Krampus

The idea of a movie built around the German anti-Santa (of course, the Germans) has so much potential. It could be straight horror, with a monstrous Teutonic demon haunting the naughty and mowing them down one by one. It could be a horror comedy, embracing the absurdity of the situation. It could go for a campy monster movie. There are possibilities here. Krampus goes for all of it, and because of that, struggles every step of the way. It’s not bad per se, but it is so muddled and confused about its own purpose, it never fully realizes any of its ambitions. One moment, it’s a winter siege movie with a beastly Santa monster and his Clive Barker-meets-Carnivale minions. Then there’s haunted Jack in the box Jabba The Hutt creatures and living, homicidal gingerbread cookies. Toni Collette is far too serious in the lighter moments and Adam Scott is far too flippant in the serious moments. And it is a bloodless movie. Completely and utterly bloodless. I don’t need it raining blood like the modern Evil Dead movies, but if there’s gonna be an ancient monster who punishes the naughty, I need to see the punishment. Watching half a dozen people get sucked into the snow is not as scary as the movie thinks it is. And then there’s the confusing ending that needs a tie-in prequel novel to explain. It’s a shame, because there is some good stuff here. The monster design is awesome, and there’s not enough horror movies set in the winter. And while the tone is a jumbled mess, the pacing is great. It has non-stop energy. I didn’t regret watching this, but I do wish it could’ve picked a lane and stuck with it. It’s a solid premise, but not fully realized.