Krampus Movie Review: Silent Night, Scary Night

Silent Night,
Scary Night,
Krampus Is Coming,
And He’ll give you a Fright

Krampus is not the traditional holiday movie. It’s the kind of movie you’d expect Jason and Freddy Krueger would watch while drinking eggnog, telling jokes and planning who to terrorize.  It’s the latest movie in a trend of horror/comedies.

Max (Emjay Anthony) is a kid who is totally into Christmas and gets so angry when another kid says Santa Claus doesn’t exist, that he punches him. Max’s parents Tom (Adam Scott) and Sarah (Toni Collette) are not happy that Max’s aunt Linda and uncle Howard (Allison Tolman and David Koechner) and their annoying children are coming over for the holiday.  This is not the type of family you’d see in a Hallmark movie.

Max just wants to celebrate Christmas like they used to, but when a bunch of feuding relatives get together, that seems unlikely.  Hurt and angry, he throws the letter he was sending to Santa Claus out the window.  This unleashes Krampus. According to Wikipedia,  Krampus is a horned figure who is the opposite of Saint Nicholas that instead of bringing toys, punishes children who have misbehaved.  In the movie, this Krampus brings killer gingerbread men and deadly toys along for the ride to help him turn Christmas into a holy night of terror.

So the family has to work together to survive Krampus.  While there are scary moments in Krampus, the comedic ones help to serve as a counter balance that saves it from being total cringe-worthy.  I felt the movie was way, way too long (its running time is 138 minutes) and at times some of the scenes tended to drag on longer than they should.

But the movie’s end helps to make up for its length and rewards the movie-goer for sticking with it until conclusion.

Krampus is now playing. Check your local listings for times and theaters.