Krampus
Dan Abel

Review by Dan Abel Patron

Krampus 2015

★★★½

Watched 17 Dec 2023

The wealthy uptight side of the Engel family invites the salt of the Earth side over for Christmas. Neither side likes each other very much but they try to make it work for three days a year. Twelve people who find themselves left to figure out how to get along when an extreme blizzard sets in and the power and heat go out. What begins as a inconvenience and annoyance turns to terror when they are visited by an ancient Christmas demon. The Krampus.

This film has been on my radar for years but I've always assumed it was something very different. I expected a direct-to-video mid-budget horror flick but instead I was surprised to discover that 2015's Krampus is a PG-13 horror comedy with a pretty damn kick ass cast. Anytime Toni Collette is around I'm in, and both Adam Scott and David Koechner are excellent bonuses. The cast is matched by the excellent production value. Sure it's rife with CGI FX but they're solid enough and we even get some animated scenes to boot.

Krampus may start off a bit slow but it's slow in a interesting way with a bunch of laughs along the way. Once the shit hits the fan I found myself growing a liking for this misfit family as they fought for their lives against a Christmas demon and the batshit crazy creatures it controls from the gingerbread men to the fucked up jack in a box. I was around three quarters of the way through when I realized that it came from the mind of Michael Dougherty, the man who made Trick ’r Treat, another badass holiday horror flick. That explains a lot!

If a cross between Evil Dead and Demonic Toys with a badass looking version of a demonic Santa sounds like your kind of jam, this film is for you. I'm glad I finally got to check it out. Good stuff!

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