AVClub: Neither particularly frightening nor especially funny, the Yuletide horror-comedy Krampus scrapes by on the novelty of its setup, in which an antagonistic Christmas movie of the Family Stone variety is hijacked by beasties straight out of a Full Moon entertainment. That might sound like foolproof fun, but the film has only one really good moment of anarchic nastiness: two preteen legs, jutting from the toothy maw of some elongated, oversized clown doll—a jack out of its box, gulping down children. Otherwise, this holiday-season fright flick never leaps far enough outside of its own box; the movie flirts with going full-on monster mash, with really cutting loose, but the mayhem is too little, too late.
A boy who has a bad Christmas accidentally summons a festive demon to his family home.
Just in case you're sick of those tearjerking ads from big brands, here are the best Christmas horror movies to watch.
We Got This Covered
The true butt of the jokes in Krampus is not Christmas, but those who have made Christmas into a holiday of fighting in shopping malls, rampant consumption, and family feuds, all the while ignoring the “spirit” of Christmas – here as dangerous and potentially destructive as it is joyful. As with Dougherty’s inspired Trick ‘R Treat, the holiday has come for revenge on those who disrespect it, and it does so with humor and horror in equal measure.
