I was excited when I first heard about this movie. We don't get many Christmas horror movies, so i immediately wanted to see it. I have fond memories of watching the Black Christmas remake in theaters on Christmas day. It wasn't a great movie or anything, but it was a fun way for a horror fan to spend the holidays. Of course, a lot of people gave this movie terrible reviews, but I was still hopeful. My cousins are pretty big horror fans too, and they liked this movie, so I was still rooting for it to be good. Here goes nothing.
This movie is about a big exirnded family who have to spend the holidays together (whether they like it or not). The youngest son of the family is a big believer in the whole spirit of Christmas, including Santa Claus, but the stress of the holidays and everyone else's lack of belief cause him to lose his Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, the evil Christmas demon Krampus is dispatched to punish bad kids who don't believe in Christmas, so the family soon has bigger things to worry about than just trying to get along for a few days.
I've never been a huge fan of Christmas. I love the pretty lights and decorations, and the idea behind Christmas and the spirit of the holiday is great, but to be honest, people can be huge assholes, especially when you work in retail and even when you go to church with a bunch of people that seem to think Jesus wants you to treat everyone like garbage, and enough of these things have marred the Christmas spirit for me so it's more of a painful chore than a joyous celebration. Add to that the horrible memories and bad things that have happened to me around Christmas, and Christmas is often difficult for me. Hence my tendency to enjoy horrifying movies focused on this time of year. They help me better handle the real-life horror, you know?
This movie is rated PG-13, which doesn't always bode well for the quality of a horror flick, but there's more to horror than just blood and gore, and this movie has a creeping sense of dread that worked for me. Plus seeing the whole town enveloped in a whiteout of swirling snow is creepy too. Once the power goes out and everything is left in icy darkness, the movie gets even scarier. At least the family comes closer together and tries to fight the evil, even before they know what they're fighting.
I really like the origin story of Krampus, told by the grandmother and depicted with animation instead of live action. It looks more like a memory from a child that way. Plus I can relate to it's feeling of desolation. As much as I dread Christmas, I still get hints of the Christmas spirit, when I see pretty lights or decorations or kids being happy and hopeful. It's not that I forget all the bad things, I just also see the good, and I wish other people would remember the good things too, and try to work to make things different. Let's just say that a demon that comes to wipe out all the people who don't try to keep the Christmas spirit alive, I can relate, dude. Plus even without the gore the idea is creepy enough and it's presented in such a way, with most everything in darkness and demons cackling evilly in the background, that it manages to be scary without needing gore. I guess a lot of people didn't like this movie, but I dug it, and I'm glad I watched it.
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