You Better Watch Out … Krampus is Coming To Town
This comic horror film takes place during Christmas, a time traditionally to be in company of family and grateful for the holiday, however Krampus takes an interesting turn on this celebration.
The first scenes of the movie depict the substandard values in American society during the Christmas season: shoppers running mad through a department store for holiday sales, shot in slow motion. We then meet Max (Emjay Anthony) and his family, a household of dysfunctional individuals caught up in their own world. With Max’s mother Sarah (Toni Collette) always stressed and father Tom (Adam Scott) a workaholic, expectations of a happy Christmas seem far from reach.
In addition, the family invites over uncle and aunt Howard and Linda (David Koechner, Allison Tolman), their children (Lola Owen, Queenie Samuel, Maverick Flack), and Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell). Max’s grandmother, Omi (Krista Stadler) acts as a semi-omnipresent character of warning. In a failed attempt to have the family come together to wrap presents and watch the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, Max becomes distraught in his unfulfilled dream of a perfect Christmas and rips up his letter to Santa Claus, summoning Krampus.
As a blizzard suddenly barricades the town and the house, the family is left with no power and electricity, forecasting a series of both comical and slightly horrifying events in which demented fairytale holiday characters terrorize the family. The effects of the movie are surprisingly believable for some of the characters, and there are some well planned elements in the storyline such as the build of suspense in unveiling Krampus. In contrast, the film doesn’t leap into great risks to make an interesting family horror, instead the plot is quite predictable leaving no surprises for the audience. All in all, Krampus is a safe alternative to the traditional Christmas movie for the entire family to watch.
Krampus is now playing.