Krampus: The Reckoning (2015)

Fantastic!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Or not. Actually not would be better for the Krampus, right? Otherwise there wouldn't be stuff to do if everyone was good. But I derive, probably because I don't really know what to say here. So yeah it tries to be a horror movie (it also tries to create a monster via CGI, failing badly or "bigly" as someone who is president somewhere has said more than once).As you can tell it does not succeed. It does have occasional nudity in it, if that is your thing or not. Though if you look for reasons not to watch it, the brief nudity aspect of it shouldn't really matter. Acting-wise I've seen worse, but this still is in the bottom ... Do not engage is probably the best thing to do ...

Tormented by a troubling home-life, a lonely young girl with an unshaken belief in the Krampus figure protecting her causes a psychologist investigating a series of murders to tie the two together and soon sets out to stop the deadly creature from continuing his rampage. This one wasn't as bad as it was expected to be. One of the better elements here is the fact that the first half does a great job building up the girl and her loner tendencies in order to build her status for the rest of the film. Showing her locked in the room while the family members get attacked and her fascination with the figurine in her possession as well as the attitude she takes during the questioning, later on, makes for quite a decent build-up to the girls' condition. Once this one starts delving into the investigations both into the strange murders around town and the girls' mysterious past, tying it together to the girl's behavior makes for an engrossing time and starts the first half of this one off quite well. Leading into the attacks throughout here, from the creatures' appearance taking out the foster parents in the beginning, the encounter with the nurse in his hotel room and the drunk in the car all come off rather nicely if all done too quickly. The dream sequence showing the creature targeting her is quite chilling and leading nicely into the aftermath revelations that take place inside the house where the creature goes after them and brings about a really nice twist-ending in the hospital where the trip through the two dimensions dealing with the great revelation that's pretty nicely handled here. Likewise, the fact that there's not a whole lot of action within this yet it still remains at a nice watchability factor is a solid point here by forging the engrossing mystery about her and the connection to the deaths so that even without a whole lot happening this one is still quite entertaining and somewhat enjoyable. While these make this one better than it should be, there's still a few flaws here. One of the main flaws here is the fact that this one's so low-budget that there's just not a whole lot of appealing work in its main worthwhile elements. The Krampus himself doesn't appear on- screen all that often, and it's such utterly cheap CGI that it's hard to really feel any kind of fear from the creature with there not being much to base his fear off of. The low-budget extends to the rest of film by containing barely any action at all except for the few brief, minor kills scattered throughout here since the majority of the film is dedicated to the investigation which ends up resulting in overly bland scenes that go on endlessly in these cramped, closed-in locations that really showcase how little actually happens within this one. As well, there's never any real link here between the girl and the creature which is never quite explained here, leading to a confusing reason why he's the one selected to go out killing the people as this never seems to offer a concrete explanation for this particular creature to be here and makes it quite weird why he's here at all. These here really lower this one somewhat.Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence, Full Nudity, several sex scenes and children-in-jeopardy.

The writing was awful. The writers don't seem to have a grasp on how conversations work, how children speak, or how a person in any specific profession would speak. It only took me the first few lines to realize this. At that point, I almost gave up on the whole movie but kept watching, hoping it would improve. The writers continued to disappoint throughout the film. Example: Why would a child psychiatrist say she was with the police? It makes no sense for the character to introduce herself as anything other than what she was. The acting was not good. The actors'deliveries of lines were unconvincing and interaction between characters was inorganic. Costume and makeup were also a problem. The psychiatrist had WAY too much makeup that made her look like a hooker rather than a professional. Every time she got out of bed, I swear she was wearing a different outfit than the one she was wearing when she got INTO bed. The costumes of the police officers looked like they came from a Halloween store. Continuing the topic of aesthetics, the CGI of Krampus was unimpressive, lacking color, and not even close to realistic. It looks like it was created by an unpaid college intern. While I'm on the topic of tech, I should also mention that the film editing was awkward. Some of the transitions between scenes were strange, and short, unnecessary scenes were kept in that didn't help move the plot. The story line was interesting but the end was disappointing, confusing, and left a lot of questions unanswered for seemingly no reason. This could have been a great movie if anyone involved had any talent, whatsoever. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

Well, the only good thing about the movie is the story line but don't let that fool you. First of all, the acting - mmmm no acting at all in this film. I starting laughing when she (the Psychiatrist) walks into the hospital and speaks with the reception. Not sure what happened there but that lady sitting behind the desk just didn't seem comfortable with her 2 minutes of screen time.All the actors seemed to be robotic, in slow motion and even when they walked, it wasn't realistic. The whole feel of the film wasn't realistic. The conversation between the people dragged out and so slow, I was getting nervous and began shouting at the screen for them to hurry up and finish their dialogue. Certain scenes didn't make sense either. One scene where a woman starts to cry over her husband. Here we were to think he died recently. She starts to overact with her tears, sobbing like a crazed woman when we find out he has been dead for around 20 years!The young girl, I think she thought she was ideal for the role. At times she did a not too bad scene but again, not good enough to make me believe her character.The effects were nothing great - made for television effects and Krampus himself, looked good in the dark shots but when you saw him whole and in the light, well, you be the judge.