If you’ve been watching your calendars, then you know this is the penultimate weekend of 2024, and the last before Christmas. While you may have to do some last-minute shopping or errands, Hulu has plenty of films to keep you entertained when you get home. If you’re feeling especially festive, you may want to catch the best Christmas movies on Hulu, one of which also landed on our list of the three great Hulu movies that you need to stream this weekend.
Our first selection of the week is an underrated horror film that hit theaters earlier this year, followed by one of our favorite Christmas movies, as well as Hugh Jackman’s greatest musical to date.
Need more recommendations? We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Cuckoo (2024)
If you know what a cuckoo bird is, then you may have some inklin as to why the horror film Cuckoo shares the same name. But it’s best to come into this movie cold and unsure of what’s happening, just like Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), the teenage girl at the heart of the story. Gretchen has recently lost her mother when she’s forced to move to the German alps alongside her father, Luis (Marton Csokas), her stepmother, Beth (Jessica Henwick), and her half-sister, Alma (Mila Lieu).
Alma is mute, and thus can’t explain why a strange sound causes her seizures. However, Gretchen realizes that something sinister is going on around them, and it’s centered on her father’s boss, Herr König (Dan Stevens), as well as a hooded woman who leaves something unexpected in her wake.
Watch Cuckoo on Hulu.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
The irony about National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation becoming a holiday classic is that it’s not a traditionally heartwarming film and it was never trying to be. Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) went a little crazy in the first Vacation film, but he’s feeling a lot better now. And this year, Clark is determined to give his wife, Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), and their children, Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Rusty (Johnny Galecki), a great Christmas experience. He probably would have, too, if in-laws from both sides of the family hadn’t descended upon their home.
The most outrageous holiday interloper is Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid), who is technically the husband of Ellen’s cousin, Catherine (Miriam Flynn). Eddie just brings an additional level of chaos to the household, and he has an unfortunate tendency to take things too literally. That may come back to haunt Clark sooner than he thinks.
Watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation on Hulu.
The Greatest Showman (2017)
About seven years before he reprised his iconic Marvel role in Deadpool & Wolverine, Hugh Jackman starred in The Greatest Showman, the holiday musical sensation of 2017. The film casts Jackman as P. T. Barnum, a man whose big dreams simply can’t be contained. When his humble life crumbles to pieces, Barnum slowly puts together a circus of acrobats, freaks, and wonders.
Barnum’s partner, Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), soon realizes that he only has eyes for Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), one of the best performers in the circus. But despite their shared feelings, the 19th century doesn’t offer a lot of tolerance for their interracial romance. There’s potential heartbreak ahead, but also soaring musical numbers that make this 20th Century Fox film feel more like a live-action Disney movie than anything else.
Watch The Greatest Showman on Hulu.