Our next festive fear-fest goes to town on the Christmas-themed frights and has plenty of wicked imagination to spare. It’s 2015’s Krampus from director, screenwriter, producer, and animator Michael Dougherty, the first big budget film to focus on the titular mythic creature, a sort of creepy, horned anti-Santa from Austro-Bavarian folklore who makes it his business to punish children (and some narky adults) who have misbehave at Christmastime.
It’s another relatively starry cast, with Adam Scott as Tom and Toni Collette as Sarah, the patriarch and matriarch of a typical dysfunctional American family who receive a terrifying visit from demonic forces, when son Max (Emjay Anthony), tired of the clan’s un-festive bickering, loses faith in Christmas.
It's a batshit crazy film with loads of fun ideas and creative, tongue-in-cheek scares. This seems like a moderately apt film to watch today, which is my daughter Amelia’s fourth birthday. A bit like this film, Amy is a little nutty, fiercely imaginative, unpredictable but also mega-fun.
Overnight, Spring seems to have sprung and the world feels a little more hopeful, shiny and bright. It does feel weird to be trimming the grass, hunting the patio furniture out of the shed and hiring a bouncy castle the same morning that I watch a Christmas film. At the same time, though, this is an amusing story of family coming together and trying to get along for the sake of the kids, which does seem perfectly befitting of the day, as we await the tiny handful of guests that current restrictions allow. It’s exciting but stressful, just like Christmas, really.
Max and his family are feeling the same way as they welcome Sarah’s sister Linda (Allison Tolman) and her family, who happen to be clichéd all-American Republican gun-nuts. There’s the usual issues, with Sarah looking down on her sister as “trailer-trash”, while Linda resents her for being better off. Meanwhile, Linda’s redneck husband Howard (a perfectly cast David Koechner) mocks Tom for being a liberal wimp. So, there’s already plenty of tension even before a mysterious snowstorm blows in and things start to get seriously weird, the story morphing from satirical family comedy into a dark, twisted, fairytale.
Suddenly the family is split up and under assault on all sides by all manner of creepy Christmassy ghouls. Dougherty gets to showcase his skills from his background as an animator, with hordes of demonic gingerbread men, a devilish jack-in-the-box, evil elves, monstrous toys and even possessed Christmas decorations all being unleashed to turn the family’s holiday into a nightmare. And that’s before the hulking, depraved goat-dude himself shows up, leaping across rooftops with his manky hooves, ready to pass judgement on them all.
I particularly enjoy the visuals for the film's menacing evil snowmen, startling creatures who can move around underneath the snow, sort of like a wintery, snowbound Tremors.
There are lots of cool, impressive animated and practical effects, bringing a real dark, moody feel to the whole thing and turning the cutesie wholesomeness of the season completely on its head. The film also doesn’t forget to balance out the horror with some genuine festive cheese – there are plenty ugly Christmas sweaters, as well as advent calendars and gingerbread houses that all play clever parts in the plot. This feels like a proper ‘Christmas Horror’ that gets the equilibrium between festive spirit and chills pretty much bang on, while not forgetting to bring the laughs too.
The film also reminds us that western civilisation has perhaps lost its way with regards to real holiday values. The garish jumpers and decorations are reminders that for a long time we’ve been following ‘made-up’ traditions, succumbing to a capitalist bastardisation of Christmas that’s more about spending money and which turns people against each other. This is beautifully realised in the film’s slo-mo opening sequence, portraying a bunch of rabid ‘Black Friday’ shoppers beating the hell out of each other for some discounted tat.
Dougherty’s film shows us families going through the motions, inviting relatives over and generally just tolerating them as a sort of box-ticking exercise, rather than showing any real affection or effort. Of course, the fearsome Krampus then blows in, a terrifying agent for change who will royally shake things up with a dose of terror, forcing them to work together and realise what’s really important…if they can survive the night.
I enjoy that these once at-odds with each other relatives start to respect each other more as they pool resources to survive, though their reactions to a lot of the wild stuff that happens doesn’t always ring true. I’d have expected them to freak out a whole lot more at the sight of a child suddenly being snatched by a monstrous cookie-man who’s just burst from the chimney. But I can mostly let the film, with its heightened, spooky sense of reality, away with it.
This one is so jam-packed with cool ideas it never gets the chance to become boring. It can also serve as a guilty pleasure, indulging the dark, homicidal fantasies of anyone who’s had irritating Christmas visitors who overstay their welcome.
Luckily, we have no such problems in our house today. We’re genuinely happy to see everyone who comes for the party and it feels like a jolly triumph, rather than just a box-ticking exercise. Even the weather is on our side and, as the sun peeps out from behind the clouds, there’s a wee bit of hope that there are even happier times to come. Weirdly, spending a little bit of my daughter’s special day watching a movie about a demonic killer goat man has made me feel that bit more grateful for the wonderful family I’ve got. Thanks, Krampus, you freaky old bastard, you.
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