The 20 coldest horror movies

Santa's Slay (2005)

Baby, it's cold outside: Nicholas Yuleson (Douglas Smith) never understood why his family didn't celebrate Christmas properly until Santa showed up one year to wreak havoc. Turns out Santa is Satan's son, and every thousand years he gets to come back from Hell to play. Cue comedy Christmas slayage.

Chill factor: 8/10

There's a stop-motion curling sequence in this film. Pretty cool.

Cold Prey (2006)

Baby, it's cold outside: When a rookie snowboarder breaks his leg, his friends soon realise that being out in the middle of nowhere is kind of terrifying. And when they seek shelter in an abandoned hotel... well, that was never going to end well, was it?

Chill factor: 8/10

The movie was shot at the top of a mountain where temperatures dropped as low as -25 degrees. Hope they packed some decent thermal underwear.

Ghostkeeper (1981)

Baby, it's cold outside: Another unfortunate group of snowboarders end up at another abandoned hotel, but this time they're not just being stalked by a slasher - they're falling victim to a Windigo, a terrifying creature from Native American mythology.

Chill factor: 8/10

Any time anyone is stranded in a hotel somewhere remote where the snowmobiles won't work, you know there's going to be trouble.

Dead Snow (2009)

Baby, it's cold outside: Whats worse than zombies in the snow? Nazi zombies in the snow, of course! When a group of students find a cache of Nazi gold in the cabin they're spending spring break at, they raise a platoon of undead soldiers, and much like vampires, the zombies arent too bothered by sub-zero temperatures.

Chill factor: 8/10

Luckily, frozen zombies can be dispatched in much the same way as normal zombies: with a chainsaw to the head.

Frozen (2010)

Baby, it's cold outside: Frozen is yet another cautionary tale about winter sports, though this time the hapless skiers get stuck on a ski lift when the dodgy resort they're visiting shuts down for the weekend. Which leaves them with a choice: jump and risk breaking their legs, or stay put and risk freezing to death. Neither option sounds great, to be honest.

Chill factor: 9/10

There aren't many films where the characters look as believeably cold as this one. The scene where Parker (Emma Bell) falls asleep and gets her hand frozen to the bar is particularly nasty.

Devils Pass (2013)

Baby, it's cold outside: You know what would have made The Blair Witch Project scarier? If the characters had been stuck outside in the snow. That's basically the premise of Devils Pass (originally titled The Dyatlov Pass Incident) at least until the daft sci-fi twist at the end. And in fairness, the idea of being lost in the middle of snowy nowhere is pretty terrifying.

Chill factor: 9/10

This movie covers pretty much everything that could possibly go wrong in the cold, from yeti to avalanches, so it deserves some cool points for that, if nothing else.

Blood Glacier (2013)

Baby, it's cold outside: Researchers in the Swiss Alps discover a mysterious red glacier which is melting and causing the local wildlife to mutate. Yup, its another eco-shocker, and a fairly daft one. The creature effects are pretty great, though. And at least it delivers on its title.

Chill factor: 9/10

The remote research laboratory is always a creepy setting for a horror movie, even if these scientists do spend more time sulking than actually doing science.

Whiteout (2009)

Baby, it's cold outside: Whiteout is yet another movie about researchers in the cold, but at least it has the good grace to be set in Antarctica for a change. And there aren't any aliens waiting for them out in the snow - just diamond smugglers.

Chill factor: 9/10

Heroine Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) has to have her fingers amputated at one point, because of severe frostbite.

The Shining (1980)

Baby, it's cold outside: In Kubrick's stone-cold classic, The Overlook Hotel shuts down for the winter, but someone has to stay there to make sure everything's still working. Enter Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a playwright with writer's block and an extremely creepy son.

Chill factor: 10/10

The end of this movie is a cautionary tale about mazes. And isolation. And ghosts. And, yeah, snow.

The Abominable Snowman (1957)

Baby, it's cold outside: British scientist Dr Rollason (Peter Cushing) joins an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the Abominable Snowman. And because this is a Hammer Horror film and it wouldn't be any fun if he didn't find one, he does. In fact, a whole tribe's worth.

Chill factor: 10/10

It's not just that there are terrifying creatures living out here in the snow. It's that they're just waiting for us all to kill one another so they can take over the world.