Krampus (2015)

Directed by: Michael Dougherty

Starring: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman

Legendary Pictures, Universal Pictures.

Max, a young boy who is tired of his family not taking Christmas seriously, swears of the holiday, and in the process, he accidentally summons an evil spirit. Krampus and his army of demonic elves are coming to town, and they are not in a festive mood. Max and his family must try and survive the Christmas Eve from hell, and hopefully their X-Mas spirit can overcome Santa’s shadow; Krampus.

Being a fan of Michael Dougherty’s brilliant Halloween film Trick r Treat, I was really looking forward Krampus. Both films share a common theme; people disrespecting holidays, in this case Halloween and Christmas, and they are paid a visit by not-so-nice entities representing their respective night. They also share bad ass villains. Just like pumpkin goblin Sam (Trick r Treat), Krampus is a half beast half man Christmas creep. The effects design for the creature, as well as his army of elves, toys, and gingerbread men are great. The acting is decent, and the majority of the story is adequate. Those are things I liked. What I did not like was the lack of blood and violence. I image that Christmas demons would not be as relenting as these ones are. They could have been much more brutal. In spots, the film seemed lost to the fact that it is a horror movie. Unfortunately the ending of the film seemed pretty wishy-washy until the very last scene, which made the attempt to straighten out which was an unsatisfying payoff. If you go in expecting the brilliance of Trick r Treat, you will be disappointed. If you go in with low expectations, you might have a good time. Merry Krampus!

3 / 5 Bloody Moons

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