie for fun than a Christmas movie that has a message about the holidays. It’s just plain old fun to watch the havoc the gremlins get into; that’s why I think I still like the sequel better, I like seeing how zany the little creatures will get.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Is it a Christmas movie? Is it a Halloween movie? Does it matter? Watch as Jack learns to accept himself and sing a bunch of catchy songs. Now I need to get “What’s This?” out of my head.

A Christmas Horror Story

This is not a movie for a moral lesson or a movie that gets you in the Christmas mood. This is a movie you watch to see Santa kill hordes of zombie elves.

Escanaba in da Moonlight

I am not sure this movie technically qualifies as a Christmas movie. I’m not sure if I even remember snow being in it. The message in it always struck me as Christmas-like. You have Reuben striving to reach his goal, and his friends and family doing everything they can do to help him along the way. It’s a touching and funny movie, but maybe not traditionally Christmas appropriate.