The list of Christmas standards is long and vetted by decades of pop culture scrutiny. Joining such an elite group is a seemingly impossible task . Yet year upon year, filmmakers are determined to try. This year, a stoner comedy and throwback horror flick have taken up the task. Do either succeed?

The Night Before: Seth Rogen has written himself into a comfortable bubble over the past couple of years. Even if most of his films boil down to the same formula of “Seth Rogen & friends get high, go on adventures,” they can still be genuinely fun. The Night Before never hits the same highs as Pineapple Express or This Is The End, but it still offers a decent seasonal chuckle.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Ethan, a young adult stalling in his early ‘30s as his friends achieve personal and professional success. Orphaned as a teen, his friends still adhere to an annual tradition of spending the holidays together, getting plastered on all manner of substances as they search for the ultimate party. It’s a fairy shallow setup, guiding the trio of Rogen, Levitt, and Anthony Mackie through a series of vulgar bits with a tinsel twinge. It’s funny, despite feeling obvious.
The film stumbles as it tries to tie emotional strings through the gags. The personal struggles of all three characters are difficult to empathize with as they coast through a Christmas Eve of debauchery. Even as they make brutally stupid decisions, the stakes never feel real. As is the case with every one of these films, everything will turn out alright regardless of how badly our protagonists screw up. You’ll laugh, but leave gaining very little.
Will it be a holiday classic?: Unlikely. There’s little here to really latch onto or remember once it’s over. The bits are great the first time through, but they likely won’t hold up under annual revisits.

Krampus: Director Michael Dougherty is responsible for one of my favorite holiday films of all time, though the holiday in question is far from merry. Trick ‘r Treat is a delightfully horrifying Halloween romp that captures the dark undertones of a cultural tradition. His latest, Krampus, applies the same cynical worldview to Christmas. A deliciously bold opening showcasing a yuletide retail riot sets the stage perfectly as we follow protagonist Max’s growing discontent with his family’s disrespect for the holiday.
Trick ‘r Treat was notable for its brutal imagery, with monster effects that focused on practical beasts and plenty of gore. Krampus lives up to its predecessor, busting out some truly astonishing monsters. While the film is shot like a standard mainstream horror flick (right down to the PG-13 rating), it’s the character design that gives Krampus a leg up.
Unfortunately, the film seems compromised in terms of tone. It portrays Max’s family as the perfect horror movie cast: a righteous band of assholes that deserves the worst. But as the darkness starts to spread, the film goes out of its way to humanize them and even touch on genuine notes of Christmas spirit. The film sticks to genre tropes for both holiday films and horror films without seeming to care about their contradictory nature.
Will it be a holiday classic?: Potentially. Trick ‘r Treat suffers from similar script issues, but found an appreciating cult audience with time. It may sink into the abyss of pop culture for a few years, but I can see Krampus getting good legs on cable.