Director: Robert Conway
Year: 2016
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Heading out to her parents’ house, a woman and her family visiting for Christmas learn her son has uncovered a mystic stone rumored to summon the ravenous being Krampus, and as a strange series of murders occur they realize they’ve called it forth and must rely on a previous victim to stop it.
Review:
This one wasn’t all that bad of an effort. One of the stronger features here is the rather intriguing and enjoyable setup that this one plays with throughout here. The opening set up in the Old West where the hunters come across the remains of the buried treasure from the outlaw that left it behind and find the stone that summons the creature leads into the creature attacking them starts this off on a fine route while also setting the stage for the rules to follow. Showing the significance of the rock as well as the means of summoning the creature at this point allows a great chance to figure out the importance of the family finding the rock and what it means later on.
There’s also the incredibly fun and over-the-top brutality with the creature’s kills. Not only are the excessively brutal and graphic kills the best overall aspect here, there's tons of fun here as the high-energy sequences keep this one moving along. From the attack on the hunters who keep hearing it get closer to the appearance at the boyfriends' house that leads to the encounter with the family and the resulting chases through the woods, this one has a lot of great creature action that lets this one go crazy with the gore. Featuring heads getting pulled off, fingers being shoved into stomachs and having their intestines pulled out, a person ripped in half and limbs pulled off, the gore here is fantastic and looks far more gruesome than it really should. Alongside a great Krampus costume that's all practical, these here are what work for the film.
This one does have a few issues. The biggest problem here is the series of utterly unlikeable characters that make it hard to get into the film's first half. There's absolutely nothing about the secondary family that's intriguing about them, mainly coming from an inattentive, sleazy jerk that talks back to everyone, spends half the time complaining about the lack of expected amenities and the rest buried on his phone looking at sleazy pictures of his family. That his mother has no say in the matter to his attitude as she's too concerned with the meet up at the house going well and the ad is an ineffectual, spineless loser that makes him go unchecked for the entire movie, giving this a real tough act to overcome.
The other problem here is the film's lacking production values that are somewhat obvious to ignore and overcome. It's mostly apparent in the outdoor scenes where it's incredibly hard to tell what's happening due to the lack of lighting, while the main failing with this is the finale which is over so fast it seemed to rush by with no chance to do any kind of suspense as if they ran out of money to do everything they wanted. As well, the series of useless padding here, from the stop off at the gas station, showing everyone sitting around watching TV or the foreplay with the neighbor and her boyfriend that's spread out over several segments feels like they're included mainly to beef up a simple story they had no money to film. These here are the film's main flaws.
Overview: **/5
Despite some unlikable characters that harm this one significantly as well as the budgetary problems, there’s enough to like with some great kills and a solid story that keeps it watchable at best. This is mainly for hardcore Christmas horror fans or low-budget indie-set creature features, while those looking for something much more competent should look elsewhere.
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