Krampus - Movie Review

 Krampus (2015)

My original plan was 4 Christmas reviews but I decided on 5.  My 2nd review is for a horror comedy called Krampus, based on Austrian folklore and directed by Michael Dougherty, who also directed the fantastic horror comedy anthology film, Trick R' Treat.  Released in 2015, Krampus received positive reviews from critics and was a modest success at the box office.

THE GOOD

Krampus as a movie may be far from perfect, there's still a shit ton of greatness to it! I love how realistically the movie portrays the family, it's not sappy or sentimental whatsoever! They fight, argue, call each other names, but despite that, I actually did care about most of them. I love the tone and atmosphere of the film, the comedy never gets in the way of the eerie, dark vibe, as a horror film it's actually pretty effective. The performances are pretty solid, even the child actors do a pretty decent job. The humor can be hit and miss at times, but when it lands, it's pretty funny. There is this incredible scene involving hand drawn animation about half way through the movie explaining a character's experience with Krampus, it's compelling and beautiful, it's the best scene in the movie. The effects and production value are marvelous! It's almost all practical, and there is endless amounts of creativity on display. It's grotesque, surprisingly so for a PG-13 movie, creepy at times, humorous at times, it's all fun to watch. I can compare this to Gremlins in a way because of some of the mayhem involving small creatures in the movie. The scene where you finally see Krampus blew me away, it was nothing short of amazing.

THE BAD

As I said previously, this film is far from perfect. Some of the comedy does not work. Pacing is a real issue at times. There are sequences in this film are boring, the movie doesn't flow as well as it should. I REALLY hated the aunt character in the film, her constant complaining and bitchiness got to the point of being excessive, it got on my nerves really fast.

CONCLUSION

Krampus has its flaws, but this movie never falls short on creativity. There are highly entertaining scenes while also having scenes that are dull. This movie has fantastic atmosphere and tone, which is what I expect for a horror film. It's festive enough to be a nice watch at Christmas and if you can look past some of the film's few shortcomings, this can be a delightful experience.

7/10

FILM INFO

Rating:  PG-13 (for sequences of horror violence/terror, language and some drug material)

Run time:  98 min

Release date:  December 4th, 2015

Studio:  Universal Pictures, Legendary Pictures