So KRAMPUS was an odd movie. It was directed by Michael Dougherty, the same fellow who made TRICK ‘R TREAT, which I only saw a couple of months ago for the first time. It was weird, funny, had some genuinely entertaining plot twists, and overall was quite good, so my hope was that KRAMPUS would be in a similar vein. Going in, the PG-13 rating put me off a little, since clearly horror movies should always by rated R, as God intended. The plot was a little bit CHRISTMAS VACATION, with a dash of HOME ALONE and GREMLINS thrown in, and of didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Around the end of the first act, which was mostly establishing “this extended family is so nutty and dysfunctional!,” the tone made a sharp one-eighty when the family began getting picked off one-by-one. On the positive side, the casting was spot-on, and the monsters, which were creepy takes on traditional Christmas tropes, looked great. The movie also had a lot of funny scenes, which shouldn’t have surprised me because TRICK ‘R TREAT also did. The ending, though, felt forced, made no sense, and can eat a dick.
KRAMPUS wasn’t bad by any means, and had several clever moments, but it felt like the filmmakers weren’t sure who their target audience was or what tone to strike, and as a result the film suffered for it. In the end, though, I’m not mad I saw it.
After the movie: dinner at Salar, a somewhat swank Peruvian restaurant, followed by a drink at Century bar, and then back to my place to get a little drunk and watch GINGER SNAPS, another horror classic.
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