Generally speaking, my knowledge of directorial style is minimal, and I tend to avoid reviews of a film before I watch it. This allows me to enjoy a film completely on its own merits - at least in theory.
As such, I'd theorized heading in that Krampus was going to be a more serious look at the legend of Krampus. And for the first 20-30 minutes or so, that was correct.
The opening Black Friday scene was poignant, and while light-hearted, definitely set a consumerism undertone that would seem to undermine the spirit of the season. That was followed with an excellent, ominous scene where one of the protagonists was alone and scared outside, and the tension began to mount.
And then... well, the campier elements of the movie came through. Picking up at around the 40 minute mark, it moved sharply aware from genuine horror and well into the goofy/over-the-top gags that quickly stripped any actual possibility of night terrors. There were, however, a couple of good laughs - not least of which was the exact moment that led from the switch of dark and foreboding to "Oh. I see. So it's going to be like that."
The rest of the film was a little shlocky, but enjoyably so. I'm happy enough that I watched it.
Kramp'd Up
Generally speaking, my knowledge of directorial style is minimal, and I tend to avoid reviews of a film before I watch it. This allows me to enjoy a film completely on its own merits - at least in theory.
As such, I'd theorized heading in that Krampus was going to be a more serious look at the legend of Krampus. And for the first 20-30 minutes or so, that was correct.
The opening Black Friday scene was poignant, and while light-hearted, definitely set a consumerism undertone that would seem to undermine the spirit of the season. That was followed with an excellent, ominous scene where one of the protagonists was alone and scared outside, and the tension began to mount.
And then... well, the campier elements of the movie came through. Picking up at around the 40 minute mark, it moved sharply aware from genuine horror and well into the goofy/over-the-top gags that quickly stripped any actual possibility of night terrors. There were, however, a couple of good laughs - not least of which was the exact moment that led from the switch of dark and foreboding to "Oh. I see. So it's going to be like that."
The rest of the film was a little shlocky, but enjoyably so. I'm happy enough that I watched it.