Movie Review: Krampus

So this week’s movie is Krampus, which is a Christmas horror movie. Krampus is based on an old German legend about, who else, Krampus, who goes alongside Santa on Christmas to terrorize the naughty kids. It is a forgotten legend that is making its way back into modern culture. This is the kind of movie for people who prefer the scarier Halloween movies, but with a Christmas twist. But anyways, I hope you enjoy my review on Krampus.

The movie starts with a scene of a store during what appears to be Black Friday, where the store clerks are being trampled and the customers are fighting over the things they want to buy. Near the end of this is a Christmas play in the store, where Max (played by Emjay Anthony) and another kid are fighting on the stage while Sarah (played by Toni Collette) and Tom (played by Adam Scott) try to break up the fight, and Beck (played by Stefania LaVie Owen) records it on her phone. It then goes to Beth in her room talking to her boyfriend Derek (played by Leith Towers) over video chat. After talking for a little, Derek pulls out a drug pipe, saying he knows what he's going to do for Christmas, then Beth gets called downstairs.

We meet Omi (played Krista Stadler) baking cookies and other goodies for the Christmas season as the family fights around her. She speaks in German to Max and asks him if he has finished his letter yet. He asks her if she still believes and she says she does. As he works on his letter, Sarah's sister, Linda (played by Allison Tolman) arrives with her husband, Howard (played by David Koechner), and their 3 kids, Stevie (played by Lolo Owen), Jordan (played by Queenie Samuel), and Howie Jr (played by Maverick Flack). Along with the surprise of their Aunt Dorothy (played by Conchata Ferrell), this would be the most eventful Christmas they will ever have.

The story plot of the movie started a little slow, but not too bad. My mother and I both agree that it reminded us of a mash up between Gremlins and Child's Play, just with a Christmas theme to it. I will say I was disappointed at how little Krampus himself was featured in the movie, and when he was finally on screen, he was more like a version of the Ghost of Christmas Future and Santa, but with goat features. I think they could have done a lot more with him, and I hope that if they do sequels, they will fix this. The credits have a voice actor for Krampus, but I just couldn't find a point other than laughter and other noises where he talked. Not that all of this is bad, but it did make it a little more predictable than I would have liked.

The acting wasn't too bad, but it had a feeling of being conflicting of the movie. It seemed that they started to be funny but then stopped part way through. I am not sure if the script is to blame or the directing, but I don't think it was the actors because to have most of them with the same problem just does not seem likely. It was probably very hard on the actors but I think they did well in spite of it.

Overall I think it was a fun movie to go see and get a little pre-Christmas scare, and if you have kids that are being especially bad maybe take them to see this movie, if they are able to. However, for the reasons above I would rate this move 7.3/10