Review: KRAMPUS

KRAMPUS  
(HORROR-COMEDY/FANTASY) 
3 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Michael Dougherty
Starring: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, Emjay Anthony, Stefania LaVie Owen, Krista Stadler, Lolo Owen, Queenie Samuel, Maverick Flack
Rated PG-13 for sequences of horror violence/terror, language and some drug material.
98 minutes
Verdict: Funny, thrilling, chilling and messy, KRAMPUS is the first Christmas film to come along in a while with the real potential to stick around as a perennial Christmas classic, albeit a twisted one. 
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN KRAMPUS IF YOU LIKED:
GREMLINS  (1984)
TRICK 'R TREAT  (2007)
BLACK CHRISTMAS  (1974)
TIME BANDITS  (1981) 
DRAG ME TO HELL  (2009)

Although there have been some pretty good holiday (yes, generally Christmas) movies since then, you'd probably have to go all the way back to 2003, with the trifecta of ELF, BAD SANTA and LOVE ACTUALLY, to find the most recent real perennial Christmas classic.  While admitting that it's much too soon to tell with any certainty, Michael Dougherty's horror-comedy "anti-Christmas" movie KRAMPUS is the first to come around since then that feels like it could have that kind of hold.  The label of an anti-Christmas movie does not actually indicate that the movie is against Christmas, but rather, that it defies the conventions and typically "feel-good" sensibilities we expect from a Christmas movie, with other notable anti-Christmas movies including BAD SANTA, DIE HARD and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS.  Of course, this includes horror movies like the controversial 1984 cult-classic SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT and Bob Clark's 1974 proto-slasher BLACK CHRISTMAS, as well as the more mainstream GREMLINS.  KRAMPUS lies somewhere in between GREMLINS and those gnarlier cult favorites, clearly made in the spirit of GREMLINS director Joe Dante's funny-twisted style but with a more sinister bent.

Three days before Christmas, the upper-middle class family at the center of this story is dreading the imminently arriving prospect of hosting their relatives for the holiday, and they're each dealing with their own issues.  Tom (Adam Scott) is a workaholic who doesn't spend enough time with the family, putting strain on his marriage with Sarah (Toni Collette), while their daughter Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen) spends most of her time with a pothead boyfriend, and their son Max (Emjay Anthony) gets into fights with other kids over his stubborn belief in Santa Claus, and his only real friend is his German grandmother, Omi (Krista Stadler).  Sarah's sister Linda (Allison Tolman) and her deeply blue collar family is visiting, including her macho gun-toting husband Howard (David Koechner), their gluttonous and dimwitted son Howie (Maverick Flack), and their masculine daughters Stevie (Lolo Owen) and Jordan (Queenie Samuel).  To the displeasure of everyone, Sarah's crotchety, alcoholic Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell) has also shown up.  As their collective negativity reaches crisis levels, a sub-zero blizzard rolls in out of nowhere, knocking out the power and freezing the whole neighborhood over as the holidays start to look even bleaker.  They soon discover that things are only getting started as the blizzard has only heralded the arrival of a demon, St. Nick's shadow who's come not to give, but to take, punishing the "naughty" with the help of his minions.
In Germanic folklore, Krampus is the counterpart of St. Nicholas responsible for punishing the naughty children, but instead of punishing in any way so benign as leaving coal instead of toys, Krampus wails on the unrepentant kids and takes them away to Hell.  Following more in that tradition than in the irony-obsessed internet community's post-modern interpretation writer/director/producer Michael Dougherty's rendering of the legend is kind of terrifying.  Large and hunched over in many layers of raggedy cloaks, with long, spindly fingers, long goat horns and heavy cloven hooves that thud loudly on the ground, along with the rattling chains and jingle bells wrapped around him, heralding his presence. 

The movie is as much comedy as it is horror; with the exception of Krampus, most of the horror in the film has a comedic bent, as Krampus' minions, including sadistic gingerbread men, a man-eating jack-in-the-box, and murderous stuffed toys, terrorize the family in Gremlins-like fashion.  Most of the cast has experience in sitcoms; Scott comes from Parks and Recreation, Collette was the titular character in United States of Tara, Ferrell was in Two and a Half Men, and Owen starred in the short-lived series Running Wilde and The Carrie Diaries; and their interplay is amusing and surprisingly invested emotionally at times, with the exception of Koechner, who works for the most comedic moments but feels miscast whenever anything else is called for.
It has a few sluggish moments, but these are generally brief, and it's hard to fret too much over some of the weird pacing when there's so much other weirdness to delight over.  The production design finds a balance between the unnerving style of an old European storybook (the sort that my anglophile grandma used to have in her house), and the visuals of Tim Burton and Joe Dante, and even in it's darkest, meanest moments, Dougherty adds a subtle kookiness.
For all its eccentricities and genuine chills, KRAMPUS always feels like a seasonal treat, complete with a few inspired albeit obligatory record drops, family strife and reconciliations, and even a bit of (dark) magic.  It's not just for the SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT crowd; KRAMPUS has a heart, a twisted, demented heart, but a heart nonetheless.

Images via Universal Studios