Krampus
I gotta say, I didn't expect to like this movie nearly as much as I did. I put it on to keep myself entertained while I did mindless/repetitive video game stuff, figuring maybe since it's only January it's still a little bit relevant, but I found myself wishing I'd forced my family to watch it with me on Christmas.
It's hard to get a comedy horror film right, especially if it doesn't have a jaded, satirical bent, but Krampus really knew when to be chilling (geddit?) and when to be silly, never taking itself seriously at the wrong moments but also pivoting back to gruesomeness just as you let your guard down. I gotta say, it was actually really interesting to see Christmas decorations come to life as monsters; you'd think it'd be too corny to be anything but laughable, but for those of us who celebrate that holiday, it's a perversion of what we know as a time of comfort and good cheer. Unless your family really sucks, in which case I can't imagine you'd want to watch this movie and make it even worse.
What really made it land, I think, is that it wasn't just Christmas decor coming to life and eating people- maybe I'm too picky or something, but I feel like that'd be sorta... nothing. Instead of taking the easy way out and just going "haha, whoa, your Christmas decorations are actually evil and come to life and kill you", this movie sticks the landing by only using that as a base and adding to the design as you would any other monster. Maybe I'm being too dramatic in my praise, but seriously, the image of the kid's shoes in the maw of that jack-in-the-box makes an impression.
The ending, in addition, is a lovely bait-and-switch that can be fun to see in horror- yeah, nobody died, but what's this? Oh, a reminder of the most insanely traumatizing day of your life? Have fun with that for the rest of forever!
I will say that the main child actor's acting leans a little too blunt-affect for my taste, but that might just be my personal taste or, I suppose, his personal trauma response, but maybe- just maybe- it could be the fact that he's a kid. If it were an adult, it'd stand out more to me, but really, for his limited time in the showbiz, the kid's pretty good. I have to have a little bit of criticism somewhere in here. The plot isn't really anything special, either; the quality is in the presentation. If you really, really care about unique plots or stellar child actors, don't watch it, I guess? But otherwise, I don't have any particular gripes.
Anyway, I'm sort of embarrassed about how much I liked this, but gimme a break, okay? Sometimes a guy's gotta watch something low-brow. Genuinely, though, if you don't think you like Christmas horror or comedy horror or whatever, give Krampus a try- even if it doesn't totally change your mind, hey, it's only 97 minutes of your life.
Final rating: ★★★★☆
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