Review of Krampus (2015) by Reel H — 13 Aug 2017

Man this was one solid horror film. I really enjoyed the whole Christmas setting and twist on the normal holiday movie. After making the critically acclaimed Trick 'r Treat (2007) director MIchael Dougherty brings us Krampus which follows a young boy named Max (Emjay Anthony) who along with his father Tom (Adam Scott), mother Sarah (Toni Collette), sister Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen) and his German grandmother Omi (Krista Stadler) are enjoying a pretty decent holiday.

Then comes Sarah's sister Linda (Allison Tolman) her over the top husband Howard (David Koechner) their bratty kids and Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell) who tells it as it is aka she's kinda a bitch.

Anywho, after being teased by Linda and Howard's kids for writing a letter to Santa, Max decides to cut up his letter and throw it out the window wishing for things to be like it use to be. With the spirit of Christmas all but absent from the house things really take a left turn.

The power suddenly goes out, a blizzard hits the neighborhood and then suddenly strange things start happening. Toys come alive, monsters and elves start to appear and the Krampus himself begins stalking the family.

Who's the Krampus? We'll according to Omi the Krampus is a demon that punishes anyone who doesn't have holiday spirit. Corny as hell, but it works. There's some really creepy scenes in here and the movie does mix some good comedy (albeit dark comedy) throughout the film, but for the most part its a horror film.

There's a lot of cool moments here where they used practical effects and this made me feel like it was an older horror film from the 80's which I enjoyed a lot. Overall, solid horror film and I would highly recommend any horror fans to give this one a look.