Christmas horror just got nastier with “Unholy Night”

A new teaser and first-look images for “Unholy Night” arrived on July 1, putting a mean little holiday horror title on the board for this week. The setup is simple and filthy in the right way: grandma is back from the dead, and Christmas Eve is about to go very wrong.

That premise already does enough on its own. Holiday horror has always had a strong streak of cruelty in it, partly because it gets to weaponize cozy imagery people already know by heart. Lights, family rituals, seasonal warmth, then something rotten walking straight through the middle of it. “Black Christmas,” “Silent Night, Deadly Night,” and even nastier modern releases all understood that contrast. “Unholy Night” is clearly playing in that space.

A title can sit there for months without doing much. Footage changes that. Images change that. Once horror fans can actually see the mess a movie is trying to make, the conversation gets sharper very fast. This week gave “Unholy Night” that push.