I went to Folkestone's Silver Screen cinema last night with two friends to see the newly released Krampus film directed by Michael Dougherty of 'Trick 'r Treat' fame. On the basis of his excellent 'Trick 'r Treat' Halloween anthology film, I was expecting great things of this movie and with the exception of the forthcoming 'Phantasm V: Ravager' this has been my most anticipated movie of the past two years. So what was it like...
Well, I'm glad I went. The film compared to most modern horror films was a cut above the rest. It was also great to support the local independent cinema too, especially as the ticket price was less than half of the nearest Cineworld, and you don't have to sit through 20 minutes of annoyingly irrelevant adverts before the film even starts! The screening was sadly poorly attended, so please go and support the film whilst it is still on. Whereas an almost empty cinema is great for being able to enjoy the feature without constant chatter from fellow cinema-goers - I did suffer from a man on my left whose stentorian breathing was probably a result of his prior cigarette smoking and he did have a habit of outwardly vocalising his surprise at moments during the film with "Noooo"s, and "Ohhhhh"s, a habit perhaps more suited to an under-10 that someone in their 40s!
As for the film, it is by no means perfect and a bit of a mish-mash of ideas, some of which work well but there is a lull in the middle where the film drags a bit. As for the Krampus creature - it is a well designed and executed creature - just a shame we didn't see a bit more of it.
I know it has become trendy to bleed the colour from a lot of movies and have an almost monochrome effect and keep the lighting overly dark. I know this can be to cover up dodgy CGI and to try to squeeze the most from any 'jumps', but this film didn't need it. The effects were in fact very good, the costumes and masks were excellent, and the dismal lighting just meant you were squinting to try to make out what was happening. Oh, if only the director had the confidence to light their film and appreciate their own talent. Audiences can find well lit sequences even more scary (c.f the dog attacking the blind man in the city square in 'Suspira' - a night scene that's still well lit; or 'Silent Hill' which is mostly monochrome in it's overall tone, yet benefits more from a lighter palette).
The start of the film with it's cynicism about Christmas shopping and the inevitable family squabbles at Christmas time set up a darkly comic feel to the movie and one hoped this would be prevalent throughout, but the tone sadly lost most of this black humour after the Krampus arrived.
In traditional folklore the Krampus accompanies St. Nick and punishes the naughty children, whilst St. Nick rewards the good. So I felt the plot took a bit of a sidestep when, after the main character, the boy Max inadvertently summons the Krampus by tearing up his letter to Santa and losing his belief; the Krampus comes not to punish Max but is seemingly ambivalent in who it chooses to punish. Whether you can say that in ultimately killing off all Max's family members, that is its way of punishing Max... perhaps? But it seems that the 'innocent' were dispatched with the same aplomb as the 'guilty' - unusual for the horror genre that tends towards having a wry sense of humour in punishing victims on grounds of morality (c.f. the speech in 'Scream').
So after a lull in proceedings for the middle third of the film, the action at the end comes at a fast pace. Almost too fast, as intensely rapid cuts ensure we see little of the excellent artistic design that's gone into the film.
Still not too much is seen of the Krampus for my liking, and there is a reliance of the Krampus having helpers - elves and the like. The elves have great masks, but the other demonic toys and gingerbread men, although well designed, seem to have borrowed from other movies so it felt a bit like a cross between 'Critters' and 'Shrek' at some points. Although it must be said that the demonic angel toy was great in the few glimpses we saw of it, as was the teddy bear. Please - less rapid cuts in future! Dwell on the image - it's scarier! We don't all suffer from 'movie ADHD'!
A couple of potential good places to end the film were dragged out to trick us into thinking the film has a sad, then happy, then sad ending seems to be the norm these days; so by this time I had started to expect that the director would go down the same 'paint-by-numbers' route, and he did.
Overall, a film that slightly outstayed it's welcome, promising much and not showing enough for my liking. It didn't live up to my expectations but was still worth a trip to the cinema, and I will possibly buy it on DVD/BluRay when it finds its way into a bargain bin sometime.
For a better Christmas horror movie, try the Dutch movie 'Sint' (a.k.a. 'Saint') or possibly the Finnish movie 'Rare Exports'.
