An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic because we’re anything but professional critics.
Today we’re looking at the 2015 horror-comedy Krampus
A large family is stuck at home during a seemingly supernatural blizzard on Christmas and are visited by the mirror of Santa Claus, Krampus, a large demonic beast from Eastern European folklore.
Is it Scary?
Absolutely not but it’s extremely entertaining. Sure there are a few scenes of suspense but they don’t last long. The monster designs are amazing and are definitely something you don’t want to see in the dark in your own home. But you won’t be terrified of your attic or fireplace by the end of the film.
Detailed Plot:
The movie opens with several scenes of people going crazy running into a toy store for some presumably last-minute Christmas shopping. We see people stepping on other people, fighting for toys, being dragged out by security, some being stunned by a stun gun, and finally, crying kids taking pictures with a dead-eyed Santa. All of these scenes are playing to the song “It’s Beginning to look a lot like Christmas”.
We then see a husband and wife breaking up a fight between two kids at a nativity scene with their daughter recording the whole thing. These are our main characters.
We next open to a grandmother (Krista Stadler) making a bunch of cookies when the main characters walk in. Husband Tom (Adam Scott), wife Sarah (Toni Collette), teen daughter Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen), and son Max (Emjay Anthony).
We also, pretty quickly, learn the theme of this movie is the belief in and spirit of Christmas. We find out Max started the fight because the other kid was telling younger kids Santa isn’t real. Sarah says every kid has to learn the truth about Santa and Tom changes the kitchen TV from ‘A Christmas Carol’ to a news reporter talking about “the war on Christmas”.
Turns out the only people in the family who still want to keep the belief of Santa alive are the German-speaking grandmother; Omi, and Max. Omi then asks Max if he finished writing his letter to Santa to which he responds he doesn’t know what to ask for.
The two then discuss the spirit of Christmas as Omi says she truly does believe in Santa but that he is what you make of him, and that the spirit of the holiday involves giving and sacrifice. She then stares into the distance dropping her smile… which is not ominous at all…
We cut to Beth on a video call with her boyfriend and we find out the ‘perfect’ family has some cracks. They are also preparing for the extended family from Sarah’s side, to arrive. A loud engine roars from outside the window and it appears they have arrived. The family quickly makes a few final preparations such as Tom drinking alcohol, Max finishing his letter, and Sarah mentally preparing herself to be nice.
Turns out Sarah’s extended family is pretty rambunctious and not as posh as our main characters. We first meet Sarah’s sister, Linda (Allison Tolman), her loud gun-loving husband Howard (David Koechner), their soda-chugging quiet son Howie Jr (Maverick Flack), their Steeler fan daughters Stevie (Lolo Owen) and Jordan (Queenie Samuel), and finally their baby, Chrissie.
Then, in a clearly unwanted surprise, Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell) also walks in forcing Linda to ask Sarah not to be mad.
Oh and also Linda and Howard brought their bulldog, Rosie.
The family settles down for dinner during which many complaints are made about Sarah’s “fancy” cooking and decorations with Aunt Dorothy remarking, “it looks like Martha Steward threw up in here.”
Stevie and Jordan then make fun of Max for still believing in Santa and reveal they stole his letter. Before he can do anything the two girls start reading his letter and making fun of his wishes which include wishing his parents could fall in love again, he could hang out with Beth like they used to, and that Santa would help the struggling Linda and Howard.
The awkward silence is broken when Sarah returns with dessert but it breaks into anarchy as Max attacks the girls in an attempt to get his letter back. They easily overpower him but he is able to get the letter back and storms off yelling he just wanted a normal Christmas but, instead, he now hates everyone and Christmas.
Later Tom enters Max’s room and attempts to cheer him up telling him it’s only three days of dealing with the family. He also tells him family is about getting along with people you don’t have very much in common with. But he’s unable to answer when Max questions why they have to.
Tom does get through to Max a bit and then tells him there’s still time to mail the letter to Santa as he leaves the room. Max takes his torn letter, puts it in an envelope, and for a moment appears as if he’s gotten his Christmas spirit back but then this movie wouldn’t be a thing so this happens.
Max rips up the letter into a bunch of pieces and then tosses it out of the window. A storm then immediately rolls in with heavy winds and snow taking out the power in the neighborhood.
The following morning Max awakens and sees a creepy-looking snowman outside among the blizzard-like snowfall. He attempts to tell his mom about it but Sarah is more worried about what they’re going to do without heat, electricity, phones, and diminishing food.
A DHL delivery man arrives with packages and Linda and Howard accept them but also notice a large red sack full of gifts and bring it in.
Beth then comes down and asks to go check on her boyfriend, Derrick, who isn’t responding to messages and is a few houses down. Sarah reluctantly lets her go but for only an hour as Tom reassures her she’ll be fine.
She ends up not being fine when walking through the blizzard and darkness falls despite it being the morning. She then hears jingle bells and sees a large horned figure jump onto a roof nearby.
The figure growls and jumps across the street to another roof as Beth screams and runs. The figure gives chase running along the roofs with large thumps and monstrous growls. Beth comes across the DHL truck and attempts to enter but finds the driver dead and frozen solid.
She crawls under the truck as two large hooves land in front of the truck and walks around it looking for her. It leaves but also leaves behind a jack in the box that pops open to reveal some weird gremlin-looking thing that attacks Beth. We see an overview of the truck shaking and presumably, Beth dies.
Back at the house, it’s now after 7 pm and Max notices two creepy snowmen are outside. Tom reassures Sarah that Beth is fine despite her being gone for hours and having no cell service to contact her.
Max then comes downstairs and tells them, that Beth, isn’t back yet, and, for some reason, this makes them now worry despite not worrying two seconds earlier. Tom then asks Howard if his hummer could get through the snow and Howard reassures him his hummer, Lucinda, could reach “Normandy by sunrise”… because a simple yes didn’t suffice.
Howard then agrees to drive Tom to Derrick’s home to find Beth and find out just how bad it is outside. Before Tom leaves, Omi tries to warn him to stay inside but he refuses and tells her it will be fine. Max takes Omi’s trembling hand and watches them leave.
In Lucinda, Howard complains about global warming warnings while Tom realizes all the radio stations are down as well. The two come upon an abandoned snowplow with the keys still inside and a smashed windshield in the middle of the road. Tom realizes something smashed in and not out based on the glass of the windshield.
The two arrive at the abandoned Derrick’s house to search for Beth but not before Howard reveals he brought guns just in case.
Back at the house the rest of the family bond a bit before they start hearing sounds coming from within the ceiling. Sarah attributes it to squirrels but then a loud bang shocks them. The rest of the family reluctantly believes Sarah but Omi appears to know what is really going on as she looks ominously at the fireplace.
Back with Tom and Howard, the two enter Derrick’s house finding it in disarray. They find broken windows, destroyed furniture, the fireplace cracked and destroyed, and a gingerbread man impaled with a knife onto the fridge.
Howard believes the damage could have been caused by a gas line explosion but the two then find hoof tracks belonging to a really large animal at the base of the fireplace. The two hear Beth screaming and they rush outside.
Running through the mountains of snow, Howard is bitten by something and dragged down into the snow. Tom grabs the gun and shoots at whatever is under the snow causing it to let go of Howard. He then helps the injured Howard back to Lucinda, only to find it completely destroyed.
Back at the house Sarah prepares to go outside to find Tom and Howard but is stopped when they bust into the house. Not wanting to cause panic, Tom orders the kids into the kitchen and asks Omi and Dorothy to watch them. Before Omi leaves she warns Tom to keep the fire hot.
In the living room, while they tend to Howard’s wounded leg, Tom, Howard, Sarah, and Linda argue about what to do next. Sarah wants to go back outside but Howard tells her they would get frostbite and that there is something out there killing her neighbors.
Tom then checks their ammo supply and tells them their best bet is to stay inside and board up the windows and doors until the storm breaks.
Dorothy then appears with the children and reveals they heard the whole argument and are now worried they’re in danger.
A little while later the family has boarded up the window and are preparing to get some rest around the fire. Howard volunteers to keep watch and tells Tom to get some rest. We then cut to a sleeping Howard having fallen asleep while on duty.
With everyone asleep, we start hearing some chittering and clanking coming from the fireplace as a hook on a chain drops down. On the chain is also a gingerbread man and it appears to call out to the children.
Howie Jr. wakes up and, upon seeing the gingerbread man, decides to go for it. But after taking the first bite, the gingerbread man comes to life, wraps the chain around him, and starts to drag him up the fireplace.
The family wakes up and Sarah is the first to grab Howie Jr’s leg attempting to pull him back down but whatever is pulling him up is too strong. The rest of the family grab onto Sarah who is almost dragged up. In the struggle, Sarah accidentally kicks a log from the fireplace into the tree causing it to catch on fire.
She then sees the gingerbread man laughing at her in the fireplace and she reacts as any sane person would and flips the fuck out.
The family is almost able to pull Howie Jr back to safety but they lose their grip and he is pulled up the fireplace. We then hear his screams and the laughing of some other creatures as Howie Jr’s shoe drops down the chimney.
Max puts out the tree fire and Omi re-ignites the fireplace. As Howard blames himself for falling asleep, Omi corrects him; says it is all their fault and that he is coming for them all. She then tells them the story of her past from when she was a child.
In an animated flashback, Omi reveals, that as a child, her family and neighborhood had lost the meaning of Christmas. This caused her to lose it as well and wish for them all to disappear. That night an ancient spirit, the shadow of Santa Claus, Krampus, and his helpers came to punish those who lost their Christmas spirit and take them away.
Omi reveals Krampus took everyone in the neighborhood, leaving just her as a warning of what would happen should anyone else lose their Christmas spirit. As a further reminder, Krampus left her with a bell ornament with his name on it that Omi reveals to the group she still carries to this day.
Howard calls bullshit on her story and decides to go out alone to find his son. The rest of the family try to stop him but he pushes Tom out of the way and opens the door to find dozens of snowmen outside. As the laughter from something grows louder Sarah runs over and pushes Howard back inside slamming the door behind her.
Later, now past midnight and officially Christmas day, the family keeps the fire going as Tom tells Sarah, Howard, and Linda of a new plan involving the abandoned snowplow he and Howard saw near Derrick’s house.
Meanwhile upstairs in the attic, the gifts that were delivered earlier in the large red sack begin to shake on their own as it becomes clear some of Krampus’ friends are inside.
We then cut to Jordan and Stevie carefully making their way to the second-floor bathroom. Before they get there they hear Beth’s voice calling them to the attic. The two head upstairs and we then hear their screams which alert the rest of the family.
Linda, Sarah, and Tom head upstairs while Howard stays downstairs with the shotgun due to his injury. In the attic, the three don’t find any signs of the girls at first, until they see a jack in the box attached to a nightmare-inducing monster swallowing one of the girls whole.
Tom shoots at the jack-in-the-box worm-like creature as it scurries away. They chase after it but it appears to have disappeared and they then spot some other nightmare creature above them. A doll/owl/demon hybrid attacks Sarah, while a demonic stuffed bear attacks Linda, and a demonic robot toy attacks Tom.
While struggling with the bear, Linda spots an unconscious Stevie across the room and gets the strength to overpower the bear. She then grabs an icicle and stabs it through the eye. Grabbing an ax, she saves Sarah from the demon doll and slashes at the demonic robot attacking Tom.
Linda then goes after the jack-in-the-box but is unable to hit it with the ax before it crawls into a vent. Sarah then shoots the demonic robot as it tries to attack them again.
While all of this was happening Howard hears a sound coming from the kitchen and enters with his shotgun. He’s then attacked by a trio of gingerbread men armed with a nail gun.
Avoiding most of the nails, Howard crawls over to the corner of the kitchen and shoots the lantern on the table causing an explosion. This kills one of the gingerbread men and engulfs the other two in flames. The remaining two then rush at him but he is able to shoot one as Rosie the dog comes in and eats the remaining gingerbread man.
The families all reunite in the living room and realize the jack-in-the-box is trying to break out of the house through the vents but can’t as they boarded everything up. As Omi tends to Stevie, Linda tells Howard they have to save Jordan.
Max opens up one of the vents and sends in Rosie who is then heard chasing the jack-in-the-box through the vents until it crashes through the ceiling of the living room.
Before Howard can shoot it he is attacked by the demon-doll while Omi and Max spot the demon bear behind the couch. Aunt Dorothy grabs the shotgun, shooting and killing the bear. She then shoots the demon doll, killing it as well.
Aunt Dorothy is about to shoot the Jack-in-the-box but stops when the family hears a horn from outside and Omi announces the elves have arrived. The jack-in-the-box claps in excitement as the elves bust through the window and attack Aunt Dorothy.
The elves put out the fire, wrap the jack-in-the-box and Aunt Dorothy in chains, and launch them out of the window. Howard attempts to stop them by jumping onto the jack-in-the-box but he ends up being taken by the chains as well. We then see one of the elves grab baby Chrissie and hop out the window.
Another horn then sounds and the rest of the elves leave the house. Tom grabs all the ammo he could find and tells the family they need to head to the snowplow. Omi attempts to relight the fire but with the wind, she’s unable to. They are then interrupted by loud bangs on the roof signaling the arrival of Krampus.
They leave the house but Omi stays behind telling the family to “be good”, she then barricades the door and prepares to face Krampus alone.
Krampus arrives, breaking through the fireplace, and approaches Omi.
Krampus kills her instantly.
At least, at this point, I’m pretty sure she’s dead since Krampus opens his bag and she looks inside. UPDATE POST ENDING: Yea, she’s dead.
We then cut to the remaining family; Tom, Sarah, Max, Linda, and Stevie trekking through the blizzard attempting to reach the snowplow. The group stops when they hear something coming for them in the snow and Tom decides to stay behind and fight off whatever it is. After running out of bullets he’s dragged into the snow.
As the remaining group reaches the snowplow, Linda is next to be dragged down into the snow. Stevie and Max are able to get in as Sarah is attacked and dragged down. Max attempts to start the snowplow but it refuses to start. The elves then attack the two and Stevie is dragged out of the car.
Max fights off one of the elves with a wrench and jumps out to help Stevie but he is too late. Krampus then arrives and gives Max the torn-up letter that he threw out the window at the start of the movie. He also gives him a Krampus bell just as he gave Omi all those years ago.
We learn Krampus plans to leave Max alive to remember what happens when you lose the Christmas spirit. Krampus then disappears.
A little while later Max is walking through the snow and hears Stevie’s cries for help. Following them, he sees Krampus and his friends all around his sleigh preparing to leave. Max yells to them telling them he takes everything back and wants his family. He then throws the bell towards Krampus and it falls into the snow causing the ground below them to crack and open a pit to hell.
Max rushes up to Krampus and begs for his family back, offering to trade himself for his family. Krampus then laughs and signals his elves to drop Stevie into the pit. He then grabs Max and drops him into the pit as well.
Max then wakes up on Christmas morning with everything appearing to have been a nightmare. He joins the family to open presents and when he opens one of his gifts he finds the Krampus bell. Everyone then appears to hear the events of the movie playing out in their heads as they quietly sit in fear.
The camera pans out and it’s revealed they are trapped in a snow globe in Krampus’s workshop in hell.
What Happened in the End?
Like Omi as a child, Max lost his Christmas spirit and wished his family was gone when he tore up the letter. This apparently calls Krampus to the location to kill everyone and leave just the person who made the wish alive.
Max didn’t get to live like Omi because he went after Krampus wishing for his family back. Krampus isn’t a good guy so he tossed Max into hell to be with his family, granting his wish.
In the end, it appears the family is stuck in Hell and realizes their predicament when Max opens the gift to find Krampus’s bell.
Review:
Krampus has easily jumped to the top of my Christmas movie list and definitely, a film I would see when it’s not Christmas because it’s so entertaining. The characters feel like real people, there’s funny dialogue, the folklore around the monster makes sense (most likely because it was taken from real folklore), and the acting is well done.
The character actions make sense and mostly every character shines even the dog. All the monster designs were well done and since real puppets were used for them it adds to the “wtf” moments. The gingerbread men were the only characters that were clearly not puppets, at least while they moved, and it is noticeable but it doesn’t detract from the movie.
If you haven’t seen it, don’t avoid it just because we’re past the holiday season. Definitely watch it and then add it to your Christmas movie list. If you’re looking for a straight horror movie though, don’t reach for this one yet since there’s not a lot of horror.
Cast IMDB