Christmas at the Kringles: Ron Livingston Takes on a Very Strange Christmas Family

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Christmas at the Kringles will be releasing in October

Christmas horror has arrived early this year, and it appears to have brought a chainsaw with it.

Christmas at the Kringles is a new horror comedy from Kevin Lewis, the director of Willy’s Wonderland, and the first trailer has arrived ahead of its October theatrical release.

The Kringles Celebrate Christmas All Year

Mark and Julie Severson, played by Ron Livingston and Rachel Bilson, are simply trying to settle into their new neighborhood with their family, where their next-door neighbors initially appear to be nothing more than an unusually enthusiastic Christmas-loving family.

The Kringles have decorations up all year, talk about Christmas constantly and seem to have a slightly unsettling obsession with spreading holiday joy, and their son also becomes increasingly attached to the strange family, which understandably starts making Mark and Julie wonder what exactly is going on next door.

Things take a turn when Mark confronts the Kringles and discovers that their interest in his family isn't just because they are friendly neighbors - the Kringles apparently intend to hypnotize and indoctrinate them.

Rob Riggle also plays a character rather wonderfully credited as Drunk Santa - he's not exactly the traditional red-and-white Christmas hero either, and once Mark realizes that the Kringles are a genuine threat, he joins forces with this rogue Santa for what is described as a high-stakes fight to rescue his family.

The Kringle family also includes Arden Myrin as Carol Kringle, Thomas Lennon as Nick Kringle and Beverly D'Angelo as Mama K Kringle, while David Wain plays Noel Tannebaum and Donald Faison appears as Daryl.

There are also a number of smaller roles scattered throughout the movie, including Rudolph Kringle, Merry Kringle, Elf Kringle and various Santas, which gives you a pretty good idea of the tone the film is going for.

From the Director of Willy's Wonderland

Kevin Lewis directs Christmas at the Kringles from a screenplay by Zack Imbrogno - Lewis previously directed Willy's Wonderland, the gloriously ridiculous Nicolas Cage horror movie in which Cage spends most of the film beating the living hell out of possessed animatronic creatures without saying much at all.

That film is probably the easiest comparison for what we're getting here, particularly because Lewis has specifically said he was looking for another strange, over-the-top genre movie after Willy's Wonderland. He found it in Imbrogno's screenplay. 

Imbrogno also previously wrote Slayers, another horror-comedy, so there is clearly no attempt here to pretend that the film is going to be a traditional Christmas family movie that happens to have a couple of murders.

The producers include Andrew Ortenberg, Tom Ortenberg, Liam Finn, Kevin Lewis and Jordan Dykstra, with Briarcliff Entertainment handling the U.S. theatrical release. 

Christmas at the Kringles will be released in U.S. theaters on October 30, 2026,


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