Krampus: El terror de la navidad

Having already given horror fans Trick 'r Treat for Halloween, director Michael Dougherty turns his attention to Christmas, delivering festive escapement and frights with Krampus, in which an evil creature - an 'anti-Santa' - pays a visit to a family who have lost their seasonal spirit.

I'm not one for saccharine, family-friendly Xmas movies with a cheery ending (my initials aren't BAH for nothing), and I relish the thought of some demented Christmas comedy/horror. Krampus takes a while to get into the swing of things, but once it does, it's non-stop fun, getting darker and darker as it goes on.

Things start out light-hearted enough, with an amusing opening credits sequence that mocks the commercialism of Christmas, and the film continues in this manner up to the moment when disillusioned Santa fan Max (Emjay Anthony) tears up his letter to the jolly old man, an act that is as good as an invitation to Krampus and his helpers.

From hereon-in, it's twisted entertainment, as the family (including their National Lampoon's Vacation-style relatives) are captured one-by-one by the horned, cloven-hoofed Krampus, a gang of wicked ginger-bread men, a massive jack-in-a-box, a terrible teddy, a creepy doll, and some nasty elves. Dougherty handles the action with skill, providing moderate scares and silliness in the vein of that other holiday comedy/horror classic, Gremlins.

After a lot of enjoyable Chrimbo chaos, with Max's family all captured by Krampus, it looks as though Dougherty has run out of ideas with an 'it was all a dream' conclusion, but a final shot ensures us that all is not as it seems.

While not quite in the same league as Gremlins (largely thanks to the slow start and a lack of Phoebe Cates), Krampus should provide those who struggle with seasonal cheer with a few ho-ho-hos and some memorable monster fun.

"this movie is stupid!" They say. Yeah I know it is. That's the point. Do you think they didn't know that when they were making it? They knew it was stupid. That's what makes it really kind of great.

Come into this movie with no expectations, and you'll be really quite surprised. It's a lot of fun, it's very funny and it's got a nice Christmas warmth to it that you wouldn't expect. Yeah it's goofy, but that's the bloody point.

Three days before Christmas, a suburban family gets together to celebrate the holidays.

One child named Max wants to continue the family's Christmas traditions, but tensions between members of the family keep everyone from having a good time and the family lose their Christmas spirit, especially Max, who rips up his letter to Santa and throws it to the wind after his cousins read it out at the dinner table Shortly afterwards, a severe blizzard appears and cuts out power in the entire town and Christmas will never be the same.

Now Despite it's Christmas Background this film is anything but cherry. In fact this film is one of the best main stream horror films produced in quit some time.

In this film we get a cross between "Night of the Living Dead" and "Gremlins". If your fans of those films then you will enjoy this movie.

If you have small children please do not let them watch this.

Watched it with the family and we all enjoyed it. Not too explicit for the kids but scary and interesting enough for all.

There are sooooooo many films with 'Krampus' in the title, that it's easy to read a review for one somewhere, thinking it's for this.

This is by far, the best 'Krampus' movie out there...and it stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Better budget, better actors/acting, better cinematography, better sound, better CGI etc.

All the others have this movie's poster on their bedroom walls!