Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? No.
Should you watch this for free? Only for the novelty of it.
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 98 minutes (~1.75 hours)
“Krampus” is a horror comedy that’s based on the eponymous Christmas monster. A family finds themselves at the mercy of an unknown terror on what is supposed to be the most merry day of the year. It stars Adam Scott (David), Toni Collette (Sarah), David Koechner (Howard), Allison Tolman (Linda), Conchata Ferrell (Margaret), and Emjay Anthony (Max). It is rated PG-13.
“Krampus” takes a very interesting piece of folklore and completely squanders it with an inane story. It’s heartening to see the actors try to make the most of such a thin script, but there’s very little that can be done to save this story. Perhaps a little more time and effort spent on the script, and less on the supposed scares and costumes would have gone a long, long way to helping this movie become even half decent.
Highlights
Interesting premise
It’s a change from the usual Christmas-themed films, to have the family be plagued by a sinister spectre from the holiday. Visually, the creatures are creative and unexpected, adding a tinge of horror to familiar, everyday objects. So concept-wise, it’s not too bad at first, since you’re waiting to see how it all plays out.
A retro treatment of the topic
The movie opens with a classic look that reminiscent of older films, which is a novel stylistic choice to make. Just when you think you know how this will end the film subverts it all at the end. The credits pay homage to traditional Christmas films however.
Letdowns
Mild scares
Because it bills itself as dark humour, there’s very little that’s scary about the monsters that attack. The confrontations end up being very unsatisfying since you don’t know if you’re supposed to be laughing or cringing. More likely though, you’re cringing at how bad the supposed terrors are. It’s not that the costume design is bad, it’s just that you’re bewildered at the reaction it’s all supposed to elicit.
Tame comedy
Despite being billed as a horror comedy, there’s very little comedy. The characters take themselves too seriously to be able to deliver comic moments. Even the black humour is severely lacking in the film. There’s too much angst and drama going on for jokes to surface, even in the opening portion of the movie. What jokes are left can’t really be considered such.
A ridiculous resolution
The film ends in the laziest, most contrived way possible. The scriptwriter clearly wrote himself into a corner, and decided to end everything in the most asinine way possible. It’s not even something that sends chills down your spine. You’re just baffled by the whole pointlessness of the conclusion, and infuriated that you (and the protagonists) learnt virtually nothing from the entire ordeal.
“Krampus” is a truly unfortunate waste of time. Hopefully this doesn’t spell the death of such a wonderful creature, and another studio will give the Krampus another crack.
“Krampus” opens in cinemas 3 December, 2015 (Thursday).
This review was first published on Yahoo.
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