Krampus (film)

Plot

Three days before Christmas, the dysfunctional Engel family come together for the holidays. Max remains a firm believer in Santa Claus and intends on sending a letter to him. Amongst his family are his parents Tom and Sarah; his teenage sister Beth; his aunt and uncle Linda and Howard; their children Howie Jr., Stevie, Jordan and baby Chrissie; Sarah and Linda’s cantankerous aunt Dorothy; and Tom’s mother Omi, who speaks mostly in German.

Max wants to continue family traditions but tension between his relatives leads to them losing their Christmas spirit. When his cousins read out his letter to Santa and mock him for it, he tears up the letter and throws it out the window. That night, a severe blizzard engulfs the town and causes a power outage. Beth ventures out to check on her boyfriend, but is chased by a large horned creature. She hides beneath a delivery truck, but the creature leaves a jack-in-the-box which kills her.

Tom and Howard leave to search for Beth, finding her boyfriend's house in ruins with the chimney split open and large goat-like hoof prints in the house. Outside, the two are attacked by an unseen monster under the snow. They return home and board up the windows. Later, a large hook with a living gingerbread man attached lures Howie, Jr. to the chimney, and he is dragged up the chimney despite the family's efforts to save him.

Omi explains the creature hunting them is Krampus, an ancient demonic spirit who punishes those who have lost the Christmas spirit. In an animated flashback, Omi relates that when she was a child, her parents and community lost their spirit, as did she, summoning Krampus. He dragged everyone except her to the Underworld, leaving behind a bell bauble with his name on it. The family remain skeptical until monstrous toys, hidden in presents delivered earlier, invade the house. Stevie and Jordan are lured to the attic by Beth’s voice, where Jordan is devoured by Der Klown, the jack-in-the-box from before. The family fend off the toys, only for Krampus’ elves to leap in through a window, taking Dorothy, Howard, and Chrissie.

Tom decides the family should flee for Howard's snow plough. Omi sacrifices herself to distract Krampus, who emerges from the fireplace, attacking her with his bag of toys. Outside, Tom, Sarah, and Linda are dragged under the snow while Stevie is captured by the elves. Krampus confronts Max, giving him a bauble wrapped in a piece of his discarded letter before holding him over a hellish pit. A willing Max honestly apologises for losing his spirit, admitting that he only wanted a decent Christmas with his family. While Krampus seems to accept his apology, he tosses Max into the Underworld nonetheless.

Max awakens in his house on Christmas morning, discovering his family alive and well downstairs, believing that what happened was just a nightmare. But then he unwraps a present containing Krampus’ bauble, and the family collectively remember the previous night. Their house is shown being observed through a snow globe in Krampus' workshop, alongside countless others. Max technically gets his wish, and his family is forced to have a decent Christmas forever.

Voices

Production

Dougherty had "always wanted to do a scary Christmas movie", but the idea did not take form until his friends sent him an e-card featuring the Krampus creature which was, according to him "just love at first sight." Although this, according to Dougherty, happened in"the ancient times of the internet" the project would not be fleshed out until 2011, at which point he would team up with Zach Shields and Todd Casey to figure out the story. On November 21, 2014, Allison Tolman and Emjay Anthony joined the cast. On March 3, 2015, Adam Scott, David Koechner, and Toni Collette joined the cast. Principal photography began on March 12, 2015. Creature effects were made by Weta Workshop.

Release

The film was originally scheduled a release date for November 25, 2015, but was moved to December 4, 2015.

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 26, 2016, and was internationally released on the same format in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2016, the near-anniversary of the film's original release (December 4, 2016 was a Sunday).

Merchandise

An original graphic novel titled Krampus: Shadow of Saint Nicholas was released on November 25, 2015 by Legendary Entertainment. The comic is written by Brandon Seifert and features stories by writer/director Michael Dougherty and movie co-writers Zach Shields and Todd Casey. Art is provided by Fiona Staples, Michael Montenat, Stuart Sayger, Maan House and Christian DiBari.

Weta Workshop released a number of collectables through their online store, including statues (Krampus, The Cherub, The Dark Elf), a life-sized prop reproduction of the Krampus Bell and a collectable pin.

Trick or Treat Studios released three Halloween Masks directly out of the screen used masters. The masks include Krampus and two elves, Window Pepper and Sheep Cote Clod.

Box office

Krampus grossed $42.7 million in the United States and Canada and $18.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $61.5 million, against a budget of $15 million.

In North America, Krampus earned $637,000 from its Thursday night showings, which began at 7 p.m., and topped the box office on its opening day with $6 million. It rose 9.9% on Saturday over Friday, a rare occurrence for a horror film. It went on to earn $16.3 million through its opening weekend from 2,902 theaters, which was above expectations and finished in second place at the box office, ahead of The Good Dinosaur, but behind The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 ($18.6 million), which was on its third weekend. Scott Mendelson of Forbes felt the successful opening was attributed to the horror genre which was something of a new, unique and genuinely different offering at that time (the last time a Christmas-themed horror film opened was in 2006 with Black Christmas). However, he also stated that had Universal not embargoed the reviews two days prior to its release, a wave of mostly positive reviews dropping a few days before release would have boosted its opening accordingly.

Critical response

Krampus received mixed to positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 65%, based on 97 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Krampus is gory good fun for fans of non-traditional holiday horror with a fondness for Joe Dante's B-movie classics, even if it doesn't have quite the savage bite its concept calls for". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 49 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed to average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.