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Krampus (2015), PG-13, ★★1/2

What's going on here?
Combing horror with Christmas? Ironically weird and satisfying, I believe. When I first saw the seemingly cult hit, Silent Night Deadly Night, I was not as intrigued by the comical situations blending in with the horror that tries to have the Christmas decorum disguise that film as an alternative Christmas film to watch during the holidays. But, this movie tries to bring back that tradition of combining a horror comedy or a horror spoof and combine with the seemingly holiday spirit and provide us, the audience, to that sort of entertainment value. It is entertaining at best, but, I would say, that I would not rush to the theater for this movie.

The movie begins with the traditional but true cliched montage of frantic shoppers rushing in to get the gifts for their loved ones. In the mall, we meet a family consisting of Tom and Sarah Engel (Adam Scott and Toni Collette), as they run into their son, Max (Emjay Anthony) fighting with another child regarding a negative remark about Santa Claus as his sister, Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen), films the incident in a great and happy mood.

The family returns home when Max's German grandmother Omi (Krista Stadler) is baking. Sarah tries to keep the Christmas spirit alive by helping out and putting a picture up but she is anxious because of her sister and family arriving. Sarah's sister, Linda (Alison Tolman) arrives with her husband, Howard (David Koechner) with their kids - Howie Jr. (Maverick Flack), Stevie (Lolo Owen), Jordan (Queen Samuel), and Baby Chrissy along with their dog, Rosie. Along with the family dinner is their Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell), who is considered a nightmare. They all gather in a family Christmas dinner discussing miscellaneous topics.

Later on, a dark cloud looms over the whole neighborhood followed out by a gust of wind taking out the power. The next morning, the whole family is without heat and electricity, causing them to shiver and complain to the cold conditions. Max looks out the window and sees a creepy snowman being built in front of the house. Something is going on around the neighborhood and maybe an evil Santa Claus is coming to town. I don't know.

Look. Only two pictures were available. 
This was a fun scary movie for the most part because it tries to bring back that B-level entertainment of having the hybrid of a horror and comedy blending in together of the funnier situations and scary situations of playing with our emotions. Is it that scary? Well, no. The reason behind my answer is because of the traditional holiday characters or caricatures that try to "kill" the human characters and it plays like Sam Raimi's TV holiday horror movie. You'll get the reference if you have seen The Evil Dead series.

It has cheap scary gags for sure but it is fine as long as you are having fun with the elements of surprise. But, my ultimate problem is that combination of a dysfunctional family comedy with the comical horror. I tend to like the comical horror more with the holiday background than the dysfunctional family comedy because none of the characters were particularly memorable to me. I did like Adam Scott and David Koechner in their role but they do not play their roles well enough to become interesting. They are just standard family roles to play off to create a situation as they do during the family dinner. The cliche of a family dinner is getting old now.

As I said, this is a fun movie to watch on cable and not rush into the theaters. Even though they create a different spin on the genre of holiday horror, it does not have enough ambition to change the way we see the genre as a whole. It is a mixed bag with coal and some toys or money in Santa's sleigh. If you want to see this movie, I'm not stopping you. It's your choice. I had fun with it the most part but felt a little puzzled after the experience.

**1/2



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