Krampus (2015)
Directed by Michael Dougherty
When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers.
28 connections found
View:
28 films that influenced Krampus
What critics say influenced Krampus
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.
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.
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.
Dougherty made waves with his acclaimed 2008 Halloween anthology film Trick ‘r Treat , and he transfers his focus to the yuletide season with less impressive results in Krampus .
Director-cowriter Michael Dougherty made the well-regarded (by horror fans) Halloween anthology Trick 'r Treat.
Nonetheless, director Michael Dougherty (who made the Halloween-themed "Trick 'r Treat" several years back) revels in the tension and excitement provided by a supernatural home invasion, and he keeps things moving fast enough that we don't have much time to ponder the details, or to notice that the dialogue tends to be flat.
Like he did with his Halloween-themed horror anthology Trick 'r Treat, co-writer/director Michael Dougherty infuses the film with a rich sense of mythology.
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.
In 2009, after two years of senseless delays courtesy of a woefully misguided Warner Bros. Pictures, writer-director Michael Dougherty finally saw the release of his acclaimed interwoven anthology " Trick 'r Treat ."
Advertisement
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.
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.
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.
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.
Advertisement
Krampus suggests what it might be like to see a shrill and anonymously shot Christmas movie starring Hugh Grant or Sarah Jessica Parker invaded by the ghoulies from Stuart Gordon's Dolls .
It doesn't help, certainly, that Dougherty and cowriters Todd Casey and Zach Shields offer up an obnoxious roster of supporting characters that make Randy Quaid's National Lampoon's Vacation brood look subtle and restrained by comparison, with the viewer's inability to work up an ounce of sympathy for or interest in these people ensuring that it becomes awfully difficult to care once they begin fending for their lives.