Review: Krampus


Toni Collette, Adam Scott, and their two kids are about to endure a hellish Christmas at their home with Scott’s boorish right-wing brother David Koechner & his wife and kids, whilst obnoxious Aunt Conchata Ferrell has also invited herself over, even though no one can stand her. Literally no one. The woman is horrid. Also around is Scott’s German mother Krista Stadler. However, things turn out to be even more hellacious when a giant blizzard and demonic creatures wreak havoc on the neighbourhood. Could this be the legendary Krampus, An Austrian-Germanic anti-Santa Claus come to invoke wrath on the naughty? (Answer: Yep, it is).

 

Well this is a mess. Director Michael Dougherty (the much, much better Halloween horror anthology “Trick ‘r’ Treat”) and his co-writers Zach Shields (his first screenplay credit) and Todd Casey (who co-produced) don’t seem to know exactly what this 2015 Yuletide nasty was meant to be. A mixture of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, “Gremlins”, and a little Guillermo Del Toro, it’s all a bit tone deaf and unlikely to please anyone.

 

Toni Collette is a much better actress than the film deserves, Conchata Ferrell is hilarious as the universally loathed cranky loudmouth Aunt, and former “SNL” alumni David Koechner is certainly well-cast as a more serious Cousin Eddie. By and large though, the characters are unlikeable (especially Adam Scott’s rather aloof paternal character) and the humour for the most part unfunny. The monsters are cool and wisely covered in snow and darkness, but the shift from black comedy to horror-fantasy is incredibly jarring. It only gets more random when a bizarre animated sequence comes out of nowhere and I’m not even gonna get started on the demonic gingerbread men. I don’t know if this film had a lot of rewrites or reshoots, but it plays absolutely like a film with serious production/post-production issues. If there weren’t any, then that’s even worse. Also, what’s with the German grandmother speaking German for 99% of the film and then all of a sudden speaking English?

 

Yeah, this is a big ‘ol mess, and after a while incredibly boring to be honest. This isn’t awful, but it has no idea what it wants to be and never gets anywhere near working. The tone is all over the place, the characters all-too jerky (I also don’t think Adam Scott realises how unlikeable he comes across on screen), and the monsters can’t save it. Demonic gingerbread men might appeal to someone, but they’re hardly in it anyway. For me, it looks pretty good, and there’s the kernel of an interesting Christmas horror-fantasy here, but it just doesn’t come together overall.

 

Rating: C

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