For those unfamiliar with the Krampus legend, the horned
beast is a character from Germanic folklore who represents the dark side of the
Christmas holiday: while Santa rewards the good kids, Krampus punishes the bad,
ladling out punishment with birchen rods and burlap sacks. And if the children are
especially naughty, he drags them straight to hell. Historically, Krampus has
always been more popular overseas than in the US, but in the last few years,
America has begun to get in on the fun.
Krampus has
become something of a trend, and now he’s inspired his first major studio film,
Michael Dougherty’s spirited horror-comedy, “Krampus.” The script, co-written
by Dougherty, Todd Casey, and Zach Shields (a Rochester-native), uses the
Christmas classic “Gremlins” as its most obvious touchstone, delivering holiday
horrors with seasonally cheerful glee. The film begins with an upper-middle
class family — Tom and Sarah (Adam Scott and Toni Collette), their son, Max
(Emjay Anthony), and daughter, Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen) — as they prepare for
Christmas and the annual visit from Sarah’s sister and her uncouth, redneck,
gun-toting family. Pulling up to the house in a Hummer is Linda and Howard
(Allison Tolman and David Koechner), their awful children (Maverick Flack,
Queenie Samuel, and Lolo Owen), and crabby Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell),
just for good measure.
Max is at
that age when it’s a little awkward that he still believes in Santa Claus, but
believe he does, and his cousins give him hell for it. After a chaotic dinner
and some particularly harsh teasing from his cousins, he rips up his letter to
Santa and tosses it out the window. Almost immediately, a winter storm descends
on their town, knocking out power and isolating the entire family in their
home, forcing them to hunker down together to wait it out. But when Beth
disappears, things go from bad to worse, and Max’s wise old grandmother, Omi
(Austrian actress Krista Stadler) recognizes the signs that the family’s lack
of Christmas spirit has summoned Krampus.
Dougherty’s
last film was the modern classic Halloween anthology film, “Trick ‘r Treat,”
and as a director he’s got a great handle on tone. He’s got a talent for
effortlessly melding horror with the more heartfelt sentiment of the holiday,
and that’s the key to this film’s success. As Krampus unleashes his demonic
minions on the family, they face malevolent gingerbread men, dark elves, and
sinister toys, all building up to an encounter with the big guy himself.
Brought to
life by Weta Workshop, the creature design is fantastic, I only wished we got
to see more of them. The monsters’ attack sequences suffer a bit from
over-editing (possibly a symptom of budget constraints), but with such great,
often practical effects, it would have been nice to have more time to properly
appreciate the work. The sound design is also particularly effective, conjuring
up enough chilly, wintery atmosphere that you half expect to find a snow storm
still raging once you step outside the theater.
Most
crucial, as ridiculous as its premise gets, “Krampus” always plays the
situation completely straight. Like most Christmas movies, it’s all about the
characters learning to appreciate the true spirit of the holiday — it just
happens through some rather ferocious methods. The film gets a number of laughs
from the characters’ own incredulity at the circumstances they’ve found
themselves in (Adam Scott’s impeccable deadpan reactions are a treasure), but
the traditional humor could have been sharper. The families are drawn with
broad strokes, and the film pokes some fun at them using some easy red state
versus blue state humor; Howard and his brood get teased for being gun nuts,
but of course, once shit starts to go down, those guns come in mighty handy.
While
“Krampus” works to avoid coming across as campy, it’s never particularly scary
either. A couple months back, I praised “Goosebumps” for being a good
introduction to horror films for younger viewers, and “Krampus” often feels
like the progressive step up from that film; the horror is much more intense,
while still keeping things at a bloodless PG-13 level. There’s no actual
onscreen deaths, with family members disappearing one-by-one, almost “Willy
Wonka” style.
As a
longtime fan of the Krampus legend, there’s no way I wasn’t going to at least
have fun at a movie like “Krampus” (plus, any film that manages to work in a
killer “Calvin and Hobbes” reference is aces in my book). Whatever faults it
may have, “Krampus” has definitely got a distinctive personality, which is more
than you can say for most of the anonymously-directed horror films released
into theaters each year. It’s rare to see something this offbeat and weird get
released by a major studio, and it’s bound to become a holiday staple for those
with an appreciation for the dark side of the holidays.
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2015.
