Shudder Acquires ‘Red Snow’ Before Fantastic Fest Premiere

Christmas horror is getting a vampire Santa. Shudder has acquired Red Snow, a Finnish horror-comedy from writer-director Ilja Rautsi, and the movie already has two dates circled: a world premiere at Fantastic Fest on Sunday, September 20, and a Shudder debut on December 15.

The announcement arrived Friday, just two days before the festival premiere. That makes Red Snow an especially timely piece of Fantastic Fest news, but the confirmed streaming date also gives horror fans who are not in Austin a clear answer about when they can watch it.

Shudder picks up Red Snow before its Fantastic Fest premiere

Red Snow was already part of the Fantastic Fest 2026 lineup, where it is scheduled to make its world premiere. Shudder’s acquisition now gives the film a home beyond the festival and sets its streaming release less than three months later.

The 92-minute movie is a Finland, Estonia and Sweden production. Rautsi wrote and directed it, with Hannu-Pekka Björkman and Anni Iikkanen leading the cast. Misha Jaari and Mark Lwoff produced for Bufo, with Ivo Felt of Allfilm and Peter Krupenin of HOBAB serving as co-producers.

A vampire in a Santa suit is the hook

The setup centers on Johanna, a 16-year-old emo teenager in Finland who dreams about meeting a glittering, romantic vampire prince. What she actually gets is Martti, a 49-year-old vampire who slips into a Santa suit so he can get inside homes.

Johanna crosses paths with him on Christmas Eve and initially thinks her dark fairy tale may be coming true. It does not take long for that fantasy to fall apart. The official description promises a mix of family trouble, dark comedy and bloody holiday horror, but that is probably the best place to stop before the premise starts turning into spoilers.

Ilja Rautsi steps behind the camera

Red Snow is Rautsi’s feature directing debut, but he is not new to horror. He co-wrote 2022’s Hatching with director Hanna Bergholm, then reunited with her for Nightborn, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year before coming to Shudder.

His other writing credits include the science-fiction drama Memory of Water, the children’s comedy Snot and Splash and the animated feature Fleak. That background matters here because Red Snow sounds like it will need to juggle several tones at once: teenage vampire fantasy, uncomfortable comedy, family drama and a very bloody Christmas nightmare.

What We Think

Honestly, “vampire Santa” is the kind of pitch that could go wrong very quickly. It could be a one-joke gimmick stretched across an entire movie, or it could become exactly the sort of strange Christmas horror story people add to their yearly rotation. Rautsi’s work on Hatching and Nightborn is the part that makes us more interested than the premise alone. Nightborn was an intense, maternal horror that had one of the worst birth scenes we’ve ever seen, so the possibilities of where this goes is interesting.

The setup also gives the movie more to play with than a standard killer-Santa story. Johanna is not simply trying to escape a monster, she starts from the fantasy of meeting one. The gap between the romantic vampire she wants and the middle-aged bloodsucker she gets sounds like a natural source of dark humor.

Fantastic Fest should be a good test for that balance. If the comedy does not soften the horror too much and the gore does not bury the joke Red Snow could be one of the more memorable additions to Shudder’s December lineup.

When can you watch Red Snow?

Red Snow will have its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin on Sunday, September 20. Shudder will begin streaming the movie on December 15, putting it out ten days before Christmas.

Friday’s announcement did not include a public trailer, so the official art and plot description are the first look for now. The December date at least means the wait will be short once the movie finishes its festival debut.

Sources: Shudder; Fantastic Fest.