 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Krampus • Year: 2015 • Country: USA • Director: Michael Dougherty • Main cast: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner • Runtime: 98 minutes • Production company: Legendary Pictures, Universal Pictures • TRAILER |
It’s a warm summer day, so why not to review a Christmas movie?
Pretty often said Christimas times are one of the most annoying and depressive times for some people, Christmas movies are normally also horrible sugar-coated tales many people despise. I would count myself in the wide amount of population that would run away from Christmas commitments and movies, like if I had to run away from the halitosic breath of the Devil. And somehow that is what this movie is about.
As many other Christmas movies try to show the consumerist madness and forced family happy togetherness with an annoying halo of joy and blessedness, Krampus brings a dark feeling towards the whole movie. And that’s something to appreciate. Always swimming between the waters of a Christmas carol and 80s monster horror, this film turns a classic germanic children tale into a nightmare for a family who are forced to leave aside their conflicts to fight for their own survival.
It’s Christmas time and the Engel family seem to have forgotten what that means. The traditions are a mandatory unwanted job specially when they have to invite their annoying relatives over for the holidays. Everybody seems to be hating it except little Max (great performance from young Emjay Anthony, owning the movie since the very first scene), a little boy who still believes in Santa Claus and in the happiness of these magic days. But soon their stupid cousins make them hate it and Santa loses the confidence of his last boy in town. That awakens the evil spirit of the Krampus, Saint Nicholas’ shadow, who emerges from hell to punish the non-believers and shows them what happens when you lose faith.
This what seems to be the classic moral for a Christmas movie turns into a dark and creepy not so much of a children movie. The originality in Krampus resides in some dark and violent moments, more habitual in proper horror movies than in family films. But that is pretty much the only thing that makes this movie special, the action and final conclusion are the kind you have seen many times before. At the end, the good lives but with a severe warning!
Krampus is the second movie from Michael Dougherty, a man who is already familiar with these tradition films turned into big nightmares. After all, he tought us in his first movie Trick ‘r Treat (2007) that you should take seriously what happens on Halloween. And he is also experience in writting epic films, since he is behind some of the stories from the X-Men franchise films or Superman Returns (2006). He did a good job finding a cast of resolutive actors, and a good taste in monsters, as well digitally made or prosthetics and puppets.
So maybe next Christmas you want to scare your kids with something different, so they finally shut up and let you sleep. Or you just want to have a taste of gingerbread movies out of the ordinary overdose of sugar. Krampus is a family movie gone bad and dark.
RATE: 5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2091478
