Krampus movie poster
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Krampus
Krampus movie poster

Krampus Movie Review

Now available on Blu-ray and DVD (Buy on Amazon)

And you thought if you were a bad little kid, Santa would just put a piece of coal in your stocking. Wrong, bitch! The evil Krampus will come and devour your entire family, and Krampus cannot be reasoned with.

Krampus, the Christmas-themed horror-comedy from director Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat), is a silly, mildly entertaining film that unfortunately doesn’t take full advantage of its premise.

The movie starts off strongly, with Dougherty establishing how the Christmas spirit has been lost, especially at the home of one family. The Engels (played by Adam Scott and Toni Collette) are dreading the arrival of their awful relatives, who are a lot like Randy Quaid’s family in Christmas Vacation only a whole lot worse. When their son tears up his Christmas list to Santa, shit gets real, a blizzard moves in and Krampus and his crew show up to punish everyone for their misdeeds.

Dougherty takes a while getting to the action, which is fine. But once he does, the movie’s pace doesn’t accelerate--at an hour-and-a-half, the film feels about 15 minutes too long. The movie isn’t scary, but the humor is uneven enough to make you question what kind of film he was really trying to make.

Nonetheless, there’s no arguing that Krampus is creative. While Krampus himself isn’t in the movie near as much as I was hoping, his legions of creatures--ranging from evil gingerbread men to creepy elves--are a lot of fun to look at and serve as nasty antagonists to the humans attempting to survive. As uneven as it is, Krampus definitely delivers bursts of sugary goodness.

Krampus has been compared to Gremlins for more than a few reasons, and the comparisons are sound (Christmas theme, silly monsters). Sadly, Krampus fails to live up to its potential and falls short of becoming the next “Christmas” classic.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.

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