Krampus [Movie Review]

Krampus
2015, Universal Pictures

Technically this is a Christmas movie, but it’s also a horror movie, so let’s talk about it October for Halloween, okay? Hey, it’s not like the line between Halloween and Christmas hasn’t been blended before by The Nightmare Before Christmas and retail chains such as Target, Walmart, K-Mart, Walgreens, et cetera.

I generally am not very interested in modern horror movies. I love classic horror and ’80s horror, but not much in modern times have I even tried. Mainstream hits like the Saw series, Paranormal Activity, The Conjuring, Insidious, Sinister, and the like have never looked appealing to me. Then on the other hand you have tons and tons of direct-to-video releases that just look awful. I’m very picky when it comes to watching horror movies.

So that’s why, despite my unabashed love for Christmas, I stayed away from Krampus until recently when I was watching some YouTube footage of the Krampus scare house that was being included at this year’s Halloween Nights at Universal Studios Theme Park. I was afraid the would either be too nasty or too awful. However, after coming across some more review lately where it was stated that this movie was more like a comedy-horror in the vein of Gremlins, I decided I needed to check this movie out.

Well, Krampus is no Gremlins. It doesn’t quite have the same amount of heart and humor as that all-time classic, but I can still see where the comparisons come from. One thing that definitely’s definitely different are the characters. For the most part, everyone is miserable and annoying. Look, I get it, we’re stereotyping relatives, but there’s really not many people here to root for or care about.

Having said that, Krampus feels a bit like a throwback and I meant that in a good way. There’s a lot of special effects here done without the help of CGI, and that’s much appreciated. I also enjoyed the opening moments of the film of the family at home. It almost begins to feel like a family Christmas movie with relatives popping in, the kitchen full of Christmas cookies, the house full of decorations, and the son lamenting over the family losing the spirit of Christmas.

I definitely liked the movie though and intend to buy it on Blu-ray and giving it another viewing sometime (probably next year). The only thing that I didn’t care for was the ending, which is somewhat of a twist, I think. Overall, yeah, fans of Gremlins will probably enjoy this one. I know I did.

With a budget of $10 million and a gross of $60 million plus, it’s a no-brainer that Universal is going ahead with a sequel. But don’t get this Krampus horror franchise confused with the two other Krampus franchises: Krampus: The Christmas Devil / Krampus: The Devil Returns and Krampus: The Reckoning / Krampus Unleashed !

Even more old Christmas movies: Beyond Tomorrow, It Happened on Fifth Avenue and The Bells of St. Mary’s

Beyond Tomorrow
1940, RKO Pictures
Buy it!

This movie had an interesting yet somewhat dark and complicated idea. Three lonely old men end up meeting a young man and then a young woman on Christmas Eve and they all spend the evening together and become friends. The young people fall in love, the older gentlemen die in plane crash (!!!) and then come back as ghosts to help keep the young couple together.

It’s trying to be a heart-warming tale but with the plane crash and then sending one of the ghostly men to hell later on and another being shut out of Heaven after refusing to leave until the couple gets back together… it’s just weird.

The actors and character are likable and there was potential here for a true sentimental Christmas classic, but it feels kind of slapped together and a bit dark at times. I love the film’s score though.

The movie is in the public domain, so you can find it cheap on DVD (and easily online for streaming) but 20th Century Fox released a colorized version in 2004 and retitled it Beyond Christmas. I wouldn’t mind watching the colorized version because the version I watched on DVD definitely needed some restoration work.

Six Holiday Classics That I’ve Only Recently Watched…

As much as I love Christmas, most of the holiday films I’ve seen have come from the 1980s or later. It’s only in the last year or so that I’ve discovered a number of great holiday films from many decades earlier. Some seem a bit forgotten and some certainly aren’t…

The Shop Around the Corner
1940, MGM Pictures

Buy the movie

Six years before It’s a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart co-starred in this holiday romantic-comedy. If you’ve ever seen You’ve Got Mail, well, that was a remake of this movie — two people who don’t get along in person end up corresponding with each other anonymously via letters and end up falling in love. The only difference is that this movie takes place during Christmastime in Budapest. It was also remade in 1946 as In the Good Old Summertime, which starred Judy Garland & Van Johnson.

Despite being inducted into the Library of Congress and being ranked by the American Film Institute as one of the top 100 romance movies of all-time, The Shop Around the Corner seems to take a backseat to many of Stewart’s better known films like It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Harvey, Vertigo, Rear Window and The Philadelphia Story.

I thought the final scene between Stewart and Sullavan was particularly great and touching. Definitely worth seeking out for anyone that’s a fan of holiday or romance movies.

Going My Way
1944, Paramount Pictures

Buy the movie

Though the movie doesn’t take place solely around the holidays, it is often lumped into the holiday movie category because one of the film’s final scenes takes place on Christmas Eve and also due to performances of “Silent Night, Holy Night” and “Ave Maria”. The movie was released in May of 1944 though so the studio obviously wasn’t thinking about this being a holiday movie when they released.

In one of Bing’s best roles, he plays the young and unconventional Father O’Malley, who has just been appointed to a new parish. Old ideas and new ideas collide between O’Malley and the parish’s other more conservative pastor, Father Fitzgibbon.

This film really racked up at the Academy Awards. It was nominated for 10 awards and won 7, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.

Ten Worst Christmas Movies?

So there’s a list that’s coming out tomorrow (I’ll post a link when it’s up) on Fandango that ranks the ten worst Christmas movies. The New York Times has posted the list itself.

1. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Yes. It’s really, really bad. Only worth watching when it’s the MST3K version. And even they couldn’t salvage it.

2. Silent Night, Deadly Night

Okay, I get that it’s not the Christmas-y feel good, heart-warming tale that people think when they think “Christmas movie” but it’s a fun B-level slasher. As a fan of cheesy ’80s horror, it’s enjoyable because it’s so over the top. You could’ve easily picked any of the sequels instead of this movie but I suppose they didn’t want to dig that deep. If they really wanted a bad Christmas horror movie, they should’ve gone with Christmas Evil.

3. Jingle All the Way

Not really surprised to see this one on the list. It was a bomb at the box office and got horrible reviews. I, too, thought it sucked when I first watched it. As I’ve grown older, it’s become a guilty pleasure but it is by no means essential holiday viewing.

4. Jack Frost

I’m assuming they are talking about the 1996 horror movie (which is bad but didn’t keep me from renting Jack Frost 2: The Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman) and not the 1998 dramedy staring Michael Keaton (which I’ve never seen).

5. Santa With Muscles

A 1996 Christmas comedy starring Hulk Hogan. One critic stated it was directed “with all the enthusiasm of someone going through the motions to pay off a debt.” Ouch. Deservedly makes this list.

6. Ernest Saves Christmas

There are only three Ernest movies worth watching: Ernest Goes to Camp (which is the best), Ernest Scared Stiff and Ernest Saves Christmas. When I was a kid, Ernest Saves Christmas was right up there with Christmas Vacation as something my family would watch every holiday season. I haven’t seen the movie in over 15 years though so maybe it really does suck.

7. Home Alone 3

It’s really amazing how bad and lazy this franchise got. Home Alone is an undisputed classic.  Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was a complete cut & paste job but at least it changed the location. Home Alone 3 is horrible. All new characters, same movie. It’s even more of a ripoff of the first movie than Home Alone 2 is. Just inexcusable and it’s really sad that this is the best John Hughes was able to come up with. All of the actors are terrible, especially the kid who doesn’t have an ounce of charm that Culkin did. You just wanna punch him in the face. I don’t even wanna bother with the made-for-TV movie Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House.

8. Deck the Halls

Okay, I can agree with this one. I was actually looking forward to this movie a lot. It looked like it was going to be a fun Christmas comedy full of yuletide hi-jinks. I remember the mall having these huge banners hanging from the ceiling around the holiday season and thinking “wow, this is going to be good!” This is the only movie I’ve ever sat through where I almost fell asleep in the theater. A bunch of stuff happens and none of it is funny.

9. Surviving Christmas

Yeah. Didn’t really work for me either.

10. Christmas With the Kranks

Now, I have a major bone to pick with them over this one. This movie has become a modern classic in my eyes. I saw it in the theaters. I liked it then and I’ve seen it every holiday season since and still like it.

Essential Christmas Movies

I don’t know what I’ve been doing this month, but I haven’t been watching as many Christmas movies as I should! Here’s the movies that really complete me during the holiday season. It just doesn’t seem like Christmas unless I’ve watched these movies in December! What’s essential movie viewing for you to get into the spirit?

Home Alone – The first and only Home Alone movie worth watching. The sequels were complete ripoffs of this movie, but can you blame them for trying to emulate a classic? I remember being super-excited to check this one out in the theaters. Of course, my parents were super-thrifty though, so despite this movie being released in November 1990, it wasn’t until January 1991 that I actually got to see it. You see, that’s when the discount theater finally got it in (after teasing me all throughout December with a “coming soon” cardboard display). Man, I miss being a kid and having simple things like movie posters get me all worked up.

The Santa Clause – Thus begins Tim Allen’s career as a star of Christmas movies. I knew this was a modern Christmas classic as soon as I was finished watching it. Luckily, even if I don’t get around to playing the DVD I own, this one usually pops up on TV a few times every December.

The Santa Clause 2 – If I’m remember correctly, this movie got poor reviews, but I don’t care. I don’t think any live-action movie has ever fully captured the wonder of the North Pole like this movie has. It’s quite a departure from the original (which was much more grounded in the “real world”) and it’s a basically a movie for kids, but I still love it. For the record, I like the third movie as well, but it’s definitely not “essential”.

Elf – I wasn’t sure how I felt about this movie when I first saw it but I think my mixed emotions had more to do with not being able to stand Will Ferrell more than not liking the movie. See? Even a Will Ferrell project can be saved when Christmas is involved! This movie has quickly become a classic not only with me but with tons of people and for good reason — everybody loves a “fish out of water” tale especially when there’s a holiday twist to it.

Christmas with the Kranks – The third of the four (so far) Christmas movies Tim Allen has starred in. I was really surprised he would do a Christmas movie that’s not part of the Santa Clause franchise. I guess he doesn’t care about typecasting. I think this came out Thanksgiving Day or something like that and I liked it a lot. I don’t think anyone else in my family did (or anyone else in the world, apparently) but I enjoy it. Most people hate it, not sure why. If you want a truly bad Christmas movie, go watch Deck the Halls starring Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick. With a cast like that, you’d think it would’ve been direct-to-video or direct-to-cable. I actually fell asleep during that movie, the only time I’ve ever fallen asleep in a theater. Christmas with the Kranks is not “hilarious” as the DVD cover says it is, but I think it’s an amusing take on trying to fight off Christmas and the annoying neighborhood that insists on having a Frosty on the roof.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – An undisputed classic, this is probably one of the most popular holiday films of all-time and Chevy’s most popular movie as well. It’s easily the best of the Vacation series though I’m not sure if it is Chevy’s best movie (Fletch is a strong contender). I tried showing this to my fiancee one year and she got bored and fell asleep. Some people don’t appreciate good cinema!