Review: Krampus

Krampus is the second film from Trick 'r Treat creator and director Michael Dougherty. Given the fact that Dougherty (and Legendary pictures) placed presedence over the highly anticipated (and requested) sequel to Trick 'r Treat  many were hoping it would be worth the wait. For the most part it was, while by no means perfect in the way many (myself included) perceived his ode to Halloween. Krampus still brings enough to the table to deliver an enjoyable horror comedy that should become regular viewing around Christmas time from now on.

Krampus has a pretty straight forward story that plays out a lot like a horror version of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Complete with David Koechner who plays Uncle Howard, doing his best Cousin Eddie impression. The story revolves around young Max who increasingly has the desire to hold on to the feeling of Christmas's past (Don't we all!) and he is doing his best to keep the spirit of the season alive until the aforementioned Uncle and his less than desirable family show up to spend the next few days with Max, his parents (played by Adam Scott and Toni Collette) and his German Grandmother Omi. If you have seen Christmas Vacation (or any other family get together film) you have seen this set up. As a result of the ensuing chaos, Max becomes disenchanted with Santa and the spirit of Christmas, going so far as to denounce it in a fit of rage, this results in the title characters arrival in the snowy town the film is set in. Things then go from bad to worse.

Without spoiling the film, what elevates the almost too familiar material is undoubtedly the outstanding effects work on display throughout. Krampus is first and foremost a monster movie, full of incredible practical effects work that bring all sorts of Christmas themed horrors to life. It is a wonderful thing to see a film like this hit theaters and one of the reasons I would absolutely recommend it. It is an original film that more often then not would probably end up VOD and straight to blu ray as studios just do not take chances on films like this these days. The title character himself is a fantastic creature and his introductory scene (my favorite in the film) is exhilarating. There are a few missteps here though, Sorely underutilized creepy snowmen (how were these not used for more?) and some evil gingerbread men that probably could have looked a bit cooler. Still these are just nitpicks and as far as creature stuff goes, you will be hard pressed to find cooler stuff this year in a film.

The direction is for the most part up to par with Trick 'r Treat and Dougherty's strong visual sense is once again on display here. The frozen neighborhood and an excellent stop motion flashback sequence are just two of the highlights in a film where production design is king. I do wish however the story and script had been a bit tighter as it is unfortunately the movies weak link. It tends to drag a bit somewhere in the middle right after the Krampus introduction and the film pays the price for it, also for a movie about Christmas and monsters which pays plenty of homage to one of the great Christmas monster films of all time in Gremlins, there was a very noticeable and unfortunate lack of kids vs monster stuff here, with mostly the parents relegated to combat versus the creatures invading the home. The story was supposed to be centered around Max and to have him take out or at least encounter a few of the monsters on his own early on would have gone a long way to filling out some of the issues with the script I had. There were also some missed opportunities throughout to truly capitalize on the subject matter of the film and bring in some additional carnage playing up the frozen isolated locale. Again I know the film was relatively low budget at approximately on 15 million, so there were limitations and Dougherty does his best to get the most of his budget. Can't help but think that those snowmen were originally part of something much more elaborate.

In the end Krampus delivers enough creature action and horror with a pg-13 rating attached to appease the majority of it's audience. Trick 'r Treat fans should be familiar with the tone and non Trick 'r Treat fans may want to stay away as I always feel it was TrT's tone that they can't jive with.
the performances are all well played in spite of being handcuffed to family quarrel movie cliche'd characters (which I do believe was definitely on purpose given how the film wears it's inspirations and homages on it's sleeve) It is clear Dougherty believes in his vision and treats everything with love  and care here and that goes a long way. While I personally would have liked a few things tweaked or expanded upon, you will be hard pressed to find a cooler looking Christmas horror flick, let alone one you can enjoy on the big screen. Go check it out and support original horror films when they hit the theaters!

You can also listen to and order the Krampus score from Waxwork records below.

and order some new Krampus gear from our friends over at Fright Rags here