When the family arrive for Christmas and everything is becoming stressful for young Max, he accidentally summons a festive demon known as Krampus!
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The opening half an hour of this film is probably the most realistic I have ever seen family Christmas portrayed on screen. That's right the dread of having to see certain members of your family and spend a day or two with them. The hatred towards one another and making you wonder just why everyone agrees to this. Everything we usually see within films around Christmas are happy and over the top. Krampus decides to flip that around and the opening scene probably sums up how a lot of people really feel about Christmas.
Max is ridiculed by his cousins as they find his Christmas letter to Santa. Which was not actually asking for any gifts but for the family to actually be nicer to one another. When the teasing occurs this makes him very angry and sets in motion the demon arriving. I wasn't fully sure what to expect with that side of the film but they managed to take standard Christmas items or objects and turn them fully evil. The sadistic gingerbread men were a standout in that sense.
The moral of the story and the many demons sent for the family? Just treat each other better and be more of a unit that competing and battling all the time. It certainly managed to raise a lot more than I ever expected. I will admit that my prior knowledge on the plot of this film was very limited. Which meant I ended up pleasantly surprised by some scenes and how it was actually funnier than I thought it would be. I actually expected it to be more horror based but they well and truly went for a balanced approach across many different genres.
The ending was surprisingly satisfying as well as being thought provoking enough. Thinking of the full circle from that opening scene which is certainly something that I will more than give the film credit for, never really expected it to be a film that I would even enjoy a little bit so happy to report that it was better than it sounds. Also as a side note the animated scene was a nice little touch as well!
The mixture of the different performances were decent as well. With Emjay Anthony standing out as Max, a very good performance from the young actor to help drive different scenes within the film. Adam Scott and Toni Collette worked very well together. Krista Stadler as Omi was probably creepier than the different demons in all honesty, although with the second language being used it helped to keep everyone on edge. When something went wrong she was always in the background. Conchata Ferrell easily brought the most laughs throughout as Aunt Dorothy.