Review of Krampus (2015) by Bristal N — 10 Dec 2015

Krampus is a movie best described as a family based horror-comedy, entertaining to watch and offers a less scarring take on the original German tale.

Krampus is German tale meant to scare children into behaving. In the original tale Krampus, who is best described as the 'shadow of santa', takes away children who have been naughty and punishes them, by whipping them with birch branches, before killing them. Not exactly a nice way of getting children to behave, I personally like the more tame version of coal in the stocking.

Director Michael Dougherty took some creativity liberty with this tale, keeping the general message of 'being good' but not traumatizing the audience by having them watch a child get whipped and then killed.

Instead of leaving the theatre uncomfortable and unhappy, as most would if Dougherty had stayed with original tale, I left feeling deeply satisfied with the film, and that my time and money had been well spent. There were times in the movie where I felt sympathy for the characters, times I spent laughing and times I was waiting in suspenseful anticipation of what was coming next. I felt that the movie, while being classified as a horror, was not meant to keep me at the edge of my seat waiting for something to make me jump, but to keep me entertained and eagerly anticipating what was to come.

In the end I felt the Directors take on shedding new light onto an old story was well executed and that the moral of the story, despite the differences, was well preserved. In the end it all rests on a person being good.