Krampus

            With the amount of Christmas films we’ve seen over the years that feature Santa Clause, there’s always at least one film every few years that tries to change it up a bit. Sometimes you’ll have drunk Santa, slasher film Santa, vigilante Santa, all different kinds to change things up a bit. But how about instead of Santa coming to visit you this year, you get visited by Krampus? For those who don’t know, Krampus is the figure of Austro-Bavarian Christmas folklore, who punishes the children who have misbehaved around Christmas time, whether it’d be taking away their gifts or taking the children themselves away. To put it simply, he’s a reverse Santa Clause. Over the years, the creature himself has been making more of an appearance in most pop culture, including a feature film simply titled, “Krampus.”

            In the film, we follow a suburban family trying to survive the holidays, with the son, Max, wishing things could go back to the traditions that were before. However, dealing with his cousins and douche of an uncle and great-aunt, who patronize him for his belief in Santa, causes Max to tear up his letter and throw it away. This results in a massive snow storm, where the family is attacked one by one by Krampus and his minions.

            Now the one thing that worried me about this film was that it’s a horror film, but also a comedy. That worried me for two reasons: #1 – Horror-comedies are usually hit or miss, and rarely finds a proper balance between the two genres, unless you have a director who knows what he or she is doing. And #2 – The last horror-comedy I saw was “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse”…and you all know how well THAT film turned out. To further that point, David Koechner is in both films, and he usually sucks in horror-comedies. However, what kept me wanting to be reasonable about the film was that it had other stars in it, like Adam Scott and Toni Collette as the normal couple, and Conchata Ferrell as the alcoholic great-aunt. That, and it was being handled by Michael Dougherty, the same guy who brought us “Trick ‘r Treat,” which is a great modern Halloween classic.

            How did it fair out? Well, let me get out of the way what I hated about the film. The in-laws, while acted fine, are written to be obnoxious. A lot of their dialogue to tease and be mean to each other got on my nerves very fast. Even Max, who is essentially the main character, had his share of annoying moments. There were a good majority of funny lines with them and a couple humanizing moments, but not enough to say they were likable.

            Aside from that, just about everything else was done extremely well. Adam Scott and Toni Collette have very good chemistry together as a workaholic father and over-worrying mother. Their timing, reactions, and quick thinking do make you care for the two, and hope for the better with them. I’m glad to be seeing Adam Scott work in different genres of film, especially in another horror-comedy since “Piranha 3D.” I also want to give props to Krista Stadler, who plays the grandmother of the family. The story involving her experience with Krampus was truly something to be fascinated by, especially with the flashback being a haunting animated sequence. She really did a wonderful job and gave the best performance in the whole film.

            Now let me talk about the meat and bones of this movie, and that is Krampus and his minions. The look of these creatures is astounding and actually did seem terrifying during their scenes. The demonic jack-in-the-box, the grizzly teddy bear, and the elves are so creatively designed and their scenes really sent chills down my spine. The built up they did with Krampus was handled extremely well, keeping him in shadow for most of the film, but still being a very persuasive demonic entity. And the best part about them is that they were all PRACTICAL EFFECTS. They took the time and effort to actually design these costumes and puppets, which added so much to the creep factor. In fact, the times they use CGI is done to a minimum when they really need to do it, which is how it should be done. Michael Dougherty really does a fantastic job in delivering suspense and scares to a film like this. This is a film that definitely takes its place among other Christmas horror classics like “Silent Night Deadly Night,” “Christmas Evil,” “Black Christmas,” and films its drawn influence from like “Gremlins.”

            I will have to say though, the ending was a little off putting. I felt like it would have worked out better if it ended about ten minutes earlier, but instead it dragged on a little too long. And just when I thought they were going to puss out with a happy ending, it then gives a “Jeepers Creepers” style ending, which made me a little bit happier.

            Overall, “Krampus” is a film that I definitely feel comfortable recommending. If you’re looking for a little bit more spice than sweet for your Christmas movie season, then go and give “Krampus” a watch.

Rating: 8/10