Ten Days of Terror!: Krampus

Film: Krampus
Format: Streaming video from AMC+ on Fire!

Halloween is the holiday most clearly associated with horror, but there’s a definite connection between holidays and horror in general. Aside from Halloween, no holiday connects to the terrifying as readily or as often as Christmas. That being the case, it seems surprising that it took until 2015 for someone to come up with the idea of Krampus. The ancient Krampus mythology is both clearly horror-connected and Christmas-themed. In a world of Santa’s Slay and Christmas Evil and Silent Night Deadly Night, a Krampus story seems like low-hanging fruit.

The Krampus legend is of a dark Santa Claus who punishes naughty children in December. According to folklore, Krampus shows up on December 5 and beats bad children with switches and sometimes kidnaps the more poorly-behaved kids. His appearance is demonic—horns, cloven hooves, and chains. As a pagan creation, more than a little of the creature has been incorporated into Christian folklore as Satan. Regardless, a giant Christmas monster is a natural choice for a horror movie.

Know the Traditions

Films: Trick ‘r Treat
Format: DVD from Manteno Public Library through interlibrary loan on the new portable.

Why are so many horror movies anthologies? I think the reason is that it’s easy enough to work out a shock ending or a couple of good scares in a few minutes without needing the audience to invest too much in the actual story. It’s the same reason that roller coasters don’t go on for 10 minutes. It’s possible to create something that gives the audience a quick thrill and then moves on. This is the downfall of a lot of horror anthologies. It’s the strength of Trick ‘r Treat, though, for a lot of reasons.

What I mean is that most anthologies give us a framing story that appears at the start and end, and usually between the individual stories as well. That’s not the case with Trick ‘r Treat. While there are long pieces of the film that do follow a particular story, all of the stories are intertwined in minor ways. We see something in the first story, and then see it from a different perspective in the next. We see the main character of one story in the background of another. So, all of the stories are tied in the sense that they take place I the same town and on the same night, but are also completely individual. As usual, I’ll break these stories down individually.