Krampus (2015) Review

I wanted to see this as soon as I saw the trailer for it, I knew it wouldn’t be overly gory but the Christmas horror genre doesn’t seem to be done that well. It’s a film with a good premise and I was glad I watched it.

“As always I want more gore and more deaths, I understand once again this was probably done to keep the rating how they wanted it, something I really dislike.”

Budget – $15 million

Trivia – The Krampus’s final design was distilled from various postcards and illustrations of the creature over the years.

Trivia – Krampus’s true face is hidden underneath a Santa Claus-like mask and is never fully revealed to the audience as a choice by the film makers to allow viewers to make their own conclusions on his actual appearance. His eyes and mouth are the only visible traces that can be seen through parts of the mask

The film starts with Max a young kid who’s not sure he believes in Santa any more, all he wants is a good Christmas but it’s soon clear that won’t happen when his extended family arrive. This is made up of his mum’s sister who seems reasonably normal, her husband who clearly wishes his two young daughters were boys instead of girl, their other son who is a bit of a mute, their bulldog who’s one of the best things in the film along with his mum’s aunt who is very annoying to start with.

The scene with the gingerbread men was probably the best in the whole film especially how it all ended!

The two manly girls take Max’s letter to Santa and read it out aloud at the table embarrassing him but eventually they end up embarrassing everyone including themselves. Max storms off to his room and after talking to his dad he just says he wished Christmas was like it used to be and that’s all he wanted, it leads to him ripping up the letter and throwing it out of the window. Little did he know that this would summon Krampus and his helpers who are based on a real myth about an evil Santa that punishes the naughty kids. We find out about the history of Krampus from Max’s German grandmother as she’s had a run in with him before.

Despite being attacked by a big tremor like worm beast Harold refuses to believe the Grandmothers story of Krampus, a common thing in horror films it seems is to see the unbelievable but not believe someone’s story!

After throwing the letter away odd things start to happen, snowmen appear in the street that no one has built and a massive blizzard hits the town. It’s here that for some reason the parents let their daughter go out in the blizzard to see her boyfriend who hasn’t texted her back. This is where we get a first glimpse of Krampus who looks really good and slightly creepy. After realising she’s been gone ages her dad Tom (Adam Scott from Parks and Recreation) and her uncle Harold (Dave Koechner of Anchorman fame) go looking for her. This is where we run into one of Krampus many helpers in a scene similar to tremors but in the snow, with no luck finding her they return to the house.

This is where the film gets really good and we get some weird scenes with little ginger bread men attacking Harold and a big worm creature trying to eat Harolds son. We also see some creepy toys brought to life. The rest of the film is the families battle for survival before a final confrontation between Max and Krampus and a damn good ending to the film.

I loved the Krampus monster, we never truly see what he looks like and I liked that a lot

The Good

Krampus as a monster is really well done, big, creepy and great sfx make him one of my favourite monsters looks wise. All the acting is above average with everyone playing their character well including the dog. As I already mentioned I loved the way the film ended, I won’t say too much but I hope you enjoy/enjoyed the ending as much as I did as I know it got some criticism.

The Bad

As always I want more gore and more deaths, I understand once again this was probably done to keep the rating how they wanted it, something I really dislike. Other than that there’s not many things wrong with the film, a few stupid decisions by characters here and there left me scratching my head but overall not many bad points.

I enjoyed this film a lot and I can say I’ll be adding it into the films I usually watch at Christmas even if it doesn’t fit with most of them!

Overall Score