Film review: Krampus
The most wonderful time of the year tends to yield some of the most sentimental films of the year, but this year, one Hollywood film has decided to eschew the joy and focus on the horror of the Christmas season. No, this is not a story about getting lost inside a shopping mall over the weekend before Christmas but rather a tale about the terrible things that can happen when Santa is not around. In the end, however, it all comes down to the same old Christmas message, albeit turned upside-down in a shocking final twist: Christmas is magic, and if you lose faith in its goodness, things go will south very quickly.
Named after the goat-like creature that accompanies St. Nicholas and punishes those children who have misbehaved during the year, Krampus is set in a snowy suburbia, where one family is preparing for the best and the worst time of the year: the Christmas holidays with their extended family.
As so many other Christmas and holiday films from years past (and future), the message of this incarnation is that, no matter what our family does or how we feel about them, Christmas should be a joyful time when we forget our differences and get along — even if the family members who pitch up at the dinner table are uncouth, gun-loving Republicans, as is the case here.
To read the full review, please visit The Prague Post.
(Still of Emjay Anthony in Krampus. Photo by Steve Unwin – © Universal Pictures.)
