Review of Krampus (2015) by Jesse O — 25 May 2016

This movie is quite a lot of fun, though I'm unsure of what rating I'm gonna give it. It might be some of the most fun I've had watching a horror movie since Dead Snow 2. The fact that this movie is a blast to watch is unsurprising, given the fact that Michael Dougherty, writer and director of this flick, also wrote and directed Trick 'r Treat which was another horror flick that was incredibly entertaining to watch.

I like that movie better than this one, for sure, but, spiritually speaking, their tones are very similar in that it's not a film that really takes itself that seriously. This also reminds me, once again, only in spirit, of the Gremlin films, which are both great.

It's obvious that this one was, in part, inspired by those two classics. There's no denying that fact, but I think the movie does manage to, not necessarily surpass the films it is inspired, but it does manage to stand on its own merits and it isn't a shamelessly reverent of the works that inspired them.

Perhaps the film's biggest flaw, if it can even be called that, is that the insanity kicks in at a point where some people in the audience might have expected a more straightforward horror experience.

Essentially, the film tells the darker story of Santa Claus' 'evil' alter ego, as it were, called Krampus who punishes those who have lost their belief and hope in their holiday. He hunts down families one by one to collect their souls and stuff them, somehow, in a snow globe to live out the rest of their life stuck in some sort of Christmas hell.

To do this, however, he employs some helpers. Some of his helpers, in this film at least, include gingerbread men, a massive jack in the box come to life, a teddy bear, a toy robot, an angel tree topper and demonic elves.

I'm not saying I was expecting every one of those things, but I was expecting the film to get weird at some point, just by the nature of the way the film was put together. But I can see how someone not expecting that, someone not necessarily that familiar with horror movies, being thrown off by the film's craziness in its last 30 or so minutes and being put off by it.

The thing is, however, that some of those people might end up disliking the film because of that and I don't think that that's necessarily fair. Sometimes films aren't what you expect them to be, yet they're still good.

I've seen many 'comedies' that offer little comedy, but they offer a variety of different things that may make up for that. And I think that that might have been the case with this film, if I came into it expecting a more straightforward horror flick.

Then again not everyone is gonna think like me, nor would I want them to. But I digress, I enjoyed the hell out of this film. I thought it was really well cast and the writing is more than solid. Perhaps they could've done more with the concept than what they did, but that's not saying that they don't do a lot with what they have.

I'm just saying that the film only, really, scratched the surface of what it could've done. I'm not holding that against the film though, not letting it affect my rating. That's about all I have to say really, I think this is the type of film that will really hold up in a decade or two and will probably amass, if it hadn't already, a cult following.

I will say that it's one of those flicks that I wouldn't mind watching once a year. Like Creepshow or Southbound. It's also gonna be one of those movies that's more enjoyable with a group of friends, that's for sure.

So, yea, I really liked this movie quite a lot, in spite of the fact that I gave it three stars. It's super fun and I would recommend it, especially if you're gonna have a bunch of friends over.