Film

Krampus

Name: Krampus
Genre: Horror, Comedy, Fantasy
Released: 2015
Cast: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell

A horror-comedy about a family's Christmas Eve descent into nightmare when their loss of holiday faith summons Krampus, the demonic shadow side of Christmas itself. Director Michael Dougherty treats the premise with genuine visual invention—it's genuinely unsettling, genuinely funny, and genuinely strange. For anyone tired of saccharine yuletide sentiment, this is the antidote.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like a holiday-season horror that mixes sharp family squabbling with cheerful gore and lets the jokes land in the same breath as the dread.

Skip it if you want a scary film that stays scary, since this one keeps undercutting its own frights with comedy and its family characters are more irritating than affecting.

What it asks of you: A brisk 98 minutes where the mood swings from bickering domestic comedy to creeping menace, so you have to roll with abrupt tonal shifts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Gremlins1984

The obvious comparison: darkly comic creatures destroy a town during the holidays. Joe Dante's film has the same tonal balance—slapstick violence, real danger, and genuine affection for its absurd world. Peak eighties invention.

But The pacing can feel baggy in places, and the early scenes lean heavily on small-town Americana that doesn't age as smoothly as the creature work.

Insidious2011

James Wan's mastery of dread and jump scares at work on a reasonable budget. Like Krampus, it takes a fantastical threat seriously, builds atmosphere methodically, and knows when to let you breathe. Lean and efficient.

But The third act explanation gets a bit convoluted, and once the scares become formulaic, there's less room for the character moments that make the first half work.

Trick 'r Treat2007

An ensemble horror-comedy that jumps between storylines on a single night, balancing genuine scares with dark humor and retro Americana. Like Krampus, it's visually inventive and loves its mythology. Wildly rewatchable.

But The interlocking narrative can feel overstuffed, and some segments land better than others. Requires attention to keep track of who's who.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Krampus

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Christmas Story1983

Both are Christmas films obsessed with childhood, family dysfunction, and the gap between Christmas myth and Christmas reality—but they take opposite sides of the argument. One finds magic in the mess; the other finds horror in it.

The anti-Krampus: a film so suffused with genuine love for Christmas and childhood wonder that watching it straight after Krampus creates a perfect argument between them. It's genuinely funny, genuinely warm, and genuinely about the holiday's real magic.

But If you've already seen it a hundred times, there's nothing new here. The nostalgia isn't subtle, and it can feel treacly if you're not in the mood.

The Conjuring2013

James Wan again, but in his classical-haunted-house mode. Impeccable tension, strong performances from Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, and genuine scares that come from character and space rather than jump cuts. A masterclass.

But If you've seen it, you know the beats. It's become the template for mainstream horror, which means some of the surprise is gone.

The Babadook2014

Jennifer Kent's Australian film is a grief-stricken mother and son haunted by a creature that might be real or psychological. Gorgeously shot, genuinely disturbing, and deeply about something. Horror with emotional weight.

But The pacing is deliberate to the point of slow, and the ending divisively interprets the monster as metaphor in ways that won't satisfy everyone.

A Quiet Place2018

John Krasinski's creature feature strips away dialogue and music, relying entirely on sound design and performance. Tense, clever, and brief enough that it never overstays its welcome. Pure craft.

But The creature design is fairly generic, and the film's quiet-by-necessity gimmick, while effective, can feel like a limitation rather than a strength.

Poltergeist1982

Tobe Hooper's haunted-house film treats its suburban family with real warmth while the nightmare around them escalates brilliantly. It's funny, it's terrifying, and it understands how to balance domestic comedy with genuine dread.

But The mid-section drags slightly, and some of the practical effects have aged in ways that undercut the scares—which is part of its charm, but not for everyone.

The Ring2002

Gore Verbinski's American remake of a J-horror classic. Genuinely unsettling, visually stunning, and built around a central image that sticks with you. Smart, lean, and scarier than it has any right to be.

But If you've seen the original or any of its many imitators, the formula is familiar. Also, the tape itself is less frightening now than it was in 2002.

The Witch2016

Robert Eggers' debut is a slow-burn folk horror film set in 1600s New England. Genuinely eerie, gorgeously composed, and deeply committed to its period and dread. Anya Taylor-Joy is extraordinary.

But It's deliberately paced and ambiguous in ways that will frustrate anyone looking for clarity or conventional scares. Dialogue is period-authentic, which means it can be hard to parse.

Over the Garden Wall2014

Both use Americana and seasonal imagery to trigger unease rather than comfort. Both trust atmosphere over explanation and build toward a creature born from human loss and winter's indifference.

A seven-episode miniseries that builds an atmosphere of folk horror and genuine dread through autumn woods and increasingly strange encounters. It's brief, visually gorgeous, and has the same commitment to unsettling Americana that Krampus carries.

But The pacing is glacial by modern TV standards. If you're impatient, it will feel slow; if you're impatient, you'll miss what makes it work.

Santa Sangre1989

Both remake Christmas as a site of psychological and spiritual horror rather than comfort. Both use a deformed, demonic version of the holiday's imagery to dig at family trauma. Both are visually baroque in their grotesqueness.

Jodorowsky's surrealist masterpiece about a man, his mother, and a grotesque Christmas. Visually audacious, deeply weird, and genuinely disturbing in ways that have nothing to do with jump scares. It's the fever dream Krampus could have been.

But It's surrealist Spanish cinema from a director famous for deliberate difficulty. If you want narrative clarity or conventional filmmaking, this will feel like a punishment.