Krampus (2015) w/ Kurt Thingvold
Nothing makes Christmas better than a warm cup of cocoa or the warmth of your loved one sitting next to you, as you snuggle close to watch your favorite Christmas shows. Except, when the cable goes out and nothing seems to be on, you find yourself heading down to the nearest Redbox—you can’t break tradition ( my wife loves tradition, god help me, if I break our holiday ritual). You see that all the movies are sold out—the only one remaining is “Krampus”. You select it and move back to the house, and you and the misses continue the night. I can’t stand the holidays. My father passed away five days after Christmas and to this day: December is my month of hell, so, when it comes down to it: I fake it for my wife’s sake. Now, Holiday movies are a different kind of beast for me. I love them—they make you feel good and warm, (I can’t explain it and neither can my therapist) and you see people be happy and together—which, is always a good thing. Now, I love horror movies and holiday movies, More so, I was excited to get the opportunity to write this review. So, let’s make sure our stockings are hung tight on the fireplace with care, add a little bailey’s to our cocoa, and let’s look at “Krampus.”
For those of you who aren’t familiar with European traditions, Krampus works for Santa Claus, abducts naughty children and stuffs them into a sack, and whips them with a switch, repeatedly. Now, that you know that I feel a little safer continuing with the review.
Krampus is a holiday horror film directed by Michael Dougherty, who also directed, “Trick’r’Treat”, another great holiday movie, and will be directing the upcoming “Godzilla” Sequel. Which, if you’ve seen “Trick’r’Treat”, you can imagine what type of movie “Krampus” will be. A bit of humor, and a bit of terror.
The story takes place on Dec.22. A suburbanite family is preparing for their annual Christmas get together. Tom and Sarah and their two children: Max and Beth. Sarah’s sister Linda and her husband, and their three children. Along with their German-speaking grandmother, Omni. The family has a bit of a falling out, and max rips up his letter to Santa—which summons the Krampus, who appears when people have lost their Christmas spirit have lost their Christmas spirit (unlike, the Germanic folklore of Krampus beating naughty children with sticks). The power is cut and all hell breaks loose, family member begins to disappear and toys start attacking the family. Omni reveals that the family is being tormented by the Krampus, and tells of a time when she had lost her Christmas spirit and her hometown was dragged to hell. Max finds Krampus loading his sleigh with his family members and begs and pleads with the demon to return his family, and that he will appreciate Christmas and never lose sight of it again. Contemplating the plea—Krampus opens up a portal to hell, and max apologizes, considering his apology, drops the child into the pit.
Max screams and wakes up, back into his bed—on Christmas Eve, with everything back to normal. The camera pans out and you see the house in a snow globe, as Krampus watches the house to make sure, the Christmas spirit is never broken again.
The movie wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t good. It was well worth the Redbox price. One thing I will praise this film for are the special effects. Weta workshop nailed the look and feel of what I think are demonic toys. Krampus looked amazing as well. While I can’t praise a movie for special effects alone (learned my lesson after the Beowulf movie). Also, the dysfunctional family plays out well. It feels like Gremlins—I like that.
One thing that I feel is: The story is too generic, the twist ending, the grandma who knows what’s going on and the overall trope of the family. It felt like any other holiday movie when it could have been something, so, different and magical. Yet, it stayed too much into the Holiday trope of killer presents, and everything working out again and starting something anew. It had a lot of hits and misses with me.
Overall, I had fun with the movie, and my wife…well…she thought it was “Okay”, and that’s the best response I can manage to get out of her. I would have loved to have added this movie to my holiday library, I just feel, now is not the time.
Kurt Thingvold was born and raised in IL. He finds passion in writing, that helps calm his demons. He grew up in a tough household that encouraged reading and studying. He spends his time writing in multiple of genres. His published short story, Roulette, can be found on Amazon. When not writing he can be found playing games, reading, or attempting to slay the beast known as “Customer Service”, which, he fails at almost every day. Kurt is a frequent flyer here on Machine Mean, you can also check out his review on Ridley Scott’s legacy movie Alien here.
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Krampus (2015): movie in review
December, the same for many of you I’m sure, is one of the busiest times of the year. With all the shopping and family functions, the gift wrapping and long distance phone calls, and Santa visits over at the mall, and festive Christmas lights or Hanukkah, depending on your jam, and Zoo Lights or whatever you’re local county folks do, and eggnog and TV specials…well, if feels almost impossible to fit everything in those special 24 days till Christmas. For me, even more so now that some of my publishing exploits have picked up pace since my start in 2014 and with the release of two new books in the same month, interviews and book tours…etc etc, well, it can all feel overwhelming. To keep from frying a circuit, its a good practice to unplug once and awhile from those blinking little tablets and cellphones and computer screens and traffic jams and enjoy the simple pleasures of going to the movies. And as chance would have it, I was able to venture out to the theater this past Saturday for the next to last showing of Krampus. And I’m so glad I did!
Krampus is interesting. Not just the movie, but how this year it seems to be a rather proper resurgence of a very old folk story from Germany, where it is in fact celebrated still, once a year, in Christmas parades. I’d hate to make certain ties to our current political situation…but it seems (if this Krampus popularity is any indication) people are tired of all the hoopla. The media blitz. The Black Friday, ruin Thanksgiving shopping. The non stop ads (this recent season of South Park with PC Principle could also be a indication of this). Why else would a guy like Trump hold such popularity as a Presidential candidate? Jesus, I’d hate to think it was because people actually wanted him as president. Retaining my optimism with the human race, I’d wager Trump’s popularity was more about the overall attitudes with American politics nowadays. “Nothing ever changes” blah blah blah, or so people say, If nothing ever changes then why take anything seriously anymore? I think I’m getting off topic here, so let me rein it back in. What I’m getting at is perhaps this new found interest with Krampus is our “tiredness” with ignoring certain holiday traditions, as Krampus is the oldest of holiday traditions, it seems plausible. But this is all conjecture and maybe myself overthinking things, as I tend to do. Lets get back to the movie, shall we?
Here is a quick fire synopsis:
When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max (Emjay Anthony) is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family’s home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.
To be honest, I had little notions of what I was walking into last Saturday. I knew I would probably enjoy the movie, but I think in the back of my head I was expecting a little more dumb and a lot less smart; however, it seems the opposite to be true. Krampus is actually a very smart movie, but not over-the-top, despite the “black comedy” jive. The film opens perfectly. Bing Crosby or some other Christmas classic is playing. Everything is in slow-mo as we watch what we’ve all seen on YouTube, Black Friday shoppers duking it out over random unless objects. From teddy bears to rocking horses to TVs to popcorn tins to crying children with black-eyes to store security guards tazing would-be shoppers with a look of absolute glee. Your attention is not really on what these people are fighting over, its the expressions on their faces as the film is slowed down to a crawl, whilst some homely comfortable cheer is playing in the background. Its a fantastic opening and sets the mood for the entire movie with both hilarity and repulsion. If watching this beginning is any indication, perhaps the return of Krampus to America is long overdue!
I’d like to give my honest review without any spoilers, so I shall not mention too many things. The ending is off limits, but I will say that it was great…which is surprising, cause these kind of movies typically fall flat at the end. The ending so very much like the entire movie, where certain expectations are shot down for something otherly unexpected. One of my favorite scenes is when grandma Omi Engel (played by the very talented Krista Stadler) , who only speaks English once, here during a little flashback to her childhood, while in the rest of the movie she’s speaking in German. I loved this part. The movie has little to no exposition moments, which is great. This scene with Omi is fantastic. With things are getting pretty strange and an explanation of what the cause or causes may be, she steps in and offers her family and us a little more information on what Krampus really is. Her memory is told in a very creepy paper styled cartoon which reminded me very much of something Tim Burton would do. Surrounding this much younger Omi, a bombarded village, assuming this to be a German town just after WWII ended. People are desperate and forget the “meaning for the season,” as they say. Krampus visits the town and takes everyone away, all but for young Omi. She fears Krampus has returned. And as the family is picked off one by one, they soon believe her tale. But this begs the question: can they fight back? Can they survive Krampus and his minions?
There are a few other “great” scenes, truly haunting ones and comedic as well. Whatever that thing was in the snow was pretty creepy. And the snowmen, while you never really see them move, somehow they slowly surround the house. Each time Max looks out the window, there’s a new one grinning back at him, more twisted then the last. The gun jokes and political humor gave me a good chuckle. And the death count was very surprising. Much like Gremlins (a movie many are comparing Krampus to), the death counts in many blockbuster holiday themed movies are typically low. Not in Krampus. Expect death. Lots of it.
Like I said before. I had certain expectations with Krampus. Those being a complete dumb movie, but a fun dumb movie, were altogether shot out of the water. This movie was smart as well as entertaining and fun. Krampus certainly does not take itself too seriously, while also giving us some serious moments. As far as labeling this as a “black comedy,” I think the comedy was actually more lite then most “black comedies.” This was a horror story, no doubt about it. And comedy has a special relationship with terror. Each blended marvelously. Krampus will no doubt be one of those movie that become tradition in the years to come, much like Die Hard or Silent Night, Deadly Night has.
My Review: 5/5
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