Review: Krampus

Seeing trailers for Krampus, the new film by the director of the 2007 cult classic Trick 'r Treat, I immediately thought it would be a forgettable horror movie cashing in on the holiday season. What I wasn't expecting was one of the most enjoyable films I've seen this year, and one of the most surprisingly heartfelt Christmas movies in a while--easily a top contender for "best Christmas films featuring Hell."

THE PREMISE

It's Christmas and, naturally, everyone is miserable and crabby. The lead character, Tom, is forced to deal with his in-laws whose children torment his own and whine about his wife's meticulous cooking. Tom's son Max and his elderly mother are the only people who seem to be hyped for Christmas and a visit from Santa, but after a fight with his bratty cousins Max becomes downtrodden and tears up his heartfelt letter to Santa Claus. This somehow causes the town to turn into Silent Hill and the family tries to survive through Christmas while a terrifying demon haunts their town.

THE GOOD

Nearly everything about this movie is oozing with detail and spirit, and before getting into specifics you should know that this movie is worth every penny. Go see it immediately, you will not regret it. That being said, I can't sing Krampus's praise enough. The dialogue is charming and gives every character a well-rounded feeling; despite its running time of less than two hours, I felt every last member of the cast had an important part to play and there's a great balance of character development, tense moments, actual horror, and genuinely funny moments. The pacing is just where it needs to be, and more than just enjoying the movie itself I was stunned by how well it blended all of its elements without it feeling drawn out.

The children are annoying, as children are. There's no good child, and I don't say that in the context of the movie but just as a fact of life. That being said, the five children (and one baby) in this movie don't clog up the plot like you might think. When I think child actors the first image that pops up is Anakin Skywalker trying out his spinning trick, but thankfully that's entirely absent here. David Koechner's bratty kids actually cause much of the tension in the plot, and the movie never shies away from treating children like cannon fodder. At no point did I think "this kid needs to please go away and never be in a movie again" like most of the movies I watch (even the ones without them at all) but instead felt a bit of remorse for the sheer terror they're thrown into.

Like I said earlier, there's some seriously unnerving horror in Krampus. You remember when horror films had build-up and tension? Much of the first half of the movie is pure build-up with some fairly terrifying imagery--not to give too much away, but I'll never feel the same way about snowmen again. The titular monster, a creature from an obscure European folktale, only shows up a few times and it's almost always as a way to escalate an already tense moment. This thing might be one of the best horror monsters in recent memory: imposing, threatening, and when he appears it really does feel like all hope is lost. You won't see his face until the very end, but at that point you probably won't want to see him on screen again.

I'll be frank, a major reason the movie is so frightening is because many of the monsters are practical effects and men in costumes, aside from the ones that are simply too small. I'd have like to see some of them as animatronics, but the way they're animated gives life to the monsters that would have been difficult with practical effects. CG is used sparingly and the rest looks absolutely phenomenal, with some of the overall best creature designs I've seen in years. There's one scene in particular I don't want to spoil, but it involves stop-motion cartoons that I simply fell in love with. The entire scene is done in CG, but you really need to be nitpicking to find a flaw in its presentation.

Sure it's scary enough, but this film is billed as "comedy horror" and it absolutely deserves that classification. David Koechner and Allison Tolman bring a great deal of life to the movie, but Conchata Ferrell completely steals the scene when she's featured--not a surprise really, but it needs to be reiterated. As the dysfunctional in-laws they should by all means be completely irritating, but paired up with the charming and down-to-earth Adam Scott and Toni Collette everyone bashes heads to a point where you really appreciate all of them coming together as family, despite being polar opposites. There aren't many cloying moments of family bonding, but by the end you really want to see all of these stressed-out weirdos make it out just to see if they can ever gel outside of a terrifying situation.

To only give the cast credit to the film's humor would be severely downplaying just how charming and terrifying the monsters can be. I really don't want to spoil much of the movie because you need to go see it right now before Christmas, so instead I'll try to compare it with another classic comedy-horror it takes many inspirations from: remember the scene in Gremlins when a monster is thrown into a microwave and explodes? Go see this movie.

The ending had me a bit worried in that I expected a little "everything was saved by the power of love," but you don't need to worry about that. Krampus knows its audience and plays with your expectations at every turn. It is a bit cliche, but it's pulled off in such a way that I can't think of a better way to tie up the story.

THE BAD

There aren't too many moments that stood out as being too terrible, but I do have some nitpicks. Of course, because I specifically mentioned this as a nitpick earlier, I really wish the CG stop-motion scene had tried being a little more faithful to the style. It's not much, but there are a few moments where the framerate is a bit too fast to keep up with the aesthetic and it's a bit weird. Much of the scene mimics the low-framerate element that gives stop motion its particular style, and when it breaks that it took me out of the moment just a bit. For a small movie that I found myself loving this much, it was heartbreaking that I had to find such a tiny complaint that anyone else would just hand wave as a concession. The film has a very small budget and it's very hard to tell, so having a complaint that there's too much budget here is something you shouldn't view as a negative, because it takes a cracked, morbid heart to find fault in something like this.

Also kids. I hate kids. As far as the movie is concerned though, I thought Max was a little too "smart" at times. Like he's just a bit too eloquent for his age and it took me out of some of his scenes, but the weird thing is that it's not perpetual. He's not always saying things that are too intelligent for a kid like him. It feels like this kid is reading a script, but he's a fine actor so maybe the problem is that kids are impossible to write well. And it's just him. It's just this one kid who feels like he's saying a line rather than being a human talking to other people. Maybe I'm just looking too close at something like this--possibly. Let me know if you found this kid to be overly eloquent, send me an AOL chat when I don't have my icon set to "busy." I have to look at my web pages and can't be distracted while writing my ultra-timely movie review blog.

THE VERDICT

I adore Krampus. I adore every last second of this weird little movie. Go see it as soon as you can, preferably before Christmas so you can get really in the mood. There's something for everybody, it's tight and well-made with a lot of love in every aspect. This is the first movie all year (outside of Mad Max, maybe) that I wanted to watch again.

Highly Recommended