Krampus

You don't want to be on his list.

Well, let me start by saying this was, at the very least, an interesting movie. Krampus, for the uneducated, is basically Santa's evil twin. That's the simplest way I can put it.

The movie, however, is not quite so simple to describe. The basic idea is that the holidays bring out the worst in people. One kid, Max, gets fed up and stops believing in the holiday spirit. As a result, he inadvertently summons Krampus to his home.

From here, you get your fairly standard demon summoning fare. Mysterious snow storm. The prancing of hooves on the roof and the sound of jingle bells. Killer gingerbread men. People randomly disappearing. OK, maybe not quite so standard, but you get the idea.

And while all this scary stuff is going down, you get comedic elements too. Which I was not expecting. Although considering several of the main characters are played by actors who do a lot of comedy work, I should have seen that coming. But even still, comedy mixed with horror is a strange mix, one that is difficult to get right. Sadly, I don't think Krampus succeeded at combining the two very well.

The main villain was justifiably scary. Other than growls and a very creepy laugh, he had no lines, and this just added to the creep factor. On the flip-side of things though, his minions were very comedic in nature. The aforementioned killer gingerbread men are just one example. I won't go into detail on his other helpers for spoiler reasons, but some of them are very cheesy, and kinda kill the scary mood.

Now, the redeeming factors in this movie are the ending and the effects. The ending came as quite a surprise, and that is always a good thing. The other good thing was that the movie favored practical effects over CGI. Now I'm not saying that CGI is bad, in fact in recent years, it's gotten quite good, but old school practical effects will always hold a special place in my heart.

Krampus is above average: 6 stars

The final verdict? Krampus was a decent movie. Not the greatest, but definitely not the worst movie I've ever seen. I'd say it's worth at least a single watch. If nothing else, it makes for a different kind of holiday movie. I'd say if you can get tickets on the cheap, it's worth a theater trip, otherwise wait for the rental.

Have an idea for a review?

Let us know in the comments, or contact us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ or join the discussion in our new G+ Community!

And don't forget to subscribe!