Weird and wonderful movies to get you in the Christmas spirit

<!-- missing image http://curious.kcrw.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/book_mlc_cover_lg-200x300.jpg -->You know the classic holiday movies, such as ”It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Story.” There are less traditional favorites like “Home Alone” and “Love Actually.” But maybe you’re looking for something more obscure.

Luckily, film critic Alonso Duralde wrote a book called “Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas.”

Duralde and critic Dave White highlight:

Gremlins – What makes a movie a Christmas movie? “I think that if Christmas is featured significantly, and seems relevant enough that if you took it out of the movie, it’d be a different kind of movie, then it counts, and so that opens the field up to … ‘Gremlins.’ ” – Duralde

I’ll Be Seeing You – “This is a movie about damaged people going through difficult times, but because they’re able to find each other, and because they’re finding each other during Christmas, I think that gives them both a sort of renewed lease for what their futures might be.” — Duralde

Eyes Wide Shut – “I count ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ as a Christmas movie, and if you don’t believe me, go watch it again. There is so much Christmas in that movie, you won’t believe it.” — Duralde

“We assume that Christmas is the season of … faith, and fidelity, and family … and because this is a Stanley Kubrick film, that arena is in stark contrast to what is happening to the characters in that film.” — White

Black Christmas – “This may be the most purely frightening of all the Christmas horror films. I watch it, kind of, every year. And each year, I am freshly creeped out.” — White

Better Watch Out – “If you took the concept of ‘Home Alone’, and really juiced up the child sadism aspect of it, but in a very funny and clever way … I like this one a lot.” – Duralde

The Hebrew Hammer – “There are sadly, to my knowledge, only two real big Chanukah movies. One of them is the dreadful animated Adam Sandler feature ‘Eight Crazy Nights.’ But thankfully, we do have ‘The Hebrew Hammer,’ who is here to save Chanukah from the evil machinations of Santa Claus Jr.” – Duralde