- Directed by Michael Dougherty
- Written by Todd Casey, Michael Dougherty, Zach Shields
- Stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6cVyoMH4QE
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
An awesome parody of other Christmas films that eventually stops being funny and goes down a really dark path. It’s excellent, and its high budget really shows.
Synopsis
We watch Black Friday shenanigans as the credits roll.
Tom and Sarah return home, scolding Max for starting a fight in the middle of the Christmas play. Sister Beth is simply an exasperated teenager. Grandma Omi makes cookies; she’s an old European woman.
Linda and Howard arrive with their kids in tow; it’s a scene right out of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. They even brought eccentric old Aunt Dorothy, who’s gonna be the life of the party. Howard’s a gun nut and wants to talk about guns all through dinner, but Tom and Sarah aren’t fans. Dorothy grouches about a lack of ham. The holiday from Hell has begun.
Max still believes in Santa Claus, and the cousins tease him about that. This leads to him tearing up his letter to Santa and throwing it out the window. The power suddenly goes out all over town, and a blizzard hits hard.
The next morning, the power is still out, the phone is not working, and there’s a strange, giant snowman in the front yard. There are no neighbors around this time of year. It’s all pretty grim until Omi makes hot chocolate in the fireplace.
Beth walks to her boyfriend’s house in the snow. The further she gets from home, the darker and scarier it gets. Then she sees a monster running from rooftop to rooftop. She finds the delivery man frozen to death in his truck. She hides under the truck until something gets her.
Tom and Howard want to take Howard’s Hummer and find Beth and look around town; Omi says not to go, as it’s dangerous out there. They go anyway and soon find an abandoned snowplow. The glass was broken inwards like something took the driver. They get to boyfriend Derek’s house, and it’s abandoned as well. They find hoof prints, like a goat. “What kind of goat walks on its hind legs,” asks Howard.
Back at the house, they hear something on top of the roof. Tom and Howard get attacked, and the Hummer is destroyed. They make it home and speculate on what attacked them. Meanwhile, Omi’s in the kitchen checking out her butcher knives. Tom wants to barricade the doors and stay in the house.
They eventually go to sleep. The batteries in their devices die, the fire goes out, and the sounds upstairs just get more and more agitated.
Howie Jr. gets attacked by a gingerbread man and pulled up the chimney. Omi say’s “It’s come for us all.” She tells them about a time when she was little. When there was no love at Christmas, that was when he came. “A darker, more ancient spirit. It was Krampus.” He dragged her family into the underworld. “He left me behind as a reminder of what happens when hope is lost; when the Christmas spirit dies.”
Howard tries to go outside, but the house is surrounded by snowmen— and other things. Tom wants to go back outside and pick up that snowplow, and we see that some gifts have appeared under the tree with more of Krampus’ helpers inside. Howard’s kids, Stevie and Jordan, go upstairs and something gets them.
They go upstairs looking for the kids and find a giant clown-faced sandworm thing eating them – it’s actually a jack-in-the-box grown monstrous. Meanwhile, Howard is attacked by evil gingerbread men. Teddy bears, a robot toy, and a snow angel attack next, all made into monsters. Linda kills most of them with an ax, and they get Stevie back.
That’s when the really demonic-looking things storm in and simply overwhelm them. Things are getting really hairy until they hear something howling and all run away. What could scare those off?
“It’s him,” says Max. They all agree to run for the snowplow down the street to make their getaway. They all go out, but Omi chooses to stay behind.
Krampus comes down the chimney with only Omi remaining in the house. The battle rages outside, and soon all that’s left are Stevie and Max— no, wait, it’s just Max.
Just like in Omi’s story, Krampus leaves him behind as a reminder. He drops off Max’s torn-up letter to Santa; yes, he really did cause all this. Max recants his wish and tries to bargain with Krampus.
… And then Max wakes up; it was all just a dream. Everyone is there, alive, and normal. However, when he unwraps a “Krampus ornament,” suddenly everyone remembers— they’re living in a tiny Christmas snowglobe prison. One snowglobe on a shelf among countless snowglobes in Krampus’s lair.
Commentary
It’s very creepy and tense. In the beginning, I was starting to wonder if this was actually going to turn out to be a horror movie, but it definitely was. It starts off like any typical family holiday, with fights, snark, and obnoxious conflicts. It quickly degenerates into a high-speed, high-action, monster fest with a lot of dark humor.
It has really high production values and obviously had a large budget. The animated section was a nice surprise, and it was also very well done. The creatures were both creative and unusual, and also very fun.
It was really good, had a lot of funny bits, and everyone in it was right for the part. Great cast, great music, great effects. Overall, one of the best Christmas Horrors.