Horror fans have had a good year in 2015. It Follows, We are Still Here, Bone Tomahawk, Ash vs Evil Dead all did a lot of good for genre lovers. While director Michael Dougherty’s Krampus isn’t quite up to the level of those I just mentioned, it does do the Christmas horror subgenre proud in many ways.
For starters, this sucker has a majorly grim attitude that it sticks with until the very end. There will be no happy Christmas message in the land of Krampus, so don’t take this one in if you have eggnog on your breath and are looking to get into the holiday spirit. It’s more of a film for somebody who pisses and moans when the Christmas decorations show up at Macy’s before Halloween.
Max (Emjay Anthony) still believes in Christmas and Santa Claus, and he takes a lot of crap for it from family members. When a bunch of family come to his house for Christmas, his cousins taunt him, while his parents (Adam Scott and Toni Collette) deal with an annoying aunt and uncle (David Koechner and Allison Tolman). Throw evil Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell) into the mix, and Max’s family is in for one lousy yuletide season. They eventually must confront evil Christmas demon Krampus and his scary henchmen.
It’s not a great film, but it qualifies as a fun, and nasty, diversion.
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2015.
I had to laugh when I saw there was a horror movie called “Krampus” coming out. I’m pretty familiar with German and Austrian culture, which is where the Krampus folktale comes from, and he’s not supposed to be a scary evil reverse Santa, he’s just a snotty, mischievous imp who gives coal to bad children and spanks them. And he can be pretty funny, or at least he is when portrayed by street performers.