I’m grossly aware that only a few days (7) remain until xmas. I took my first born to see Krampus today as a little treat for the holidays. He’s in that age where scary movies are definitely intriguing. He’s also the first born, which means he’d just as readily consume the Good Dinosaur. On this occasion we chose Krampus. We dipped into that realm of maturity , turning pg-13 into ok-11 and hoping to grab some cheap thrills with minimal emotional damage. It turned out to be a bad booking. Krampus wasn’t damaging or scary at all. In reality, it was very stupid and made me question the rating system altogether.
I know the rating came from the mature language native to the film. The language was situational and, at times, unnecessary–something that would hit the Mormon sensors as R-level content but falls well short of that in every way save for language. The plot follows the classic revenge-horror tale. The Krampus is a revnant/poltergeist sent to carry out the ill will of an aggrieved party. The party in question is definitely aggrieved and the family situations in the film clearly suck, but so does the wow factor and so does the fear factor. I honestly expected a handful of jump scares but there was none of that. Once I realized that wasn’t happening I settled into the hope of a psychological horror. Nope. None of that either. In truth the whole thing came down to costuming and badly staged anticipation.
I don’t recommend this movie at all. A Christmas Story was more terrifying (especially after having drank out of one of those lamp legs… frightening). The acting was subpar and the effect work was limited. The gingerbread stuff presented moments of joy, but beyond that there isn’t much redeemable about the film. If I hadn’t had the chance to enjoy it with my son (a moment in time) I would be asking for a full refund.
Some Thoughts:
- No, I’m not going to talk about Star Wars yet.