Night of the Krampus

I conclude my 2020 KrampusFest with Night of the Krampus, a delightfully offbeat horror short that sees paranormal investigator Claire Renfield (Erin Lilley) team up with undead cemetery watchman Rue Morgan (Khristian Fulmer) and his skeletal sidekick Herbie to find out who or what has been abducting children in the run up to Christmas. As they suspect, the culprit is the Christmas Devil, Krampus.

This light-hearted, well-paced, low-budget effort from writer/director Thomas Smith - a follow-up piece to his earlier film The Night Shift (which I've yet to see) - features solid performances from a likeable cast, reasonable special effects and make-up, and a witty script, but it's definitely Herbie the smart-talking bag of bones, who steals the show: the wires operating his mouth are clearly visible, but he's such a fun character that it matters not.

Not a bad effort at all (certainly better than a lot of the Krampus films I've seen recently) and it really makes me want to seek out The Night Shift to see more of Herbie. 5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.