Krampus

'Twas a few weeks before Christmas, when all through the local moviehouse, not a creature was stirring, because NO ONE wants to see Krampus (we’re all waiting for Star Wars).

Emjay Anthony stars as Max – a young kid who used to love Christmas, but this year has been tough on him. The family is falling apart, and his rotten cousins, Aunt (Allison Tolman) and Uncle (David Koechner) are invading his place for the holiday.

Finally sick and tired of being picked on for believing in Santa Claus, Max rips up his letter to Kris Kringle and tosses it to the wind.

Little does he know, this act of losing faith and the holiday spirit has summoned the evil Christmas Demon Krampus!

Yep, Krampus wants to kill everyone in his house.

Who will live?

Can anyone save them?

Can anyone save you from this half baked film?

Krampus starts off like a comedy classic with all sorts of angry humor about the holidays, commercialism and family members we want to disown.

However, writer/director Michael Dougherty and his co-writers decide to drop that angle too quickly and jump both feet first into a tame horror movie short on shocks, lacking the kind of twisted imagery Krampus needs to be special and becoming about as scary as discovering someone has eaten the last piece of fruitcake.

They want to scare us, and fail.

They want to make us laugh, and don’t do it enough.

Krampus is best with sardonic humor mocking the whole premise of this movie, but Dougherty doesn’t commit. He has the acting talent to pull it off with Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Koechner and Tolman willing to dedicate themselves to whatever is in the script. We even get treated to Conchata Ferrell, who can drop one-liners with the best of them.

Sadly, Ferrell is wasted as her one-liners feel like they were grafted in later, while the rest of the team has to carry out serious scenes too often. The best moments in Krampus show the family fighting horrifying versions of usually innocent and heartwarming holiday figures, but those aren’t employed enough to make Krampus worth your time.

If it was campy, it might have been good.

Krampus is rated PG-13 for sequences of horror violence/terror, language and some drug material.