A student-operated publication at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The Oak Leaf

A student-operated publication at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The Oak Leaf

A student-operated publication at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The Oak Leaf

‘Krampus:’ Keep watching the trailer; that’s as good as it gets

With a blend of corny Christmas values and bad casting, “Krampus” (2015) can be related to expiring eggnog. Though appealing at first, it is hard to finish.

This movie isn’t exceptionally bad; it’s trying to be three different genres at once. This makes the film a poorly executed scary, goofy drama. Plus, if you throw in David Koechner, known for idiotic roles in “Anchorman,” “Paul” and “The Comebacks,” the movie is destined to be lacking.

We begin with a scene of Black Friday shoppers in slow motion whilst traditional holiday jingles play. Director Michael Dougherty uses this juxtaposition to display an ideology that consumerist Christmas is not ideal. We block out the intangible world of family holiday values and are glued to the confines of our cellphone screens. This establishing shot holds more meaning than the rest of the movie. After that, it snowballs into a undeniably bad plot.

We first meet a modern dysfunctional family who dreads hosting Christmas every year. Amongst the mess, the youngest boy in the family loses his faith in Christmas. He crumples his letter to Santa Claus and throws it out his window. The paper then floats to the heavens in a very cheesy fashion.

Boom! The movie’s tone turns quicker than Costco transitions to its holiday decorations.

No buildups. No motifs. No foreshadowing. It’s now a cheesy horror movie.

The sound design wails at the sequences when Krampus, the dark side of Saint Nick, starts to terrorize the family. The movie may have some good pop-ups, but none help support the unmotivated plot. It then turns into a montage of annoying holiday-themed horror events. Gingerbread cookies, elves and toys attack the family and yet, it still seems like a joke. Was I supposed to be laughing?

What was humorous was the beginning of the third act where an animated scene played to represent the grandmother’s past. But this just did not work. The animation art and style come fundamentally out of nowhere and are never seen again.

The movie does have its polished parts. If you want to see them, watch the trailer and be on your jolly way.

Coming from the director who gave us “Trick ‘r Treat,” a movie full of horror tales and mystical wonder, people had hope for this movie. “Krampus” will never fulfill those expectations. It merely is the concoction of an unsuccessful Christmas comedy-horror, and will never have a place in the Film Hall of Fame.

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Kyle Schmidt, Multimedia Editor

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