Opening up with Bing Crosby's "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" played over shots of stampeding customers fighting for bargains in a store, it's pretty obvious from the get go that Krampus isn't going to be quite like any Christmas film you've seen before. An entertaining mix of the "family regains their long-lost festive spirit" Christmas film and a pre-teen friendly horror, Krampus follows a fairly normal family over the Christmas period as they are terrorised by Krampus, the dark side of the Santa Claus story who punishes those without a festive spirit.
If that sounds like the general plot to dozens of low budget, straight-to-DVD horror films, that's because it is - but Krampus certainly doesn't deserve the association. It's the kind of film that you don't really see getting made any more, a pre-teen friendly horror that genuinely tries to scare its target audience, and it's surprisingly effective - creepy and frightening without relying on gore, Krampus is the kind of film that would have scared the bejesus out of me as a kid while still being suitable for anyone over the age of about 10.
