Silent night. Holy night. Is not tonight. Jesus may have come to save humanity from sin, Santa may make annual runs to reward good girls and boys, but Krampus arrives to punish the bad with terror and judgment. Taken from an ancient Germanic legend, the demonic creature is described as a goat-man who is the “shadow of Saint Nicholas”, and has the dark imagery of Grimm’s fairy tales where evil children don’t just get their just desserts, they actually are dessert.

Most of the movies we review on this site are ones of a spiritual nature rather than a horror-comedy, but seeing as how Hollywood is taking a vacation from making classic Christmas movies we thought it might be helpful to review what passes for holiday entertainment today. And Krampus is at least that, entertaining I mean. The director gave the film a wonderful fairy tale like look and feel that is so enticing at times it marvels the imagination. Unfortunately the film doesn’t keep this magic alive in every scene, but it does a good job overall.

The Good in the film is in the themes it threads throughout the story line. Humanity is portrayed in the movie as deeply flawed, “bad” even, and in such a way that even a single moment of badness makes us all deserving of judgment. There is suspense regarding the coming judgment of Krampus and his minions, and of course a judgment day. And while I don’t mean to imply there is anything Christian about this film, in the end it is repentance and sacrifice that win the day. These are strong elements that you can discuss with your non-Christian friends.

The Bad in the film stems mostly from its unnecessary use of crude language. I can deal with a certain amount of swearing in a movie, but it mostly felt forced here. There is no nudity, but I don’t think a Christmas movie should use the name of Jesus as a swear word, five times no less. The lush of an aunt sharing booze with her pre-teen nieces isn’t a good thing, though at least this element was true to her character. The teenage girl’s boyfriend inviting her over to smoke a bong with him on the other hand seemed out of place. It’s this mish-mash of incongruous dialogue and scenes that keeps the movie from being the alter-Christmas tale it is intended to be.

Some will complain about the violence, but this is a horror movie after all. Most of the violence is of the fantastical sort, however, and perpetrated by toys, diabolical gingerbread men, sinister snowmen and of course the titular Krampus. The effects are really good, not in a spectacularly real way but in a fairy tale come true kind of way that is in keeping with the overall feel of the film. The mixture of humor and horror will draw natural comparisons to 1985’s Gremlins and 2009’s Drag Me to Hell, though it falls short of both these movies.

I felt that if a few scenes had found their way to the cutting room floor, and the language was cleaned up a bit, and if the movie had focused more on the good themes and made the main character Max more of a Christ figure that it could have reached the heights it aspired to. That said I find the trend of Christmas entertainment a bit disturbing. Once upon a time Christmas movies were about Christ. Somewhere along the way they turned to stories about Santa (the humanist’s replacement for God) and good-will toward men. Today they have made a complete 180 from the son of God to a demon creature named Krampus. At least we can use it to spur discussions of the true “Spirit of Christmas”.