Krampus: The Christmas Devil (2013)

   
Produced, Written, Edited, Cinematographed & Directed by: Jason Hull

Starring:

.... Jeremy Duffin
.... Captain Gil Farabee
.... Santa Claus
.... Bartender Harry
.... Brian Hatt
.... Rebecca Duffin
.... Bob Norris

Release Dates: Direct-to-DVD: August 21, 2013

Rating:

 

A troubled police officer Jeremy Duffin (A.J. Leslie) can't shake off his past in which he survives a deadly incident when he was a naughty child caused by a demonic Krampus who works for Santa Claus (Paul Ferm) to do away with bad children.
Around the world children begin missing and he goes on a search to find who's been doing this and pieces the deadly clues together realising the shocking truth.

 

A fair decent amount of shots that we see in the beginning with this Krampus dragging a child in a bag to an icy lake but yet the moments that occur later on with this child jumping out of the water and running away didn't look effective like it was supposed to have been along with him running back to his home and seeing an emotional mother having an argument with her husband and so fourth as all of this looked terribly amateurish.
A nice opening credits with pages turning showing the title as well as to who stars in it and so fourth.
Then there's pointless discussions with Jeremy Duffin talking to Captain Gil Farabee about the cases on what is going on with naughty people and the slayings along with discussing his childhood past. The film was definetely off to a bad start.
However things start to improve as we spot Santa approaching Krampus but his outfit looked like a typical Santa suit and he discusses to the Krampus on finding the naughty people and what to do in which the situations looked mildly cheesy but dark looking too as this can shock children thinking that Santa has a dark side if any child misbehaves at all.
The action packed fun really starts when some hunters try to track down Krampus out in the wooded area and we see this creature doing his spins and other deadly movements to snuff out these rednecks along with fun cheesy slow motion shots on all of this.
Exploitation comes into the moment when a topless woman is tied up in some sort of a cave involving Krampus and Santa himself but with this whiney snivelling woman it looked too annoying and over the top. However the moments in this scene improves a great deal when Santa is harshly cussing out a child trapped in a cage giving him deadly threats for the bad things that he did to an animal as well as to what will happen if he does it again. This was another scene that would freak out children who believes in the supposed jolly fellow.
Anyone who saw this will remember this scene big time.
Yet things get sloppy once again when there's a dispute in a bar and a fight breaks out as this looked amateurish at it's worst and not strong enough of a scene. It was laughable and not in a good way expecially with the interactions within everyone.
Rolling along in the story it picks up once again when Rebecca Duffin receives a knock at the door and are greeted by some rednecks as they barge in and start to cause trouble as this looked mildly disturbing to watch even if the performances seemed quite amateurish but however the writing looked decent with a happy family being invaded and changing things around. It's interesting when the head redneck Brian Hatt getting into her face even if this situation was cheesy but at the same time quite psychological with lots of tension. I got the feeling that Krampus will pay this crazy asshole a deadly visit and boy do things look impressive when he gets his in the end.
Yet the endings seemed to lack something as it looked like the filmmakers were out of ideas as to what it should come out as but yet a sequel arose.
Bottom line is that the film was amateurish, stupid and pointless but yet I kinda dug it so call me kookie as it was campy fun seeing the darkness on this demon as well as getting a kick out of seeing Santa's evil side which can scare the shit out of children who still believes in him making them scared to never be naughty again. Not a good idea to let them watch this one for sure. Silent Night Deadly Night parents freaked out when it hit cinema's picketing it but nowadays that looks harmless when we see an actual wicked and vulgar Santa in this one.

The acting is terrible in which (Jeremy Duffin) had the right looks for his role as a detective but couldn't act worth shit. He was just saying his lines and was over the top with his aggressions or acting anxious along with lacking energy big time. He just doesn't cut it at all. No gold star for this fellow whatsoever.
(Captain Gil Farabee) was alot better in his role. In fact he was probably the best out of the whole cast in which he brought some charm and spunk into whatever he did on the screen. He represented himself very well and had the right looks for this part. He just passes as a character actor though.
(Santa Claus) I will never forget as a demented and obnoxious father christmas although he acted over the top with his aggressions and was a little rusty in his role. Yet I watched his performance just for kicks and he knew on how to speak firm and coldly too so there were the odd nice pointers to his characteristics.
(Brian Hatt) was too silly to be taken seriously as a demented redneck with his rage and obnoxious attitude. He was quite annoying whenever he got loud or in someone's face. However he seemed quite memorable by what he did here at the same time. He was just another performer that I had fun watching.
(Rebecca Duffin) lacked with her energy and characteristics and wasn't convincing with her sobbing behavior too much but at times can act emotionally scared . I have seen worst performances though.
She's better than most of the cast in this flick I must admit.
(Bob Norris) offered the perfect rugged looks and motive as a hunter in which he seemed to do his part passably and really getting into the hunting scene just by having a good driving force. I will remember his supporting role even if it wasn't too big.

A woman is barebreasted and tied up in a cave where Santa and Krampus hides out.

Bloodied faces are revealed.
A heart is ripped out and crushed.

Aaron Forsyth does quite a nice job for the most part as he has airy and dark wavy synthesizer sound effects blending in on what goes on in the atory as well as some good beating sounds especially for a scene when a bunch of hunters try to track down the Krampus character in the woods. At times there's synthesizer music that didn't seem to sound great but it was only a small portion of that moment. The rest was well composed regardless.