Krampus

What was advertised as a dark and cautionary tale of a family who’ve lost the Christmas spirit becomes a film that, while delivering on these promises, is tempered by tones of a somewhat opposite genre. Michael Dougherty’s Krampus is a film that at times, if not more often, doesn’t know if it wants to be a horror or a scary family comedy. The film starts off as comedy, but remains to have comedic scenes and dialogue even as the film enters the second and third acts that follow horror conventions.

Sometimes during what normally should be scary or tense moments, the characters utter comedic one-liners and other dialogue that undermine the urgency of situations. Krampus’ “helpers” are designed to be monstrous perversions of Christmas-related toys, which have mixed success in appearing as serious or sometimes even effective monsters; the tiny killer gingerbread men, for example – while one alone serves as the ironic punisher of a greedy child, having three attack an adult with household appliances undermines the menace of the first. Krampus’ elves are the arguably the most credible threat, at least to the adult characters – though they would have appeared more threatening if the family actually fought back against them and still lost. The story struggles between suspense and predictable outcomes; with the exception of the ending that closes the narrative with twists and a haunting conclusion.

The film has a creative visual design, twisting the archaic or traditional toys and items often associated with Christmas into scary (though more often cute or funny) monster designs. The design of the Krampus character is a meld of the malicious horned-and-hooved folkloric figure and its benign counterpart Santa Claus with a dash of Jacob Marley. The design is beastly and intimidating, as his character plays upon the terror of the characters. As most good monster movies do, most of Krampus’ form is unseen for the majority of the picture. His face is mostly made as part of the costume, having only rare mix of CGI used with it, which at first allows the face to look both organic and realistic, but as the face is brought out of the shadows later on, the mask becomes more obvious as his expressions are frozen. At first this is distracting, but the unchanging facial expression at the climax of the film somewhat works to the advantage of the character’s inhumanity.

The protagonists, the family that Krampus plagues in the film, have distinguishable personalities and recognisable characters. The theme is well set up, albeit with comedic effect, and is the consistent precursor to the series of frankly chilling or otherwise woeful comeuppances. The film has an effective tone as it toys with the characters’ and audience’s sense of hope, making it quite effective as a thriller.

Krampus is a nonetheless an enjoyable picture. Its style mixes horror with whimsy, and while its jokes sometimes take away from some of the scary parts, just as many are fittingly sarcastic. The comedy is still a great part of the movie and most of the scary parts are still scary, providing much entertainment even if, on occasion, certain character attidudes fall short on urgency. Krampus is portrayed as a truly menacing supernatural villain that warps the friendly image of Santa Claus into a monster one might encounter in a classic Grimm’s fairytale. A cautionary Christmas story.