Krampus (2015) – WTF Happened to This Horror Movie?

The episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? covering Krampus was Written by Emilie Black, Narrated by Travis Hopson, Edited by Jaime Vasquez, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Every year, Christmas rolls around, and the general viewing public gets to have some holiday romances, some family holiday films, and a few comedies here and there, with some forgetting that horror still exists and is rife for the holiday season. From creepy Santas to Grim Grinches, there’s plenty to be had in the more violent side of the film industry. Over the years, creepy Christmas has been a definite thing with plenty of movies dedicated to it in the horror genre. Who can forget the original Black Christmas, the recent Violent Night, Silent Night, Christmas Evil, and so many more. A few years ago, Trick R Treat made a splash in the Halloween Holiday Horror and considering the short it’s based on, Seasons Greetings, it was clear that the filmmaker behind that masterpiece of an anthology film had a potentially fantastic Christmas horror film in him. In 2015, we finally got to see this film in the form of Krampus (watch it HERE). Here, the film feels a bit more like a family horror film, something more along the lines of a Gremlins rather than along the lines of a Trick R Treat. The film is also a comedy horror, not straight up horror, so it’s easier to have it work for younger audiences and families.

The story itself centers around a family getting a visit from extended family and a surprise addition. Things don’t go super well, and the son decided he now hates Christmas, thus summoning Krampus, the one his grandmother feared as a child. Soon, a storm knocks the power and phone out, leaving them stranded in a neighborhood that is like a ghost town. As they face what to do next, something is haunting or hunting them outside. As things escalate, toys, decorations, and gingerbread cookies come to life with a lust for blood. The film becomes chaotic from there, the family fights back, looks for a way out, and eventually, things go back to normal after a visit from Krampus and more of his minions. Or does it? The film ends in a manner that leaves the door open for potential sequels. Which we never got, at least not yet.

Fans of Trick R Treat await it impatiently and were treated to a small Easter Egg in the film that was unfortunately cut from the final version of the film. In the cut scene, the dads have the radio on and there is a blizzard warning that covers multiple areas, one of these being Warren Valley, the fictional town from Trick R Treat. Another Easter Egg that stuck around is when Michael shared his Halloween candy with his cousin, the now trademark lollipop of Sam is seen in the candy. As this is a Legendary production by way of Universal films, and there are a few other Easter Eggs relating to Legendary films including a toy of Gypsy Danger from Pacific Rim seen in Michael’s bedroom along with another Jaeger, Leatherback. In terms of other movies, it references, obviously in some cases and more subtly in other cases, the neighborhood the film takes place in is all created for the film, so the houses are made to look like houses from other films.

Going back to Trick R Treat, its R rating led the studios to hesitate to greenlight Krampus as they did not want an R rated Holiday movie. Once reassured that this would be aiming at a PG-13 rating, Universal agreed to it. As it is, the fact that director Michael Dougherty came with a pre-established fanbase probably didn’t hurt either. Of course, budget had to be considered and the film was going to have a ton of special effects, practical and CGI. Considering this and the fact that most of the film was shot on soundstages with just the opening being shot in location, in New Zealand. Yep, the Black Friday mayhem at the start of the film was shot in a real store in New Zealand. This may seem odd, but a bit of Googling and yes, they do have a shopping tradition for Black Friday in New Zealand, it may just not be as insane as in the US. But we digress.

The budget here is relatively low considering how the film was shot, the effects used and how they still hold up, the cast including Toni Collette, Adam Scott, and David Koechner, having a budget of “just” $15 million USD is quite surprising. However, in comparison with other Holiday horror films, it seems to be on par. In terms of horror movies and fantasy movies, if we do not factor in massive budget films which are not the majority, data found online places budgets between $16 and $35 million, so it would put Krampus on the lower end of budgets. That being said, that budget of $15 million is decent, and it was clearly very well used as the cast is solid, the effects are more than decent almost a decade later, including the CGI aging pretty well. So, that budget seemed to be the sweet spot even though there’s a high chance the filmmaker and those working on the film would have loved to get more.

How did this budget and film fare at the box office though? Holiday horror films are popular, but they don’t always translate to high grossing box office. Krampus made just about $61.5 million at the box office, a pretty decent number if we consider its $15 million budget. In comparison, the more recent Violent Night, which was rated R, made $76.6 million on a $20 million budget. So, this puts Krampus in just about the same success bracket, maybe even a bit higher. This year’s Silent Night, also rated R, seems to be faring much worse, so violent Holiday movies are not always quite successful. If we want to compare it with perhaps another Krampus movie, the obvious one to some would be A Christmas Horror Story, but the numbers aren’t fully available on this one as it received a limited release in October. Holiday horror and violent holiday movies are not the favorites of the general public, so they do tend to get limited releases and lower box office results. So, this means, at least to us, that Krampus making $61.1 million on its $15 million budget is a solid return on investment.

Now, let’s take a look at the box office wholistically Krampus was supposed to be released on November 25, 2015, but the release was pushed back to December 4th, 2015, to coincide with Krampusnacht which is technically on December 5th, but the 4th is close enough and it was a Friday in 2015, so it had to do. The film came out and made it to number 2 at the box office on opening weekend with a total of just north of 16 million. Not bad. Only one film did better, and it was The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 which made about 18 million. So, it made more, but not *that* much more. For the sake of completion and to get a better idea of the competition Krampus was seeing, the rest of the top ten that weekend was composed of The Good Dinosaur, Creed, Spectre, The Night Before, The Peanuts Movie, Spotlight, Brooklyn, and Secret in Their Eyes. This means that the rest of the top ten films were mostly established franchises and IPs, Oscar hopefuls, and a few outliers. This was a solid 2015 top ten, so coming in at number 2 was more than decent on the budget Krampus had, the fact that not all want to see a spooky, ok mildly spooky, Holiday film, it’s actually more than decent. Following this, a good look at the film’s staying power sees it dropping quite a bit to number 4 the next weekend, number 7 on week 3 of release, and number 13 on week 4. So, it was dropping and with the Holidays basically over at this point, it didn’t have much of chance anymore. It made a bit more after that, but the bulk of its money making was done by the time New Years rolled around.

In terms of the fan response, while some saw the film in theaters, many more found it once it hit DVD, and now Blu-ray. Heck, our own Eric Walkuski is on the damn cover representing JoBlo! The comments from the public seem to be a bit divided between absolutely loving it or being rather “meh” about it. A quick look at online comments shows this quite clearly with the average falling right down the middle and super fans attempting to be louder to counter that. Was the general public too negative about the film? Well, looking at critics’ opinions of the film, they either loved it or hated it, some middle ground folks here and there, but they seem to have been even more divided than the public over it. Rotten Tomatoes shows the film has an aggregated score of 52% from the public and 66% from critics. This may be a part of why the film has yet to get a sequel.

Are Krampus movies always headed to middle ground land? Who knows, but this one seemed to be living there against all odds, against the good box office, the fan love, the fun of the movie. The Krampus here is a new look for Krampus, he was created as a sort of Santa Shadow, the dark side of Santa, less as a horned, hairy monster who punishes children by kidnapping them, putting them in a basket, and beating them with reeds. This Krampus is fatter looking, he wears a long, red jacket similar to Santa’s, he has a mask on, he has minions, and he is summoned through a letter being sent out into the universe. The version of Krampus seen here is creative and it both looks fantastic visually and on paper, but there is something missing here. Other cinematic Krampuses, Krampi? How do you pluralize Krampus, digressing again, Krampus in other movies looks like a badass, a horned human-animal-monster hybrid, like he could be from legends of old, he looks more like the folk creature he is. In A Christmas Horror Story, they went with a modern badass look, in Krampus: The Reckoning he looks muscular and beast-like, as he does in just about every other Krampus movie. This film in particular, his most expensive cinematic outing went for a toned-down look, a new look, something more reminiscent of Santa which may have played against the film in the long run. The film went with a more family-friendly approach and did well with it mostly, having the first third be a straight up family Christmas movie, the second third is where things go spooky, and the last third goes all out nuts. To some, this feels like an uneven film, something that needed more work and more of a streamlined story. To others, it was a fun evolution, but not enough horror. And to big fans, it’s just perfect. This Krampus is divisive, and it may have cost it a sequel and a higher box office.

This Krampus has an almost child-friendly look, a film made for families with some scary bits, but not too much, and it came from a proven director and team. There is something there, but not everyone loves it. The middle ground is a fine place to be, but the film could have been so much more, something many found frustrating. Missing out on the truly scary approach to Krampus may have been a mistake. Or perhaps not. One thing is for sure, Krampus is almost a cult classic at this point, so some folks sure love it and love to ring in the jolly season with a few screams caused by him, the flying gingerbread men, a possessed angel decoration, an evil Jack in the Box, and a few others. Horrors fans seem to have mostly embraced this and the seemingly silly section near the end of the film before that eerie actual ending comes to twist it all up and give us hope for a sequel or more.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!