Krampus (2015)

User Review

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  TheMovieDiorama

  5 / 10

  Krampus is a horror comedy inspired by the folktale of Krampus himself. Essentially the opposite to Santa Claus but with the addition horns, chains and a flipping long tongue. So as I was watching this I thought "Yep, this looks like a typical Christmas film with a feuding family", then the second acts arrives and I'm thinking "Okkkk, things are starting to get interesting". Then the third act happens and the voice in my mind is saying "What the actual heck!? Chaos has ensued! Wait, is that a jack-in-a-box swallowing a child!? Creepy angel toy with flappy tongue is creepy. I don't even know anymore. What is life?". The film went from a comedy, to a horror, to a comedy, to a horror...bouncing back and forth and it didn't really work for me. I'm assuming the comedy is just at the premise itself because there was nothing funny in the script. I will give credit to the horror scenes, they were effective and they did create suspense (although I'm deducting a mark for finishing on a jump scare...cheap move). Let's talk about the third act, what in the actual hell was going on!? Krampus in all his glory brings along an army of demonic toys, gingerbread men who are firing a nail gun and these weird masked elves where the film went from notch 1 to notch 11 in a matter of seconds. I was not prepared for that, at all...and I liked it. Sure it felt abit silly, but I was totally on board. The majority of the family members are horrible and unlikeable, but I guess that was the point of the film...however some of the kids were just spiteful for the sake of it and it felt forced. Good to see Adam Scott as a lead actor, and I thought the onscreen chemistry with Toni Collette was great. I loved the animation sequence in regards to Krampus's origins, excellently crafted. But yes, the film finished and I found myself questioning what on earth did I just watch? As a B-movie horror it works, as a comedy it does not. But totally worth watching just for the final act.

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