Michael Dougherty
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In “Krampus,” writer-director Michael Dougherty is obviously aiming for the sweet spot merging dark humor with Christmas joy and snarky horror that Joe Dante managed so memorably in “Gremlins,” and if he doesn’t hit the bull’s-eye, he at least comes within range.
That's a shame because - as movies from "Gremlins" to "The Nightmare Before Christmas" proved - there's something to be found in combining holiday trappings with monster-movie tropes.
Like his prior “Creepshow”-inspired “Trick ‘r Treat,” Dougherty’s latest also feels indebted to an ‘80s classic, with its twisted-festivities vibe at least partly reminiscent of Joe Dante’s “Gremlins.”
Directed by Michael Dougherty with the same eye for lovingly detailed genre re-creation that shaped his 2009 indie-horror anthology, “Trick ’r Treat” (with 1984’s “Gremlins” as the obvious touchstone here), “Krampus” isn’t especially scary, but it generates goodwill nonetheless for treating its home-invasion-for-the-holidays setup with an appreciably straight face.
As dark as a lump of coal but dripping with human compassion, it retains a sense of nightmarish whimsy similar to 1984's "Gremlins" but with the malevolence meter cranked up another couple notches.
Do you love the dark, screwball Christmas classic "Gremlins," but hate the Vegetable Gremlin-filled nonsense of "Gremlins 2," and bemoan the fact that have been far too few entries into the Murder Christmas canon since 1997's "Jack Frost?" Then congratulations you crazy kid, because "Trick ‘r Treat" director Michael Dougherty is finally here with " Krampus ," a devilishly entertaining nightmare that explores what happens when too many people in one family end up on the Naughty List.
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Directed by Ishirō Honda
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Plot Music
Diehards will recognize elements of the quaint 1968 Toho studios import “Destroy All Monsters” underneath the digitized flash.
In fact, the best thing that can be said about it is that director Michael Dougherty (“Krampus”), working from a script he wrote with Zach Shields (though the Japanese writers of “Destroy All Monsters” deserve at least a head nod), doesn’t skimp on the monsters.
Ever since my youth, when I first caught him in the 1968 all-star creature romp Destroy All Monsters , the three-headed Ghidorah always struck me as the most dynamic of all Toho grotesqueries.
The plot is mostly faithful to the original Toho movies and there are nice little nods to the likes of Destroy All Monsters , Mothra and other films for die-hard fans, including reprises of the Godzilla and Mothra themes in the music cues.
Fans have been clamouring for a modernized all-out brawl featuring their favourite Godzilla creatures in the vein of Destroy All Monsters for years, and with King of the Monsters that is certainly what they’ve been promising.
Had he been able to make his Destroy All Monsters with a studio budget behind it, I imagine I would have enjoyed this a ton more, as he clearly wants to go there!
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Visuals
This re-think was introduced in the follow up Kong: Skull Island, which setup not only one of cinema’s most beloved monsters, but also a mythology that hinted at Legendary , who produced these films, would be bringing Toho’s entire rogues gallery of monsters to this new cinematic universe.
Directed by Michael Dougherty and distributed by Warner Bros, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the direct sequel to 2014’s Godzilla and the followup to 2017’s Kong: Skull Island .
Because, yes, this is supposed to be part of a bigger MonsterVerse, all leading up to a showdown between Godzilla and King Kong, the latter of whom was featured in 2017's Kong: Skull Island .
In terms of how the action is filmed on a technical level, I’m still a bigger fan of Edwards’ Godzilla and Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island.
Directed by Michael Dougherty (Krampus), Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the third film in Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment's ongoing MonsterVerse series, following 2014's Godzilla and 2017's Kong: Skull Island.
Godzilla (1998)
Directed by Roland Emmerich
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Themes Plot
As silly and cartoony as this disaster movie gets -- it's a war allegory without the gory -- Dougherty's movie can't match the dumbfounding idiocy of Roland Emmerick's 1998 "Godzilla."
While I may not be the most well-versed Godzilla fan out there (I saw a ton of the Godzilla films as a kid, but the version of O.G. Godzilla I knew the best was the 1956 Americanized iteration with Raymond Burr that seemed to play once a month on a Saturday afternoon on Channel 66 in Chicago), there is always an excitement I feel whenever Big G comes stomping his way onto the big screen—so much so that I even saw Godzilla (1998) on the big screen three times despite my deep-seated loathing of Matthew Broderick.
The big, final scaly skirmish takes place in Boston, but unlike Roland Emmerich (from Broderick’s “Godzilla”), director Michael Dougherty doesn’t have a flair for clobbering landmarks.
Todo comienza con los ecos de la estelar aparición de Godzilla en San Francisco, y los consabidos temores al reino sumergido de Titanes que hiberna desde los orígenes de la Tierra.
Or there are attempts to make the human element compelling through drama — GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE‘s ghost daughter plot, for example, or all of that terrible schtick from 1998’s GODZILLA — but they rarely work.
The best of these films follow a simple formula: humanity does something ecologically stupid, a huge problem/creature occurs, and Godzilla has to kick some butt (not you, Godzilla 1998) — cute twin Japanese girls optional but preferred.
No (or few) CGI workarounds here: Krampus and his minions, which include murderous gingerbread cookies, killer elves, and a borderline Lovecraftian jack-in-the-box that recalls the toothy critters from 1983’s The Deadly Spawn, are all products of Weta’s famed creature workshop.
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
Directed by Adam Wingard
influenced by Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
From there, the movie proceeds along parallel tracks, as Nathan and Ilene escort Kong to Hollow Earth, while Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown, reprising her role from Godzilla: King of the Monsters ) teams up with conspiracy podcaster Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) to figure out why Godzilla is acting erratically and attacking towns unprovoked.
So begins Godzilla vs. Kong , from director Adam Wingard ( Blair Witch ) , the fourth entry in Legendary Entertainment’s “MonsterVerse” series, which started with the 2014 Godzilla , continued with the 2017 Kong: Skull Island , and then added still more creatures to the mix with the 2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters .
There is also Brian Tyree Henry as a podcaster who follows the conspiracy theories to help break down the Apex Corporation that runs the Monarch program (thankfully the story is a little more grounded this time around unlike the insane plan of Vera Farmiga’s character in Godzilla: King of the Monsters ).
And Kyle Chandler reprises the role he played in the 2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters, that of Dr. Mark Russell, a soulful Godzilla stan who nevertheless understands that Godzilla in a bad mood is not a Godzilla you want to be around.
Meanwhile, Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown), who was saved by Godzilla in the previous film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters , and her friend Josh Valentine (Julian Dennison) connect with Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), a wild-eyed conspiracy-theorist podcaster, to investigate strange happenings at Apex Cybernetics and get to the bottom of why Godzilla has turned its back on humanity.
For those who missed the film’s predecessors (2014’s Godzilla, 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters), the basic idea is that a couple of dozen giant beasties called “Titans” (presumably because Guillermo del Toro already claimed “Kaiju” for Pacific Rim) have crawled out of the earth’s crust all over the globe and are being monitored by a shadowy government organization called Monarch, and an equally shadowy corporation called Apex Cybernetics.
Taking place in the same world as 2014’s Godzilla film, the crypto-zoological agency Monarch has risen to locate, catalog, and handle all the chain reaction of awaking kaiju set off by Godzilla in the the first film.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the third entry into Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse brand – following 2014's Godzilla and 2017's Kong: Skull Island – and while lifelong fans of ‘Zilla will be rightfully impressed by the epic kaiju smackdowns on CGI display here, much of the film’s fun is overrun by a combination of overlong exposition, ham-fisted dialogue, and some genuinely confusing editing.
Alien (1979)
Directed by Ridley Scott
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Themes Visuals
In interviews, he has likened this film to James Cameron's action-oriented "Aliens" and Gareth Edwards' " Godzilla " to Ridley Scott's scarier, more deliberate "Alien."
Dougherty has compared his film’s relation to Edwards’ like that of Aliens to Alien, a corollary that correctly steers one’s expectations for the sequel but shouldn’t be taken as anything more than that.
In addition to a dead child, this film’s favorite trick is lifted from the original “Alien” — the face-to-face stare down between the film’s teen heroine and a monster.
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Plot
The worldwide appearance of monsters (or "Titans," as they are called here) echoes Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla: Final Wars.
That said, it’s probably the most kaiju-esque “Godzilla” movie since “Godzilla: Final Wars” sent the lovable lizard into hibernation in 2004.
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Directed by Ishirō Honda
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Plot Characters
What amounts to a loose remake of 1964’s Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, pulling pieces from Ishiro Honda’s original 1954 Godzilla (David Strathairn, one of the few characters from Gareth Edwards’ 2014 reboot, shows up briefly to say the words “oxygen destroyer” as dead-seriously as possible), Michael Dougherty’s Godzilla 2 swells with too many boring human characters, competently sets up some sequels, thrives solely on its (sometimes awe-inspiring) monster fights and makes no fucking sense.
And because this film is intent on matching the exact kaiju lineup from 1964’s Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, we also get the flying bird-lizard Rodan.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Visuals Plot Themes Characters
In its best moments, director Gareth Edwards' predecessor approached the haunting, exhilarating heights of awe and suspense found in 1993's "Jurassic Park."
The ludicrous ’tween escape artists of “Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic World” have never been half this resourceful.
The tussle for power between giant monsters and humans is a timeless theme, tackled by the likes of Transformers , Jurassic Park and Pacific Rim franchises with varying degrees of success.
Chandler exudes the same kind of dad/intellectual/everyman quality that Sam Neill brought in Jurassic Park (1993) but is let down by a far lesser narrative.
Speaking of which: anyone having read Jurassic Park knows huge chunks of the novel were devoted to the specifics of hacking a computer system to reboot the park; guess what was reduced to a mere footnote in the film to make room for more rampaging dinosaurs?
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Directed by Henry Selick
influenced Krampus (2015)
Visuals Themes
This flashback is done in stop-motion animation reminiscent of The Nightmare Before Christmas , and it’s a nice reprieve from the idiotic plot line of a family under siege.
That's a shame because - as movies from "Gremlins" to "The Nightmare Before Christmas" proved - there's something to be found in combining holiday trappings with monster-movie tropes.
From Gremlins to The Nightmare Before Christmas — even Spinal Tap’s “Christmas With the Devil” — there’s a tongue-in-cheek subversive thrill to the idea; a little bit of naughty when everyone’s supposed to be nice.
It’s either Silent Night, Deadly Night viciously impaling old-fashioned Christmas archetypes (literally) or The Nightmare Before Christmas, which may be a teensy bit ghoulish but is nevertheless a film that most parents are comfortable showing to their kids.
It’s why something like The Nightmare Before Christmas works.
Pacific Rim (2013)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Visuals Themes
Past filmmakers like Anno, Edwards, and even Guillermo del Toro for his Pacific Rim master the way we gaze at monsters.
Aside from Godzilla and fellow MonsterVerse entry Kong: Skull Island , the CGI blockbuster era has spat out the Cloverfield movies, the Pacific Rim movies, Rampage , and more (including earlier stabs at both Godzilla and Kong).
The tussle for power between giant monsters and humans is a timeless theme, tackled by the likes of Transformers , Jurassic Park and Pacific Rim franchises with varying degrees of success.
When watching Kaiju movies like Pacific Rim , Cloverfield , and subsequently Godzilla , I yearn to experience microscopic insignificance.
El aspecto humano de estas cintas es algo que entendió muy bien Guillermo del Toro en Pacific Rim y el recién laureado en Cannes Bong Joon-Ho en The Host : de nada sirve crear historias de monstruos fantásticos si no empatizamos con los humanos que se enfrentan a ellos.
There are multiple incredible action sequences featuring these phenomenally-realised creatures threatening humanity and battling it out with each other, and most of the time it is an awesome spectacle that indulges in the sugar-addled childlike joy these movies should inspire; no movie has done it quite this well since Pacific Rim .
In the same way that earlier film paid homage to such classics as " Tales from the Crypt " and " Creepshow " with its anthology format, this film constantly bows at the altar of " Gremlins ," the Joe Dante classic that managed to find the perfect blend of creepiness, subversive humor and genuinely earned sentiment, to make it a seasonal favorite for viewers who prefer their Christmas entertainment to have a little more bite to it.
There’s some satirical edge to its sense of humor and a bit of nastiness in the scarier scenes, but it’s pretty clear that Mr. Dougherty and his collaborators are going for a mid-’80s/Robert Zemeckis/Joe Dante/Tales from the Crypt type of presentation, and speaking as someone who loves all of that stuff, I think they did a damn good job of it.
Transformers (2007)
Directed by Michael Bay
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Themes Visuals
The tussle for power between giant monsters and humans is a timeless theme, tackled by the likes of Transformers , Jurassic Park and Pacific Rim franchises with varying degrees of success.
Less of a Godzilla movie and more of a Transformers styled mashing together of blurry action sequences and an overabundance of uninteresting, painfully boring story and characters, Godzilla: King of the Monsters might not the the worst on screen appearance for the big guy, but I can’t think of one of his films that left me feeling more deflated and depressed the longer it droned on.
And while another Michael, Michael Doughtery, the one that directed 2015’s “Krampus,” is at the helm of “King of the Monsters,” he can’t shake the Bay style, the same style that gave us the diminishing returns and bonkers nonsense of the “Transformers” franchise.
The movie, as loud as anything I have ever seen (and yes, I have watched all the Michael Bay Transformers films), literally has nowhere to go thematically very quickly.
But in the years since, filmmakers realized action and effects films have so much more to accomplish that sacrifices have to be made, and that is usually the narrative quality, most exemplified in films like Independence Day , Transformers and Avatar .
Emerging from the loud, overlong spectacle that is Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I was struck by the disheartening realization that what I had just seen owed more to Transformers than kaiju.
Even if this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Ralphie's profanity slip in 1983's "A Christmas Story," it still comes off as the doing of a corporate head rather than a specific creative choice on Dougherty's part.
The Land That Time Forgot (1974)
Directed by Kevin Connor
influenced Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Visuals
Kong: Skull Island’s polar-opposite approach, embracing a go-for-broke retro pulp vibe that had more in common with campy 1970s Doug McClure vehicles like The Land That Time Forgot, did a lot to revitalize the nascent franchise.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik
influenced Krampus (2015)
Plot Themes
Once the plot kicks in — or more correctly, the set-up for the plot — what we get is basically a retread of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989).
The film starts out like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, when a frazzled family – dad Tommy (Scott), mom Sarah (Collette), their two kids, and Grandma Omi (Krista Stadler) – welcome their freeloading, rude relatives over to enjoy some Christmas cheer.
That’s the macabre message of “Krampus,” a bizarre B-movie horror take on “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
If 1989's "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" saw the dysfunctional, madcap misadventures of the Griswold clan interrupted by a giant horned monster and his gaggle of murderous toys and evil elves, it would uncannily resemble "Krampus."
Shot in New Zealand (doubling for Anytown, USA), this seasonal horror-comedy starts off as something of a riff on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and then heads into Gremlins territory before it finally unleashes the titular Germanic Santa Claws, where things get really nasty.
As Dougherty makes clear by early allusion, this is A Christmas Carol for Poltergeist fans with more than a chunk of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation thrown in for good measure.
In interviews, he has likened this film to James Cameron's action-oriented "Aliens" and Gareth Edwards' " Viewers who complained there was not enough monster mayhem in 2014's " Godzilla " get their wish in "Godzilla: King of the Monsters."
Dougherty has compared his film’s relation to Edwards’ like that of Aliens to Alien, a corollary that correctly steers one’s expectations for the sequel but shouldn’t be taken as anything more than that.
While Krampus‘ main narrative manages to blend dark humor and pathos in a competent fashion, it lacks the wit and poignancy that Christmas films past have offered – with their respective non-sugar coated examinations of what families are like when they gather together during the holidays (think Christmas Vacation) or must learn to appreciate one another (a la Home Alone).
In the grand scheme of holiday-related films of note, "Krampus" is neither as creepy as "Love The Coopers" nor as sadistic as "Home Alone" and it feels as if it is maybe one or two rewrites away from being the alternative classic that it clearly wants to be.
The faux-reassuring final scenes may have you misting up as readily as “A Christmas Carol” or even “Home Alone,” but let’s just say you’d better watch out.
Heck, it damn near rips off the beginning of Home Alone, except instead of wishing his family away, the young hero wishes for pain.
The film is at its wobbliest during this Home Alone-esque set-up, and although the excellent cast sell the Christmas-cookie-cutter characterisation (Toni Collette’s Sarah feels a little too firmly set on “brittle control freak”), it feels like we’re on very familiar ground.