Rating: 6.4/10
Director: Michael Dougherty
Writer: Todd Casey, Michael Dougherty, Zach Shields
Stars: Emjay Anthony, Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Stefania LaVie Owen
Runtime: 98 min
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Released: 04 Dec 2015

Synopsis: When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max (Emjay Anthony) is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family’s home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.
The movie opens with a montage of crazed customers storming into a store for their Christmas shopping, trampling over the store’s employees before maniacally grabbing every hot item they can get their hands on, all to the tune of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”. In the mall, we see two parents, Tom and Sarah Engel (Adam Scott and Toni Collette), run to their son Max (Emjay Anthony) as he is fighting with another child after this child spoke ill of Santa Claus to the other children. Max’s sister Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen) gleefully films everything on her phone.

The family returns home where Max’s German grandmother Omi (Krista Stadler) is baking. Sarah continues working in the kitchen in anticipation of her sister and her family arriving. She is anxious, as is everyone else, but Sarah tries to keep the Christmas spirit alive in the house. She hangs up a picture of her family posing with Santa, but it’s ruined by everyone looking uninterested and Santa checking out Beth’s butt.
The family heads toward the snowplow, only for the creature in the snow to attack again. It first takes Tom before also getting Linda and Sarah. Max and Stevie get into the snowplow. Max tries to start it, but the elves attack and take Stevie. Max runs after her and he is faced by Krampus. He hands Max his torn-up letter that is wrapped around a bauble similar to what he gave Omi. This leads Max to realize that it’s his fault that Krampus arrived. He follows the demons to a spot where they are preparing to take Stevie. Max calls to Krampus and throws the bauble back toward him. It sinks in the snow and opens up a massive hole in the earth that leads to the underworld. The elves hold Stevie over it until Max tells Krampus that he knows it’s his fault that Krampus is there, and he offers to take Stevie’s place. Krampus wipes Max’s tear with his claw, but he and the elves start laughing as they throw Stevie into the hole. Krampus grabs Max and holds him over the hole. Max says he only wishes Christmas could be like it used to be. Krampus drops a screaming Max into the hole.

Max then wakes up and finds himself in his room, and it’s now Christmas Day. He goes downstairs and sees the whole family together, looking more happy and peaceful than they did a few days ago. They start to open presents, and Max hugs his parents, thinking the whole ordeal was just a bad dream. He then opens his gift to find the Krampus bauble, and suddenly everyone has an ominous look on their faces as their memories of the horrific events slowly come back to them. The camera pans out revealing that either the family is being watched through a snow globe by Krampus, along with hundreds of others in his collection, or are now held prisoner for all eternity by the evil Krampus.

The evil toys then appear for one last jump scare.