Christmas is, ultimately, a celebration of family and love at the end of the year. What happens if a family is so horrible that the last member with any true holiday spirit gives up all hope? Krampus comes to claim the wicked with his chains, his birch branch staff, and his human-sized sack. When you think about it, it is pretty amazing that no previous mainstream, studio-backed horror film has zeroed in on Krampus. He's terrifying. He's Santa Claus' demon sidekick. Forget the banal lump of coal in the stocking for naughty children. This ancient demon of far older mythology makes it his mission to terrify the worst children in the world, beating them with his staff and stealing them away on Christmas Eve to pay for their sins.
Krampus is perhaps the first Christmas film made and marketed for people like me. There are plenty of Christmas horror films with madmen posing as Santa, Santa turning evil, or holiday icons going rogue. There are few, if any other, that actually embrace the dark, pagan origins of the holiday. Make it a slapstick horror with practical special effects and a huge ensemble cast and you're singing my kind of carol.
Simply put, Krampus is an entertaining, funny, and well-crafted horror film. Writer/director Michael Dougherty and screenwriters Todd Casey and Zach Shields put a lot of effort into setting up the arrival of Krampus. The result is a horror film where you don't quite know whether to root for the family targeted by a demon or the demon bringing righteous justice.
At first glance, the order of attacks seems random and cruel; as the story progresses, your realize Krampus values family togetherness above all other tenants of the holidays. It's not safety in numbers, but rather emotional support and care that keeps the demon of Christmas at bay.
Krampus is a monster movie that borrows from one of the best: Jaws. Like our fine-fanged creature from the deep, Krampus does not make a full-bodied appearance until the climax of the film. His introductory scene is restrained and all the more terrifying for it.
We see a large black shadow on the roof. We hear the chains begin to rattle. As the teenage girl attempts to flee from danger, we see and hear Krampus follow along, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The chains never stop shaking, a key element of the Krampus mythology, as his chains can strike fear in the heart of any truly wicked child. This is all just enough to establish the titular villain as more than just an existential threat; Krampus is here to claim the naughty and you can't stop him.
To maintain this shroud of mystery of the big baddie without holding back on the demented scares, Krampus offers up an arsenal of holiday misfits to torment the central family. Living gingerbread cookies bait and trap their victims throughout the house. Viscous fanged toys pop out of their packages to devour and torment their targets. Mysterious snowmen form themselves on the lawn and a whole lot of reindeer hooves cause structural damage to homes.
I honestly cannot remember a time where I, a lifelong hardened horror fan, smiled the whole way through a holiday film. I normally roll my eyes or lose interest quickly. Krampus breaks the streak. It's a twisted holiday horror comedy, yes, but it manages to evoke true feelings of holiday spirit and good will towards all of humankind. Maybe the incredible American Dad Krampus Christmas special was right: Santa spoils us for his own satisfaction. What we need now, more than ever, is a dark, punishing force to remind us of the true purpose of the holiday season.
Krampus is currently playing in theaters.
