Horror comedies haven't always been my favourite mix of genres. The idea is a real juxtaposition and puts me off being truly horrified or dulls down the comedy in non-comedic circumstances. Since I have heard of Krampus before and have seen a few great horror comedies like Shaun of the Dead I'll put my preconceptions about the movie to one side. After watching the movie I feel like it should have been full horror and leave out the pathetic and forced attempts of comedy via awful characters or crude slapstick. Krampus is met through an oddly placed cartoon which felt a little more Disney and a little less Tim Burton that I think it should have done. Throughout the rest of the movie however, his ever looming presence was a great source of terror and really created most of the horror in the movie. Unfortunately, we see much more of his "minions" than him, which may not be so bad but the minions are actually 3 gingerbread men, an owl with a doll's head (yeah, it does sound cool, doesn't it?), a very useless teddy bear, a large jack- in-the-box and some Oompa-Loompas in tiki masks with Greek letters sharpie-d onto their heads. Krampus may have been worth the wait if he hadn't ended up being a bloke in a latex mask with a blanket over his head who's had a little too much Christmas pudding. Perhaps if he had been gifted with a little more mystery and special effects, just to keep him scary, he may have made me consider this a worthwhile wait instead of making me not care about the characters who got eaten. Also, there are a few inconsistencies and plot holes with this movie. No rhyme or reason has been given as to why any character is sacrificed or taken before the others; they aren't particularly naughty within the 30s between their mates getting captured so I'm not sure as to why Krampus holds off. The sweet old grandma notices the house is shaking and everyone is slowly disappearing but fails to mention that she knows exactly what's happening until a couple minor characters are dead. But above all else, the most frustrating, horrid and awful thing that this movie does is in its ending. The infamous "It was all a dream" ending where everything goes balls up and the writers can't undo the dead-end ending they have created so instead erase everything and say that nothing matters, except for some stupid paradoxical memento makes a character stop and look at the camera and ask themselves "was it all a dream?". I sure hope this terrible movie does not have a sequel but I am hoping for a remake with actual horror, more Krampus and some plot consistency.
Review of Krampus
