#krampus

I don’t know the quality of this film, but horror Christmas movies can and do exist! Horror is not isolated to the spooky month!

And conversely, whimsy is not reserved solely for the cheery month! Check upon all these whimsical Halloween movies!:

doodle of irl me and a plush of krampuuuus😋

Krampus (2015): Fat Kid eats living gingerbread cookie off of fishing bait, goes to hell for it

Enjoyment: 5/5 🎄| Scariness: 1/5 🔦

Overview: The Irish asshole from Hokum and the mother from Hereditary have a happy family including a violently Christmas-loving kid and a hoard of annoying in-laws. The in-laws are so annoying that the entire family has to be punished by a satanic shadow of Santa Claus.

Review (SPOILERS AHEAD):

As we say to each other every day regardless of season, Merry Christmas! This is a fun movie. I wasn't really sure what I was expecting, but pretty much all of it was completely unexpected.

Christmas horror movies tend to be a sort of unique kind of bad wherein they try to take "cozy" aspects of Christmas and turn them scary. It's kind of difficult to accurately merge "festive" and "scary" without being ridiculous. Krampus doesn't have this issue, because it fully leans into being ridiculous - which I massively enjoyed!

This is a really great parody of those Christmas classics in general. It's got all the tropes of a sappy Christmas movie, being snowed in with the family, the extended family visiting who all have weird issues, the completely unlikeable family member, et cetera. I did like how the mother actually stood up to the asshole aunt, because that's something that never happens in holiday movies because they all relent for the purpose of showing us some kind of lesson about love. I liked how they stood up to the asshole aunt, and I also like how the asshole aunt was completely unphased by being dragged to literal hell. I mean, she even threw us a couple one-liners! It was pretty funny.

My favorite part of this movie was definitely the special effects and the monster designs. They're not scary, per se, but they're super fun. The jack-in-the-box worm monster is SUPER well done, and the actual practical build of it is amazing looking. The doll harpy is also wicked. Every monster in this film was super cool looking, right down to the elves. Each one had their own unique mask and costume, which really made them all stand out. Truth be told, it was really cool to see as an artist! I think the only monsters I wasn't a fan of in this aspect were the gingerbread men. The CGI was kind of stupid looking, but at the same time, that's the point. They were real funny otherwise. Krampus himself was a wicked design, and I'm glad we got a lot of scenes at the end where we could see him up close. I like how they lean into him looking like Santa Claus, but then the lightning flashes and you see the goat/ram pupils in his eyes. The recurring images of chains and that hook shape (being his horns, the fish hooks, et cetera) really sell him as a villain and I'm down with it.

The visuals aside from the monsters are also pretty great. A special shoutout needs to go to the animated flashback segment, which took me by surprise with how great it was. It reminded me of those random sort of melancholy animated movies I'd watch as a kid, or like, if you tried to 3d-animate Little Misfortune. It was just really great to watch, and again, another seller on the "Christmas Movie" tropes. The atmosphere is great too. I really like how it has, again, the stereotypical warm tones of a Christmas movie. That contrasts with the cool-toned blizzard outside excellently, and it just looks really awesome when the fire starts to go out. I don't know how to describe it, but the shift from warm to cool tones with the rising tension was neat.

Was a pleasure to get new ink whilst in Sweden recently, I got a Krampus stepping onto my knee holding a Thurisaz rune done in a traditional dot style by Lukas of AncientSkin.Tattoo in Svenljunga.

I must say, this has been my best tattoo experience thus far, Lukas does a ritual with ink and the whole process is done with intention and energy in a beautiful pagan space. This design was drawn up custom on my skin and Lukas specialises in handpoke and traditional nordic styles of tattooing with the machine also. Mushroom got a Sleipnir on his shoulder and we were both looked after very well for the day – Lukas is a kind and intuitive artist who truly values the whole experience of the tattooing service for his clients. We also got to meet his partner Anka who sews beautiful garments at Helga.By.AnkaMiau – they were both so welcoming and supportive 🖤

My heart is so full!