Director: Jason Hull
Year: 2016
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
After a series of child abductions, a former officer whose wife was murdered and daughter went missing several years earlier is called back to his home-town to deal with the new crime-spree and finds the deranged Krampus at the cause of the missing children’s cases and sets out to stop it once and for all.
Review:
This one wasn't as bad as the first one. One of the strongest aspects present here is the stronger scenes of the child abductions which are far better than the original. They're still not that great, but the opening abduction of the two kids from the abandoned house or a later scene of the creature stealing the kid from his bedroom while his mother smokes unaware outside are much creepier than the original. The demented torture scene where the kids are tortured in the shack by Santa and Krampus while eerie Christmas music plays over the scene as the demented characters dole out cruel torture and punishment to children is a fantastic idea overall to show what's going on. There’s a fine energy to these scenes that were missing from the previous entry and serves the purpose of its true origins taking out naughty children that need it.
Likewise, the film also manages to get some enjoyable aspects out of the enhanced screen-time they actually get in the film. The abduction scenes in the beginning are just one example of that, while the scenes of them sitting around discussing the various children they need to collect and how to do it to avoid suspicion adds a lot o their scenes as this keeps the action moving smoother than expected. The finale, bringing together both storylines in the raid on the hideout where the biker has taken them for revenge against his brother as well as the final revelation about the historical connections that have been running throughout the two films which get rather dark with the truth about what happened to him and his daughter. As well as the much more imposing Krampus mask that looks much better than before as well as the enjoyably grim ending, these here hold the film up overall.
The film does have some issues. One of the biggest problems is the unnecessary plotline throughout here about the biker seeking revenge on the policeman for the death of his brother, which is a fine carry-over from the original but serves the same function as the original did in not serving a purpose beyond adding to the running time. It’s an issue you don’t care about at all and serves to get the name guest-star involved in the proceedings but beyond that is just a useless segment that doesn’t need to be in a film barely over an hour and ten minutes. The cheapness of the film is still quite apparent and obvious throughout here, ranging from the backyard guerrilla filming feel to the lack of real lighting in the night-time scenes and the flimsy martial arts choreography for the fight scenes that give away what a low-budget tone this one has. These here are what hold this one back.
Overview: *.5/5
A marked improvement over the first one though still not without its flaws, the film serves far more watchable effort that has enough going for it to overcome the few minor flaws. Give this one a shot if you enjoyed the original or want to go for a new seasonal genre effort, while those turned off completely by the original or just not into this kind of genre effort should heed caution.
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