‘What kind of goat walks on its hind legs?’
[dropcap size=small]I[/dropcap]f you didn’t know anything about the Germanic folkore figure, you could mistake the beginning of the trailer for the upcoming holiday movie, Krampus, for your typical dysfunctional family Christmas flick. As it goes on, it becomes very clear that it’s anything but, and it quickly develops into a dark, humour-laden horror, to give us something a bit different this holiday season.
Toni Collette, Adam Scott, Allison Tolman and David Koechner make up some of the cast for this dark holiday comedy, which is directed by Micheal Dougherty. It looks set to be a pleasantly surprising, and somewhat refreshing holiday movie, that will put a dark twist on the usually sugary sweet line-up we so often see around Christmas time.
Where old Saint Nick rewards the children who have been good, Krampus punishes those on the naughty list – and in a pretty nasty way too. Krampus looks like something that came fresh out of Hell, and that’s probably because he’s said to drag naughty children down into the underworld.
With horns, grotesque fangs, dark hair, chains and a bunch of birch sticks, he looks like a very evil, nightmarish version of Mr. Tumnus from Narnia. He certainly wouldn’t fill anyone with Christmas cheer.
The blend of horror and comedy is already a winner, and the outlandish horned beast is sure to set up some great comedy moments as we watch the characters trying to deal with a lot more than just your run-of-the-mill Christmas day problems – like dry turkey, or annoying relatives.
With a solid cast and fun premise, Krampus has all the makings of becoming a new Christmas classic that offers up something a little a bit out of the ordinary from the usual holiday stock. Hopefully it won’t go in the way of the last Krampus attempt – the rather lacklustre and little heard of B movie, Krampus: The Christmas Devil, which came out back in 2013.
Krampus is due out in theatres 4 December, 2015.
