It’s the last month of the year, which means Hollywood is releasing all of its good movies at once. It’s all an attempt to win awards and to scoop up holiday dollars, but hey, I’m not complaining. December is prime time for movie fans, and the only negative is losing sleep since there are so many great films to watch and very little time to see them.

Chances are, you’ll watch Sonic the Hedgehog 3 or Mufasa. Those are big films, with big stars and big marketing budgets. But there are smaller movies with smaller advertising spends that deserve your time and attention. The following three aren’t your usual holiday movie fare, but that’s a good thing. They all promise to finish your year off with a bang … and in one case, a very nasty bite.

Nicholas Hoult has been a roll lately. The X-Men: First Class actor has had a stellar few years, with a successful streaming series (The Great), a movie that’s already a cult classic (The Menu), and one of 2024’s most talked-about releases (Juror #2). The English actor isn’t done yet, as he has one more movie in the year: Justin Kurzel’s crime drama The Order. And it’s as different as anything he’s ever done since instead of playing a mutant or a vampire, he’s embodying something far more sinister: a real-life white supremacist leader.

Hoult plays Bob Matthews, a charismatic neo-Nazi activist who, in the 1980s, forms a white power group called The Order in the Pacific Northwest. As he accumulates more members and commits more crimes, he attracts the attention of the FBI and, in particular, one agent, Terry Husk (Jude Law). Terry is determined to bring down Bob’s illegal operation, and he’ll resort to violent measures, and a 12-gauge shotgun, to get his man.

I love a good high concept, and it doesn’t get much higher than what Carry-On, an upcoming thriller set to stream on Netflix, has in store for its audience. On Christmas Day, a young TSA agent, Ethan Kopek, has to deal with the usual headaches: disgruntled travelers, unsympathetic bosses, and not enough support to deal with the holiday crush of people.

But this Christmas, Ethan has another big problem he didn’t anticipate: someone is blackmailing him to let a mysterious, and most likely lethal, package, onto a boarding flight. If he doesn’t, his pregnant girlfriend, who also works at the airport, will die. What’s an overworked TSA agent to do?

Carry-On is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who knows how to craft an effective thriller, having made the excellent Liam Neeson action movies Non-Stop, Run All Night, and The Commuter. (Just ignore the trainwreck that was Black Adam.) The movie’s cast is terrific, with Rocketman actor Taron Egerton as Ethan, Valerie’s Family legend Jason Bateman as the largely unseen villain, and Sofia Carson as Ethan’s endangered partner. Netflix movies can be hit or miss, but I’m banking on Carry-On being more enjoyable than traveling during Christmas. It has to be, right?

There are plenty of ways to celebrate Christmas this year. You can see Wicked again, or check out Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. For those who crave something different, well, Robert Eggers has something for you. The Witch director is going back to his horror roots and remaking one of the best horror movies, and remakes, of all time: Nosferatu.

Unlike the 1922 and 1979 versions, this iteration promises to contain a lot more blood and violence, which makes sense considering this is from the same guy who made The Northman. Nicholas Hoult is back again on the big screen in ’24, this time as the movie’s hero, Thomas Hutter. He has to protect his lady love, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), from the evil that is Count Orlock (The Crow‘s Bill Skarsgård), who sweeps like a plague over Europe as he brings death and decay to all he touches. Also, rats … lots and lots of rats.

The movie has been shrouded in secrecy since it was first announced years ago, and even after two trailers and a dozen production images, we still haven’t seen Skarsgård as the titular vampire. What has been revealed is a stylish, visually sumptuous film, one that is sure to be compared with that other hallmark of outstanding vampire cinema, 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Watching vampires suck blood is an odd way to celebrate Christmas, but then again, isn’t it also weird to be singing along to a green witch who flies?

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