Testimonial time- I have something of a personal relationship with Austria. I lived there twice, I go back every once in a while to visit friends and take pictures (I’m a photographer, too, among many other things). In fact, I’ve gone so far as to arrange that after I die, I’ll be cremated and my ashes will be deposited in the Danube River in Vienna. I love Austria more than any other place on earth.
As you may or may not know, the Krampus legend started in the Austrian Alps hundreds of years ago. The thumbnail is that Krampus was a monster, the antithesis to Santa Claus, who punished the bad kids in the weeks prior to Christmas. By punish I mean he kidnapped them and ate them.
I’ve been waiting many, many years, as long as I’ve been a horror movie fan, for somebody to make a kick ass Krampus movie. It seems that awareness of Krampus has gained some momentum in recent years, and a handful of Krampus movies have hit the market. I haven’t seen them all. I’ve been hesitant, because most of ’em fall well within comedy territory. Which is a terrible shame, because Krampus is supposed to be a vicious monster, along the same lines as Pumpkinhead or even the xenomorph in Alien.
But I thought I’d check out these two, to see if either are any good.
First up, The Christmas Devil. Acting is terrible. Camera is terrible, editing is terrible. And I’m only three minutes into the movie. Camera is in autofocus, and it breathes all over the place, focussing on foreground, then midground, then background. Amateurs. Other stuff is completely amateur hour, so this one is difficult to watch. Whole movie is hand held. The parents look barely mid 30s, but their daughter looks to be about 20? WTF? Then they try to start up this whole other plotline which has nothing to do with Krampus? Again, WTF? Even for a low budget / no budget attempt, this one sucks.
The design of Krampus is the only thing in this one that isn’t completely laughable and excruciatingly painful to watch. Avoid.
Now Krampus 2016. Bottom line, even though this one is PG-13 and has some comedic moments, this is a better movie. I mean, every movie ever made is a better movie than that last one, but this one is much easier on the eye and on the brain. Better camera, better lighting, better actors, better everything. It very much has a big budget feel to it.
And honestly, I haven’t been this impressed with a PG-13 movie in quite a while. Definitely one of the best Christmas horror movies, as far as PG-13 movies go. And while it does definitely have comedic elements to it, it is also definitely a horror movie. Good story. We get some truly scary monsters outside of Krampus, too. And Krampus himself is totally awesome.
And very nice touch having one of the characters speak almost exclusively German, as a nod to the original Krampus folklore. Austrian-German language, too, not German-German, but I’m sure you all noticed that.
With the mom from Hereditary.
If only this one were rated R and didn’t have any comedy in it, this would have been the Krampus movie I’ve been waiting for and hoping for all these years. For the time being, I don’t see any other Krampus movie coming even close to this one in terms of quality and watchability. Definitely recommended.
B-movie Roundup 