The upper middle class, but emotionally struggling, Engel clan (remember that Germanic handle cats n’ creeps) are all ready to weather the holidays, obnoxious extended family in tow… but young Max Engle (Emjay Anthony) has decidedly lost his Christmas spirit thanks almost entirely to his family’s non-stop bitch-o-rama.
This results in Max having a conniption fit and tearing this year’s letter to Santa into pieces… therefore damning the entire town to a hell of endless snow and diabolic demons thanks to that tongue-lashin’ Teutonic terror; Krampus!
Now the whole Engle fam has to put down the eggnog and take up arms against all manner of yuletide hooligans that bring the ho-ho-horror that will make surviving the holidays a real pain in the mistletoe… toes, feet, arms… pretty much any body part can feel pain… and be eaten like a Christmas goose!
Michael Dougherty’s (Trick ‘r Treat) 2015 holiday horror comedy Krampus (presented here on 4K UHD courtesy of Scream Factory’s “Naughty Cut”) comes across as nothing as much as a dark fairy tale by way of Joe Dante (the Gremlins vibes are strong in this one)… and it’s an oversize stocking full o’ freaky fun from start to finish!
Besides a top notch cast of both familiar and new faces (the stuff that’s just ghoulish gravy for us, eh boils n’ ghouls) this fright flick really delivers on the monstrous mayhem with all manner of mischief makers makin’ the scene including: killer gingerbread cookies, a truly revolting jack-in-the-box, some sort of angel mother fucker, dark elves, a robot… and that freakin’ toothy teddy to name many… possibly all…
Nope… wait.. there’s the main man himself; an ungodly (literally) blending of goat and St. Nick that leaps like a jackrabbit, towers over the cast, and isn’t afraid to lick a bitch as the situation dictates! It’s a breathtaking design, brought to life by the WETA wizards (who really knocked every special effects sequence in the putrid picture right out of the park)!
Speaking of “special”, this is a special edition… the aforementioned “Naughty Cut”, but that doesn’t mean as much as you may think it does… maybe a “fuck” (the expletive, not raunchy-ass sex… also, hyphens can be dreadfully important things… ), some more family biz, a bit more violence in the “attic attack” sequence. It’s cool to see, but not essential to the overall film.
With that out of the way, the bonus material present here will doubtless put a sinister smile on the face of any Krampus krazy maniacs out there, and the whole shebang kicks off with an audio commentary from Dougherty (joined by co-writers Todd Casey and Zach Shields)… and that’s it.
Fortunately the features continue on disc two which contains a Blu-ray version of the Naughty Cut along with interviews with Dougherty, Casey, actors David Koechner, Allison Tolman, and Anthony, WETA’s Richard Taylor, storyboard artist Simeon Wilkins, Krampus suit performer Luke Hawker, and composer Douglas Pipes, a fantastic glimpse behind-the-scenes (courtesy of five featurettes), a look at WETA’s creature design work, a collection of deleted/extended scenes, a gag reel, an alternate ending, the film’s theatrical trailer, and extensive image galleries!
The perfect blend of hilarious and hell-raisin, Krampus: the Naughty Cut is a must own for lovers of creature features and holiday horror in equal measure!
