Mother Krampus

It is hard to determine if the people can act, there is NOT ONE BIT OF NORMAL REACTION TO ANY CIRCUMSTANCE IN THIS MOVIE. Children about bo be killed would never act as in this move, they would become defensive in their fright. People who are loved being killed around them, they would not act at all as depicted. THIS IS ONE OF THE WORST MOVIES I HAVE EVER WATCHED. Midpoint of the movie, Amy's father shows up for Christmas dinner with his 2 month long new relationship with a "bimbo." Acting as if nothing has happened to Amy's poor, deserted mother and that they should all "enjoy Christmas together." This is the also daughter's attitude and totally unrealistic. The story line of the entire movie is hard to follow as it makes no logical sense at all.

For some reason I have been putting off watching "Mother Krampus" for about a year. So I decided to watch it in 2018, now that the Christmas season is slowly starting to enclose upon us.

Right, well I should have waited longer or just put it off all together. I managed to endure 27 minutes of the ordeal that is "Mother Krampus" before I gave up out of sheer and utter boredom. This movie had nothing interesting to offer any where, any how or any place. It felt very amateurish, not that there is anything wrong with that, but I had hoped for something more, mind you.

The acting in the movie was definitely not the most brilliant of thespian performances, and this too felt like it was not fully there. Some of the performances were quite questionable and felt like the actors and actresses themselves didn't really believe in the script.

As for the script and storyline, well I am sure that every bit of good intention was put into it. But it just had zero appeal to me. And I can honestly say that this is not a movie that I will return to watch any more of at any time ever.

In the 27 minutes of pure boredom that I managed to endure, nothing, and I mean that literally, had happened to entice me to want to keep watching the movie.

This is definitely not a Christmas classic...

This has nothing to do with Krampus. Not even remotely. The acting is atrocious. The little girl being the worst. They makeup, bad. Bad script. Honestly with the exception of a few lights and a tree, it has no reason to even be related to Christmas. The is a story about a vengeful spirit. I wouldn't even call her a witch. This is on the independent film that should not have been made list, I'm sure. Do the best you can to try not to turn it off. It took all I could not to.

Instead of this movie going from 0 to 60, it went from 60 to 0. It started out like it was going to be a good movie, but somewhere towards the middle right down to the end it became horrible. The story line was good, but the acting and directing started to suck, it seems like the actors lost their scripts, gave up and started improvising. The acting was bad and the movie turned ridiculous. Save yourself 1:28:45!

'12 Deaths of Christmas' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if not particularly original premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive as well as the low rating and poor reviews.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. '12 Deaths of Christmas' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is next to nothing to recommend.

Lets start with the sole positive. The setting is atmospheric and spooky.

Unfortunately, it is not done justice by the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited and the drab colour palette, so much so it was hard to appreciate it, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm. In particular, the camera work was a nauseous assault on the eyes with its excessive amateurish-ness.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting that shows a huge indifference to the situation and what is going on and extremely awkward prolonged pauses.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés, lots of unintentional humour that makes some of the film play like a really bad spoof and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both very poorly done.

A lot of '12 Deaths of Christmas' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper.

There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. Everything here is neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease, with the chemistry between the characters and actors coming over as constantly random and aggressive with the subtlety of an axe. The Christmas spirit is completely lost underneath all the gratuity, dreariness and mean-spiritedness and the deaths are neither creative or scary with a complete lack of suspense or sense of horror.

Overall, awful with no redeeming value apart from an element that is difficult to appreciate with it being complemented so badly. 1/10 Bethany Cox