National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik
It's Christmastime, and the Griswolds are preparing for a family seasonal celebration. But things never run smoothly for Clark, his wife Ellen, and their two kids. Clark's continual bad luck is worsened by his obnoxious family guests, but he manages to keep going, knowing that his Christmas bonus is due soon.
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What critics compared National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to
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.
Original director Jeremiah S. Chechik ("National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation") told Walker to rewrite the script with the Gwyneth-Paltrow's-head-in-the-box scene taken out.
There are two holiday comedies I pretty much have to watch every year: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story.