Krampus - C

Quick Hit: So much promise just waiting on the surface of this film that doesn’t quite deliver what it promises.

Holiday horror films are few and far between. Sure, you have the Leprechaun films centered around St. Patrick’s day (for a while), and if you like silly cult horror you can find things like Thankskilling, and you get some horror films based around Halloween, but rarely do you see something that is completely inspired by a holiday myth. So when I heard that the director/writer of the stellar Trick or Treat was ​going to be making a movie about Krampus, who is basically the anti-Santa Claus, I was  really  excited.  It came  out  last  year,  and  I 

dragged my feet to watch it, because frankly, I was afraid it wouldn’t be very good. When our Christmas Marathon rolled around, I was ready to finally give it a chance.

The chance wasn’t wasted, but it didn’t pan out like I wanted it to. Krampus starts with a montage of people shopping (presumably on something like Black Friday (on a side note: Black Friday itself is dying to be made into a serial slasher film, followed of course by a Cyber Monday film)). I thought we might dive deep into the consumer holiday that Christmas has become, but this montage is quickly forgotten in the scheme of the movie. Krampus is interested in giving you a morale, but it isn’t exactly sure which one.

Sufficiently Creepy yet unexplained.

We follow the family of Max as he tries to celebrate Christmas with his family. The only one he seems to enjoy the company of is his German (?) Grandmother Omi. She has raised him to believe in the true spirit of Christmas, and he truly believes in Santa Claus. However, after his cousins, aunts, and uncle arrive, the strife in the family causes him to rip up his letter to Santa, essentially summoning the Krampus. He arrives in a snowstorm, and beings to terrorize the family with a collection of toys and treats that are familiar with Christmas.

Merry Christmas!!!!

These are both my favorite and least favorite thing about the movie. The Gingerbread men are a meant to be comic relief, but the fact that they are so incredibly CGI’d really detracts from the eventual product. Especially when they are placed against some of the fantastical practical creations that are featured in the movie. The jack in the box/clown thing is one of the most terrifying creatures in any horror movie, and I was incredibly impressed with its use. I was so depressed when we went away from this creature, because it was the only truly horrifying thing in the film. The Krampus itself kind of looked like a goat and an old man mixed together. Not a bad look, per se, but definitely an interesting one.

What.... The...

Ef....

Overall, Krampus loses its footing with the fact that it can’t decide its town. Is it a funny holiday comedy? Is it a horror movie? Is it a horror comedy? Is it a moralistic holiday film? It’s like it was trying to approach the fun and games of a Gremlins but fell far, far short of that holiday classic. Krampus is fun, but there are a lot of dull portions too.

I’m going to give Krampus a “C”.

For more on this, check out IMDB.