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Overview
It’s Christmas, which means it’s time for feel good holiday movies. That is, of course, unless you’re coming to this podcast – which it seems you are. Throw out the fuzzy feelings for a cliché holiday romance – it’s time to learn about Santa’s partner.
While Krampus doesn’t get the publicity that the red suited guy does, he has played an important part of the holiday tradition around the world. If you are looking for a different type of festive, holiday movie – this will do it.
It’s definitely another dark fairytale of a story. Being at Christmas makes things just that much more creepy. This big production will make you think twice about your wishes and how you feel at the end of the year. Especially if you live in Ohio – like we do.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3850590/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus_(film)
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Transcript
[00:00:49] Stephen: okay, so this is season two, episode six. So we’re moving right along.
[00:00:56] Rhys: Yes, Krampus by all intents and purposes, [00:01:00] this is actually a big budget us film, right? Distributed by universal came out in 2015, it had a $15 million budget, and you’re going to recognize tons of people in the cast. So
[00:01:15] Stephen: one guy with the horns, he seems so familiar.
No I’ve seen him in something else.
[00:01:19] Rhys: So this is a horror comedy. It’s also a dark fairy tale with clear opening, closing and obvious. Good enable elements, not unlike a mamma.
[00:01:30] Stephen: Yeah. And the comedy part is very dark kind of mortuary humor. It’s laugh out loud at the funny jokes humor, except for the,
[00:01:41] Rhys: this is not, uh, this is not Tucker and Dale versus evil.
This is a little darker.
[00:01:50] Stephen: Krampus movie, because we both commented that we’ve seen malt, especially the ones from the library. They’re just horrible. There’s [00:02:00] so many out there. Yeah. It’s funny too, because in today’s world with the tech and the tools, you can’t say it’s a bad movie because you didn’t have the right equipment.
It’s okay. You have a bad movie because it’s a bad story and you’re a bad movie teller, videographer, whatever everybody has to start somewhere. I get that. But
[00:02:23] Rhys: no, come at us bad Krampus movie guys.
[00:02:27] Stephen: That’s what that should be. That should be our season bonus. All the bad cramp has movies in one go.
[00:02:32] Rhys: Yeah, I know those are.
I
couldn’t
[00:02:33] Stephen: do that. No, I had to stop a few of them. Do I’ve seen.
[00:02:40] Rhys: And this one, which was good, it was well rewarded because $15 million budget spent $61 million return. So it only wasn’t profitable for about four times. It’s not based on a book, but there is, it became like a [00:03:00] cultural kind of icon thing. So there’s a graphic novel that was based off of the movie. And then all kinds of merchandise with like little statuettes pins, masks, et
[00:03:10] Stephen: cetera.
Yeah. Until this movie came out, I really didn’t hear a lot about Krampus in the cultural lexicon, anywhere since this movie, I’ve seen it a lot more and maybe it’s just because now I’m noticing it. But I think, cause I know there, we saw something, Josh gates did legendary locations and there’s one of the Netherland type countries.
I believe they have a Krampus festival and they all dress up. And if you get 10 scares, you get initiated into the hall of fame.
[00:03:39] Rhys: Yeah, the movie is based on Austria, Bavarian folklore figure Krampus, who is our visiting person. He visits your house well,
[00:03:49] Stephen: so does the aunt and the crazy uncle and that’s right.
[00:03:53] Rhys: The family visits as well. Yes.
[00:03:56] Stephen: And this is a great Christmas movie. It’s a feel good movie, just [00:04:00] like a Christmas Carol it’s right up those lines.
[00:04:02] Rhys: Michael Doherty is the guy who wrote and directed it. And he said he wanted the first, third of the movie to just be a Christmas movie. And it was not a horror thing and it, yeah, he did a very good job of that.
It’s not identifiable. You can relate to it. Right. You know
[00:04:19] Stephen: of joking about the Christmas grow. Cause it doesn’t leave you with a wonderful feeling like that.
[00:04:24] Rhys: No, but he does reference that. Yes, he absolutely does.
On December 5th, traditionally Saint Nicholas would come and visit houses and Krampus would come along with him. And St. Nick would gift good kids with food stuffs, basically put my glasses on and Krampus would come along with a whole bunch of rods made out of Birch called rutin, and he would beat the bad kids with it.
He wasn’t, it didn’t start with him taking people to hell
[00:04:56] Stephen: really the American version of Santa Claus. Then [00:05:00] it really is the Disney fied version of the fairytale. Make it all nice and wholesome.
[00:05:07] Rhys: Yeah. It’s the wizard of Oz. If you take the wicked witch out of the whole deal and the monkeys after 1932, Germany prohibited Krampus tradition.
Because they thought that it was bad. The fall, the Nazi regime, it was no longer prohibited, but in the fifties, the German government distributed anti Krampus propaganda in an effort to tamp down the popularity of Krampus. I find that, yeah, Krampus Nacht is the, is the nights that they, uh, celebrate Krampus.
They still celebrate him around December 5th. And the movie release was supposed to originally be November 25th, but they moved it to 12, four to coincide with Krampus knocks at the next day. That’s nice. Yeah. It was a clever idea.
[00:05:56] Stephen: Not that anybody really knew it. A few
[00:05:58] Rhys: people broadly. Yeah. If you happen to be [00:06:00] from Germany or Austria, that area, his appearance has changed a little bit over the years, but he’s always shown with cloven hooves horns and a long tongue.
Krampus that we see in the movie was built off of images from historic documents, postcards, and stuff like that, that he was on. They basically took a bunch of them, put them together and were like, ah, here’s what we think our grandpa’s lists. I think that’s
[00:06:30] Stephen: pretty cool. Cause I like some of the old English Victorian era type Christmas paintings, drawings, advertising, and all that kind of look.
Exactly. Yeah. And I can see that with this. And I’ll say I got a note for this later, but the creatures, the costumes, everything that is super fantastic in this movie. I absolutely loved every bit of it. And it looked like it was all practical. I don’t know if there was any CGI going on, maybe a little, but it looked [00:07:00] practical for the most part.
[00:07:01] Rhys: So the CGI, when we get to it, you’ll be like, I can’t believe that was actually CGI because. The vast majority of the CGI that happened here had nothing to do with the characters. Was everything
[00:07:15] Stephen: else. Okay. I can see the gingerbread, but like Krampus his outfit and the ELs and the mass they had on it is pretty fantastic.
I loved all of that. It didn’t look rubbery.
[00:07:25] Rhys: Hokey. Yeah. Krampus typically works alone. Or sometimes in the old days, he would travel around with St. Nick. They introduced this concept in the movie of having him have little helpers. And that actually did occur sometimes because he was popular in the Alps.
You’d have small communities that were isolated from each other and they would have different traditions. And so some of those places, he would have helpers and some of them, they would not. But the elves that are in this movie are based off of the Icelandic Yule lads who are Icelandic Christmas [00:08:00] figures and with names like bold liquor and spoon liquor, and Billy Gock in sausage swiper.
Yeah.
[00:08:07] Stephen: The ones that snow white stayed with.
[00:08:10] Rhys: No, definitely not. Um, so he was merging different obscure, ethnic Christmas traditions into this movie when he made it the vast majority of this movie, 95% of it was shot on the sound stage. That means they had to make up a bunch of stuff while they were doing it.
The one notable part that was not shot on a soundstage was the opening scene in the department store. And that was actually shot in a department store in New Zealand of all places. The movie was written by Michael Doherty with his friends, Zach shields and Todd Casey and Jordy wanted to do a Christmas horror film.
And he was looking at her, looking around for concepts and came across the idea of Krampus and just loved it. It was supposed to be rated R [00:09:00] but they couldn’t come up with financing because it was a Christmas based movie. So they agreed to drop it to a PG 13 and then a universal green-lit. Yeah.
[00:09:10] Stephen: And it’s still pretty horrific in spots.
They do the, the good old what’s happening, but we’re not going to show it, which is fantastic.
[00:09:20] Rhys: There’s actually one of the most controversial scenes that they left in that almost got them on our rating is they’re all sitting around with their aunt who spikes the hot chocolate and an under-aged kid drinks, the hot chocolate.
Wow. That is, yeah, that was one of the things that almost put them over the edge. Giant clown Jack in the box, monster swallowing children hole or anything like that. We can’t have the kids drinking spiked, hot chocolate,
[00:09:49] Stephen: which
[00:09:49] Rhys: never happens. Yeah. Yeah. So Michael Doherty likens his movie to a Christmas Carol, and it’s a wonderful life where you have broken characters who are shown, um, [00:10:00] the error of their ways through visits from supernatural forces.
And I, I can see that I can see the correlation between the two.
[00:10:10] Stephen: Yeah. And a little bit of Christmas vacation in
[00:10:12] Rhys: there. Yeah, sure. So now the people involved, you have Michael Doherty who worked as a writer on 15 films and directed eight of these, the Hellraiser TV series X to the second X-Men movie, Superman returns.
[00:10:27] Stephen: I knew I recognized his name. I didn’t look it up, but yeah, the trick or treat
[00:10:32] Rhys: titles, those horror movies. Those are his. X-Men apocalypse Godzilla king of monsters, Godzilla vs. Kong. He’s even acted in four titles uncredited as with walk-ons in Superman returns and Godzilla king of monsters. And then two others that you wouldn’t have heard
[00:10:49] Stephen: of.
He was the person squished between Godzilla’s toes.
[00:10:54] Rhys: Yes, exactly. So holiday horror movies is a thing for him. Now. Now he’s got Halloween [00:11:00] and Christmas under his belt. He’s working on trick or treat to which he promises will get a hard R rating despite whatever financing he can come up with. But with these two titles under his belt, I imagine he’ll be able to find people willing to give him some money.
Adam Scott is in this movie, he plays Tom, the dad. He has been in 123 things. Most people know. Yeah. Most people know him from parks and rec. His first acting job was in the drive video for Ram. That was his first gig. Oh man, I
[00:11:32] Stephen: got to go look that up.
[00:11:34] Rhys: Uh, huh? Yeah. He’s also been an ER boy meets world and my PD blue.
He was in hell raiser, bloodline, star Trek, first contact CSI, Miami Veronica, Mars law, and order American dad. The Beastie boys fight for your right revisited documentary must have hosted that or something. I don’t know. Parks and rec robot chicken, drunk history, hot tub time machine to [00:12:00] beep wet hot American summer 10 years later.
I don’t know. Did you ever watch wet hot American summer? It’s a, yeah, it’s a spoof of the eighties, summer camp musical genre. So there’s this little evil he was in that. That was a pretty good little horror comedy as well. He was also in the good place. He plays a bastard. Well, it’s 2000. Yeah.
[00:12:24] Stephen: Cause I, I think of him, he’s always a nerd.
Geek
[00:12:26] Rhys: was a nice guy. He’s like some major demon in the good place. It would be worth seeing that the Twilight zone, the 2019 version, big little lies. And he also does voiceover and big. So Adam Scott, very well-known Toni Collette plays the mom. Sarah she’s been an 87 films and some of them are amazing horror films in sixth sense.
She was in the room. Yeah. She was in the remake of shaft dinner with friends, little miss sunshine, the dead [00:13:00] girl. She was in the 2011 remake of fright nights. She was in Hitchcock. She was in triple X reserve returned Zander cage. That is a lot of horror. Yeah. Please stand by. She was the mom in Heredia.
Which is an awesome horror film. If you get the chance to see that
she’s
[00:13:18] Stephen: one of those actresses, I’m like, oh, I recognize that name. And it clicks that. I like what she’s in usually, but I can’t name stuff. She’s been, it’s just one of those things. She reminds me, or actually Jessica Chesney and reminds me of Tony Cola a lot in their looks and the way their mannerisms are.
[00:13:37] Rhys: She was also in velvet buzzsaw, which is a horror movie based on the art industry. And she was in I’m thinking of ending things, which if you haven’t seen, that’s a pretty good, surreal little trip as well as knives out. And ironically, she was in a video for arcane fire for money and love. I don’t know what it is at these people in music
[00:13:55] Stephen: videos, but coming up from the eighties, that was big, you know, [00:14:00] thing to be in at the
[00:14:00] Rhys: time.
Oh yeah. David Keltner plays Howard the uncle and put on your long, your running shoes, he’s been in 202 movies. Yeah, he’s been in everything from Jamie Fox show mad about you. Wag the dog, love boat. The next wave Dharma and Greg Austin Powers aspire shag me WWE raw and SmackDown. He’s repeated character on late night with Conan O’Brien American girl curb, your enthusiasm anchorman afternoon delight anchorman legend of Ron burgundy, 2005 remake of the Dukes of Hazzard 40 year old Virgin.
Thank you for smoking. Larry, the cable guy, health inspector, Talladega nights, barnyard Reno, 9 1, 1 snakes on a plane, tenacious D another music based thing. Jimmy Kimmel wife. He plays this character called T-bone. Sue’s like a blues musician, which is what he wasn’t going to know. Brian and Jimmy came alive.
Let’s see king of the hill monk, final [00:15:00] destination five, Chuck Kung Fu Panda, legends of awesomeness, even in. Parana 300, the office Phineas and Ferb anchorman, two chips, the 2017 remake twin peaks, the 2017 remake drunk history, the epic tales of captain underpants, American dad, the Goldbergs and F is for family.
[00:15:24] Stephen: So he’s one of those people that you can quiz people like, ah, name something else he’s been in. Cause you’ve probably seen him and you may even go, I recognize him, but it’s never that big blockbuster leading heart, but he was great in it.
[00:15:39] Rhys: Oh yeah. He’s I don’t know that I’ve seen him in a movie that I was like, wait, that was a poor performance by David Keltner.
Yeah.
[00:15:46] Stephen: Yeah. Hey, he, he, there’s something to be said for making a living and doing what you love, but not necessarily being that walked down the red carpet with the paparazzi.
[00:15:57] Rhys: Our firsts for us. Um, the [00:16:00] first is Alison Tobin and she plays Linda, the aunt, the young aunt, she’s been in 42 different things and she got her start on Barney.
And Fred was the first horror movie actress we have who ever played in Barney and fringe.
[00:16:15] Stephen: The day they first appeared on the Mouseketeers. There’s the nineties version.
[00:16:22] Rhys: She’s also been in the Mindy project, Archer Fargo, the series, Brooklyn nine, nine drunk history and castle rock, and a movie called the last shift, which is actually pretty good.
MJ, Anthony plays max, he’s got 19 credits to his name, including it’s complicated. Grey’s anatomy, the mentalist divergent insurgent. He was in the divergent series at the 2016 version of the jungle book. And he is the kid in incarnate, which is yet another horror. Here’s the other person. Who’s got a first for us.
she plays aunt Dorothy. [00:17:00] And when you see her, you’ve seen her, she’s been in 131 things and her first acting job was in mod. Wow. Yes, man. I got to go through the list of stuff that she’s in, that you’ll recognize. And it’s going to sound like a Netflix let’s reboot shows from the eighties lists. She was in mod.
She was in network. She was in one day at a time. She was in the Rockford files. Good times. The love boat, knots landing BJ, and the bear Quincy Cagney and Lacey St. Elsewhere, American Playhouse, E slash R, which was emergency room Matlock night court. Who’s the boss mystic pizza murder. She wrote Edward Scissorhands, LA law Walker, Texas ranger Buffy the vampire Slayer series.
Touched by an angel JAG, Erin Brockovich, apex, E R [00:18:00] as in the one, everyone thinks about Sabrina, the teenage witch, the wild porn bird. Thornberries judging Amy two-and-a-half men, grace and Frankie Axe murders of the Alaska. She died in 2020. Oh man. Just passed away last year. But she has, she’s one of those people has been in a lot of things.
You’ve seen her in stuff and she’s actually at one point in time showed up in almost every show that you and I ever watched
[00:18:26] Stephen: as a kid. Oh geez. I seen everything on that list. Probably why she looked familiar to seem familiar.
[00:18:34] Rhys: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Stephanie lovey Owen played Beth sister. The only other thing that I could think of that she was in that you’d recognize if you’ve seen it.
She was in that new show on Netflix. Sweet tooth.
[00:18:45] Stephen: I haven’t seen it yet. It’s on the list.
[00:18:48] Rhys: But she gets mentioned because Lolo Owen who plays her cousin, Stevie is actually a little sister. So the two of them were related. So the big sister and the one cousin were [00:19:00] actual sisters originally dirty, wanted to use the universal logo from the 1980s to the kind of grainy one that you could tell was hand animated.
But instead they went with this frozen look, which is how the movie opens as it like scrolls across. And it’s all covered in ice. And the world’s covered in ice. The movies
[00:19:19] Stephen: actually Christmas-y feel, but almost not. It was a good opening for that.
[00:19:25] Rhys: Yeah. It just
[00:19:25] Stephen: makes you cold. Some of us are more used to it if you were just born the wrong time of the year.
[00:19:30] Rhys: Yeah. Um, oh, it’s set in Ohio in Columbus and there’s really nothing in the movie to jump out and say, this is Columbus, but there’s a radio broadcast. That lists, Delaware county, Franklin county, and all these other counties that are affected by this blizzard that’s hitting. And all of those counties are around Columbus, Ohio.
I totally
[00:19:56] Stephen: missed that.
[00:19:57] Rhys: Yeah. It’s pretty subtle. Yeah. [00:20:00] So the movie begins, there’s a, it’s a Bing Crosby singing. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, great version of it. And it is this department store opening up and there are shoppers just rushing in and fights are breaking out between them and other people over toys.
The people that the store is beautifully decorated, right? So you go in and it just looks astonishing. And that contrast, so starkly with this security guys who are like smiling as they’re tasing, somebody lying on the floor, the drooling board, looking checkout people and all of the horrible adults sitting there face.
Th the, the
[00:20:43] Stephen: beginning here is definitely a political statement. When you look at it, because you can take that whole beginning part out and you still have the rest of the story, because it’s not directly tied to the soil. It’s not like reference back. It sets the mood and the tone. [00:21:00] Yeah. I’m watching, it’s going.
Yeah. He’s making a statement that this is the spirit of Christmas that’s being killed. This is where it’s dying. We use this fairytale character as the epitome of that, but it’s this let’s kill everybody so we can get that $50 off the VCR. So there’s definitely a political statement for consumerism at the beginning.
[00:21:19] Rhys: There’s two actual themes that run throughout the entire movie. And I made notes of them as they popped up through the story. But the first is definitely that. The way we treat Christmas now is not how Christmas was meant to be treated. Absolutely. And this is a perfect example of it as this and this whole scene is shot in slow motion.
So you get to see all the poop kind of thing going on
[00:21:47] Stephen: the, over the top all the way, which is funny because you say it’s over the top, but then you hear reports that the exact stuff happens every year.
[00:21:55] Rhys: Yep. So they’re sitting there and there’s a scene of a [00:22:00] nativity going on and it’s slowly panning in and you’re like, huh.
And then you notice that two of the characters in the nativity are like rolling around on the floor and parents are like slowly getting up out of the audience, come rush up and stop this. And there’s even some girls standing there smiling, like recording it on her camera on one of the kids in the fight is max and the two parents getting up or Tom and Sarah and the girl recording it is Beth.
His sister. So aside from that scuffle and setting the tone you’re right. The scene didn’t really need to be there because in the next scene, they’re walking into the scene, opens with a black and white version of a Christmas Carol playing on the television and the door opens and incomes, Tom and Sarah and Beth and Matt and max is still in his reindeer thing.
And he’s got like a thing of frozen peas on his jaw where the kid punched him. And there’s this little [00:23:00] lady in the house making cutout cookies. She’s cooking cookies for Christmas. It’s so funny. You say that they call her OMI, but the cookies, this was actually more cared for your sister than your mom, because the cookies are Linzer cookies and they’re stolen bread up there as well as T O L E N, which are staples in Austrian Christmas baked goods.
So if your sister’s side is Steve’s sister does cooking it. If she saw it, she might be like, oh, that’s traditional Austrian food. The family is of Austrian descent.
[00:23:36] Stephen: Linzer cookies almost every year. There you go. Yep. I think my mom had the same apron too,
[00:23:44] Rhys: but your mom doesn’t speak German. Does she?
[00:23:46] Stephen: No, but my grandmother did because my grandmother and great-grandmother, we get into arguments and start yelling.
And so we knew what the German swear words were, even if we weren’t sure what they meant originally
[00:23:56] Rhys: Darity was going to make OMI death, [00:24:00] but instead he decided to make her Germanic. And so throughout the movie, she’s always speaking in German. Everyone speaks to her in English, but she always replies in German and only Tom and max actually seemed to know what she’s saying.
And she speaks,
[00:24:14] Stephen: uh, Charlie brown and Snoopy. Yeah. Or Luke and our two.
[00:24:20] Rhys: The parents are berating max for fighting at the nativity and he’s defending it cause he’s like the shepherd was this bully he’s so on the first graders that Santa wasn’t real, and here’s where we get to see the contrast of his theme.
Here. You have two camps in the household. You have Amin and max who believe and appreciate Christmas for what it is and what it’s always been. Then you have mom, dad, and the sister who were just going about their everyday lives, just wearing Christmas, like a coat. Like it’s a decoration for them. That’s a good, yeah.
So you, you have the people who really fully believe [00:25:00] in it. And then you have the people who don’t and it turns out Max’s even written a letter to Santa and he needs to finish it before it gets sent. It cuts to Sarah. Who’s putting up family pictures on the wall, all perfectly aligned. And she’s arguing with Beth over the fact that her sister and her sister’s family are coming over for Christmas.
And Beth is, that’s why some people shouldn’t be allowed to breed your words, mom, not mine. Then she storms off terrace. I didn’t say that. I said they should have to take a test. And then when she’s done saying that she looks at one of the pictures and she notices that it’s a family photo and Santa is like a perv and it’s like leering at him.
Her daughter is standing to his left, which again is just setting the tone of this is not really what Christmas is supposed to be about. We cut from that horrible scene to OMI and max who are wrapping a gift that she’s laying out, basically the general [00:26:00] brief story. And here’s the second theme. She speaking of St.
Nick cause masks, max asks her if she still believes. And she says, the magic of Christmas is there and it’s what you make. And as she’s saying this, her smile fades away and she seems uneasy. And if you look at the movie as a whole, she’s right, the magic Christmas is there. And when she says, it’s what you make of it, she doesn’t mean you can either have it be a good thing or not.
She means you can either make it be a good thing, or it can be really bad. The magic of Christmas flows both ways for OMI. We then cut to Beth who was in her room, video chatting with her boyfriend, whose name I don’t even remember about how awful Christmas is going to be. And the whole room starts to shake, but
[00:26:49] Stephen: he’s got a candy king bond hearing, especially if he uses it, then he’s probably really in the spirit.
Yes.
[00:26:55] Rhys: All is good because all [00:27:00] teenagers smoke weed, all teenagers, video
[00:27:03] Stephen: chat, it might be legal in.
[00:27:06] Rhys: He’s in Ohio. Remember, unless he’s got glaucoma, that’s not legit. I’m sure he does. I’m sure he does. So that’s what Beth is doing. The house starts to shake Thomas in his study, pouring alcohol into a coffee mug and the wall starts to shake.
Max is sitting at the table, hastily putting the finishing touches on his mug. And Sarah is not his mug. It’s putting his finishing touches on his letter. And Sarah is gearing up for getting ready to open the door because it turns out that rattling is. Sister’s family arriving in their monster vehicle.
[00:27:48] Stephen: Again, Christmas vacation reference layer.
[00:27:51] Rhys: Yes. She opens the door and she’s like Merry Christmas with a smile on her face after she takes a really deep breath. Oh yeah. [00:28:00] Her sister Linda comes in and explaining how bad the roads are and how miserable trip was. And then her older son, Howie, I guess our only son Howie junior comes in Hanser this potato and cheese casserole, which I thought looked awesome.
I looked good. And she’s rolling their eyes
[00:28:20] Stephen: about, oh geez. I thought it was Mac and cheese with hotdogs. Cause they reference it later and they’re eating.
[00:28:26] Rhys: Oh man, that sounds pretty good too. I’d be happy with that. Incomes. Her husband Howard Sr. He’s played by David. He’s carrying a whole bunch of, of gifts and Tom’s gonna offer to help him.
And then he acts, he drops them and he starts belittling Tom, like right away because Howard is 110% toxic masculinity. That’s all he is. Everything’s man,
[00:28:53] Stephen: if you’re not and the sports and hunting, then you’re worthless. Yes. It shows with his [00:29:00] daughters.
[00:29:01] Rhys: Correct. He has two older daughters who come in Stephanie and the other one’s name escapes me, but we’ll come up with eventually Stevie and then the other one’s name escapes me.
It’s like, Jesse, maybe I forget. But they come in there. They’re pretty bulky. And they also have an infant that they forget that they leave in the car to send someone back out. They brought their books. But the most annoying thing is they brought big fat and too, and that’s what finally puts Sarah over the line.
And she pulls her sister-in-law aside and she’s like, what are you doing? Bringing her here. And she, she showed up at the door with a suitcase. We didn’t know what else to do.
[00:29:42] Stephen: I love aunt Dorothy. She has the best lines throughout the whole movie. Everything she says, that’s the humor part for me mostly is when aunt Dorothy opens her mouth that says something because she’s very pragmatic through the whole.
[00:29:56] Rhys: At one point in time, max says something and she is, I think the [00:30:00] boys should be given a metal for just telling it like it is. Yeah. There’s also this little scene where the sisters notice Sam’s letter sticking out of his pocket and they lift it. They’re they’re deft about it. Like he doesn’t know it’s the move.
The film then moves to the. Everyone’s sitting around the dinner table. And again,
[00:30:21] Stephen: um, there, there was one true horror part that you missed on, and this is coming from the parent perspective that they eat some sugary desserts before they eat dinner for a parent. That’s true horror.
[00:30:34] Rhys: That’s true. Yes. They’re sitting at the dinner table and we can see the contrast between the two families.
Let’s just lay it out. One is fake and pretentious and narcissistic, and the other is crude and cruel and toxically masculine. You got a belching kid and gun talk, and then you have Cornish hens and specially prepared fish. Um, so there’s obviously going to be conflicts between [00:31:00] these two,
[00:31:01] Stephen: the uncle who’s sitting at isn’t he seen at the head of the no he’s sitting on the side, but he has to pick on Adam Scott’s character.
Um, Scott’s not a real man, because he was an Eagle scout. Yes. He was an Eagle scout
[00:31:15] Rhys: hitting
[00:31:16] Stephen: Steve right there, which he said is true. We did a lot of wilderness survival.
[00:31:21] Rhys: Oh yeah, absolutely. So Sarah ends up basically telling everyone off because the food’s too rich and then she’s just, I’m going to go make desserts.
So she gets up to make dessert. The aunt comes into the kitchen and wants to see what’s for dessert. Cause you know, all this fancy food goes straight through her pipes. She says, which is actually a reference for something that’s going to happen. Two days later, she’s making crimper lays while she’s doing that.
The two sisters start to tease max about how Santa died in the sleigh crash, but he ate the reindeer first and he’s like getting all antsy drawn to dive off the table and take them out in his sister. [00:32:00] Calming him down there, how much
[00:32:02] Stephen: the sister didn’t want the family. They’re like, why is she should like, yeah, go get him.
Yeah.
[00:32:07] Rhys: So he was, he’s getting upset about it. They tease him about still believing in Santa and he’s no, I don’t. And then they’re like, then what’s this letter now he’s really starting to freak out and they start to read it out loud. And I think their thought was it was going to be very embarrassing for him, which it was, but it actually turns out to be more embarrassing for them, for everyone else.
Really, because max is actually asking Santa Claus to bring non-material things, make his parents love each other again, or help out uncle Howard and aunt Linda. Cause they’re really struggling like financially and help Stevie and Jesse, because it’s not their fault that uncle Howard always wanted a guy, always wanted a son and they like, they get upset by that.
Then the fight [00:33:00] breaks out. Max tackles, his cousins grabs the letter and says that he hates Christmas. And then the door opens and outcome Sarah prem, Berlin. We cut to Max’s room and he’s been crying. And Tom goes in like the beautiful father. And he says something that becomes another theme in this film.
And that’s that this is the time of year when we stop and think about family, whether we like them or not made you feel good there it does. But if you consider how Stevie and max get along at the start of the movie, and then you jump all the way to the end, there is this growth of character in that, regardless of what they thought about each other, when things were fine, when the chips are down and they’ve got each other’s back, max takes his letter to Santa and just tears it up to pieces and throws it out the.
And that’s it. That is the final spell for summoning Krampus. Because as soon as he does [00:34:00] clouds roll in, the weather gets nasty and everyone goes to bed. And the first sign you have that something is wrong is in the morning, max gets up and looks out his window and there’s this giant creepy snowman in his front yard.
Right.
[00:34:16] Stephen: And they’ve lost electricity by this time. And the screen goes black. I was, I really was waiting for one of those white letters to fade in and say like day 55. It was like a survival apocalypse. And if this is Ohio, that must’ve been sad, the blizzard of 78. So that’s what it seemed like.
[00:34:36] Rhys: Everybody’s got their cell phones.
Yeah. We don’t get snow like that. That’s true. Not anymore. He goes downstairs to tell his parents about the snowman and there is no power. There’s no phones. The blizzard is raging. Doorbell rings. There’s a DHL delivery. Um, he drops off a package and
[00:34:54] Stephen: Linda’s one dedicated, deliberated.
[00:34:59] Rhys: Linda’s [00:35:00] their signs for the package and the notices, this massive sack of gifts and asks if he brought those, he’s like, Nope, must be the boys and brown referring to ups.
So she brings all that in as well. Beth wants to go see your boyfriend who only lives a couple blocks away. So our moms, okay. Be back in an hour. And OMI is sitting in the camp in the living room with a fire. Sarah tells max to tell her, to get her away from the fire. And he goes over and here, she’s got this giant fire going and she’s making hot chocolate.
Chocolate makes everything better.
[00:35:34] Stephen: It was really, it really needs to be ultimate hot chocolate like me and Megan used to make a little bit of vanilla, some cinnamon, put some whipped cream on top sprinkles, couple extra additions.
[00:35:44] Rhys: It was a little thick. So it actually makes me think it was actual chocolate, hot chocolate, not in some sort of brown powder mix.
I believe so. Yeah. And again, watching this price was watching it with me. As [00:36:00] soon as Beth goes out, the door is she’s dead
[00:36:03] Stephen: one. Parent’s going to let their kid wander a couple blocks in the like worst blizzard ever. I was like, okay, that’s stretching it there. I can believe cramp is before I believe they let her just wander out into the, in the dad goes, oh, she’ll be fine.
You’re the Eagle Scouts talking about survival, man.
[00:36:21] Rhys: The holiday part of the movie is now over we’re to the horror movie
[00:36:26] Stephen: part. JJ Abrams has
[00:36:27] Rhys: arrived. Beth is walking down the street in this blizzard. Everything is frozen over and she’s looking around now. Here’s where we start to get into your CGI.
[00:36:37] Stephen: And number one, we talked about CGI.
I forgot to mention that when he was ripping up, the letter is when I first noticed how great the music was throughout this, because it really sets the mood and w fit that scene perfectly. And there’s some good music throughout the whole thing and good sound effects, especially when Krampus starts. So whoever was doing that were fantastic on this.
Yeah. The Foley
[00:36:57] Rhys: work is very good. The music even [00:37:00] has Christmas, Carol themes woven into it, which is brilliant. You’ll be listening to this setting music. And you’re like, is that silent
[00:37:07] Stephen: night? Just creepiness to it? Yep.
[00:37:10] Rhys: Yep. So special effects the fog and her breath added in post that’s all CGI.
[00:37:17] Stephen: Okay. Oh, on studio.
Okay. So they’re all sweating to death under those costumes.
[00:37:24] Rhys: Yep. Now the fake snow, that was legit. That’s diaper filling, but that’s what they use for all the fake snow. But are you ready for this? The houses are all CGI. Yes. Not only are they a CGI, they are, many of them are designed based off of famous houses from eighties movies.
[00:37:46] Stephen: Oh, that I absolutely love that. I mean that little Easter egg, but I don’t endear a movie to my heart right away. Yeah.
[00:37:54] Rhys: So I thought that was really cool. And it’s one of those things, how we talk about how CGI [00:38:00] doesn’t age, that’s like a perfect use of it. Yeah. Because it’s such in the background. No, one’s looking at it so you can get away with, if it gets dated over time.
No, one’s
[00:38:09] Stephen: going to notice. Yeah. I think that’s a perfect choice because like I said, they did for all the monsters, they did what practical costumes and they looked fantastic. They really put some time and money into those and they were great. They were wonderful. If it had been CGI, it would have looked more hokey, especially as time goes by.
So yeah, you’re right. That those decisions are perfect. It’s probably make this movie a classic for years.
[00:38:34] Rhys: Yep. And so Beth’s walking down the road and the blizzard, everything is frozen. And then she’s looking around, she looks up at this house and Krampus lands on the roof of the house, just this great big horned thing.
Just lands on the roof of the house and good crunchy sound effects. Yes. And Beth screams and starts to run and Krampus follows leaping from rooftop to rooftop.
[00:38:56] Stephen: I had the question that, so the boyfriend’s only a couple blocks away. So two, [00:39:00] three blocks. And maybe she’s halfway, maybe not, but she keeps running forward away from where her family is.
It just seemed, I don’t know.
[00:39:09] Rhys: She was actually walking like a six block loop so she could smoke a cigarette before she got there. She was taking the long route. She finds the DHL truck and like scrapes this frost away. And the driver is inside looking terrified and dead completely. Yes. So Beth Collins under the van, she’s hiding under the van and these huge.
Land near the van and walk around it, get to the front of the van and then leap away. You’re like, oh, I’ve never seen a horror movie. It must be okay.
[00:39:49] Stephen: Turn the page.
[00:39:50] Rhys: Yes. So she looks to her, right? And there’s a Jack in the box and a little handle is turning and it’s playing music all by itself, which is always a bad [00:40:00] scene.
And as it finishes, it opens and you see this kind of clown things start to emerge out. And then it cuts to the roof of the van and it starts to shake and she screaming. And that is the end of Beth. I could tease it along in the movie because there’s several times where Krampus uses Beth’s voice to lure people.
And I’m not going to do that to you. I’m just going to come right out and say it, but that’s done. That’s who’s
[00:40:27] Stephen: over from.
[00:40:30] Rhys: Yes. Max looks out his window and sees the second snowman, Tom and Sarah looking at the window and wondering where Beth is. And then Tom asks Howard. If he thinks his hammer will make it through the blizzard, which of course he’s like this Easton hit gas old, stopped or hit the beaches or Monday, and it’s got slow down.
And then the movie splits into two sections. And for the ease of just verbally narrating, we’re just going to do one section and then cut back to the other because it bounces back and forth. And I like [00:41:00] to think of it as like you’re out in the cold and then they come back to the living room where you can warm up a little bit and then they’re back out in the cold.
So the people outside is going, it’s going to be Tom and Howard. There’s some bonding happening as they’re driving down the road, they’re talking and they’re getting along. They run over this Christmas tree ornament as they’re approaching this abandoned snowplow keys are in the ignition there’s presence on the seat.
Photograph tucked up in the. Sun visor, but no people,
[00:41:30] Stephen: because she didn’t see a snowplow.
[00:41:32] Rhys: See, I told you she walks around the lawn.
[00:41:35] Stephen: Okay.
[00:41:37] Rhys: Yeah. The windshield has been punched in. So something came through the windshield from the outside and it would actually be hard to tell based on velocity and things like that.
But I can see you making that assumption that it’s been punched in. Then they know that the front, the house in front of them, the front door is open. And Howard goes back to the trunk of his Hummer and [00:42:00] gets out his gun, which you know, of course, he’s got to have a gun in the trunk of his car, the multiples out of shot.
Yeah. Pulls out a shotgun for him and hands a handgun to Howard, a hands of handgun, Tom and Tommy it’s heavy. Howard’s Jarrett is it’s Linda’s.
[00:42:18] Stephen: That was a pretty good line.
[00:42:20] Rhys: He’s got, not only does he have the shotgun, he’s got the shotgun with flashlight underneath it. Okay, so you want to go hunting something at night.
So they head into the house looking for Beth and her boyfriend. And something’s definitely gone on houses, turned upside down. There’s damage to the chimney. There’s a gingerbread pins to the refrigerator with a knife there’s goat hook prints, and then they hear Beth scream and they run outside for the scream.
And as we’ve already pointed out, that’s dead. Yep.
[00:42:51] Stephen: But this might be related to a, when to go. Is there a mimics and lower people out into the woods by sounding like somebody else he’s
[00:42:59] Rhys: got [00:43:00] such a cast of helpers with him? It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s got some Icelandic guy. That’s like Boyce, impersonator.
[00:43:08] Stephen: Yeah. That guy weird. Al always had the, did the fart noises with his hand.
[00:43:13] Rhys: They’re running out. See if they can find Beth and then something grabs something in the snow grabs Howard’s leg and begins to drag him. And I love
[00:43:21] Stephen: this because it really looked like a scene from jaws. Look like the great white God, them under the water was dragging them along.
[00:43:28] Rhys: Yeah. Tom grabs his hand and goes to pull them out and then let’s go. And it looks like Howard’s looking at him like what? You’re just letting me go. But he lets go to take the gun and shooting to the snow, whatever and knows how to shoot. He was on the rain
[00:43:44] Stephen: later. He opened that chamber and checks. He handles it professionally.
[00:43:49] Rhys: He does. However, I’m trying to think of any summer camp I ever went to, or we did a revolver shooting,
[00:43:58] Stephen: 20 twos maybe,
[00:43:59] Rhys: but a [00:44:00] handgun
[00:44:01] Stephen: firing. He did that later. Let’s say, yeah,
[00:44:06] Rhys: whatever it was, let’s go. And they had backed to the Hummer, but it’s been destroyed. It’s just a smoldering pile. That was the two of them.
Yeah. The two of them limped back to that. Meanwhile back at the house, the sisters are reminiscing over Christmas past, and then all of a sudden there’s noises from the direction of the roof, Sarah is the must be squirrels and then the whole house shakes. And then
[00:44:31] Stephen: he says in this weather rules,
[00:44:35] Rhys: the house shakes and Sarah doubles down yep.
See squirrels. And then aunt Dorothy is like playing with their nuts and OMI. Everwise OMI like leans into the fireplace and glances up the chimney. They hear Tom’s gunshot because they don’t live in the sticks like we do where everybody’s shooting all the time. And now [00:45:00] Sarah is like upset. So she’s getting dressed and she’s about to head outside when the guys burst through the door.
And they’re trying to bounce to this balance between getting safe and prepared and not causing a panic. So they send the kids to the kitchen with. Where they can talk. And Tom turns to OMI to say, can you go with kids? And she says, keep the fire hot. And then she heads out into the kitchen.
[00:45:27] Stephen: And the first thing she does in the kitchen is start fingering.
The butcher knife, make you
[00:45:33] Rhys: wonder in the kitchen and toward these mixing up spiked hot chocolate, which almost gave the movie a rated R as Howie Jr. Drinks smacks is actually spying on the adults. And OMI is arming herself with a meat Cleaver,
[00:45:46] Stephen: which is,
[00:45:48] Rhys: yeah, grandma’s got a meat Cleaver. I heard that. So the parents are in the living room strategizing, you know how to look for Beth, how to escape.
And [00:46:00] Tom suggests boarding up the doors in the way. Kids are in the doorway, listening to the whole thing. And then everyone decides they’re going to camp out in the living room, which in the house where we have electric baseboard, heat, and wood heat. If we lose power, that’s what we do. Everybody goes into the living room and we build a big fire in the fireplace and everyone hangs out there.
Cause it’s the only warm spot in the house. Howard and Tom share this kind of moment between the two of them. Shepherd’s got to protect his flock. I don’t know how many freaking times that line is in this movie. We get said a lot. Max points out to Tom that OMI is acting oddly and the men decide to set watch.
And Howard says, he’ll go first. Which if you’re like me, you’re like he is 110% going to sleep. He does.
[00:46:48] Stephen: It was because throughout the whole movie, again, I’m taking it as some political statements that. That already is making. Cause here’s this tough guy, always talking big, talking [00:47:00] tough. He has a young Howie drinking, a two liter of pop to prepare them for a linebacker and stuff.
I got to protect the flock with my big gun. I’m staying awake first and he falls asleep every step of the way. It’s all talk when it comes down to it, they’re the ones panicking the most. They’re the ones falling apart. Not knowing what to do is just all talk, which I applaud. I applauded because that’s the type of thinking I’ve had about those types of personalities.
The
[00:47:29] Rhys: fire I’ve gone out and everybody’s asleep, silent night is flying on the kid’s tablet, which is a really nice little touch. And then when it turns off, we hear giggling over.
[00:47:39] Stephen: Right. Did you see the cartoon? The baby was watching it. I loved it because it looked like Rudolph, but it was sounding like Charlie brown Christmas.
So that was fun.
[00:47:50] Rhys: We didn’t want to worry about any copyright. So this, I love to this part, I chain and a hook lowers down the chimney. And there’s a [00:48:00] gingerbread man on the chain and Howie Jr. Sees it and heads over to this fishing line, which is exactly what it is. Yeah. He grabs the cookie and takes a big bite out of it and it comes to life and the kid freaks out and drops it.
Then it grabs the chain and wraps it around his legs. And he’s getting sucked up into the chimney. And you got
[00:48:25] Stephen: a question and this child who, oh, something strange is lowering a gingerbread cookie down. The Jimmy I’ll eat it.
[00:48:33] Rhys: Yes, for sure. However, they have, from the moment he walks in the door to establish him as an idiot, he’s a mouth breather.
His mouth always open you talk to him. He says nothing, snacks. Uh, you want to go, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he’s just standing there staring at him and then walks away. It’s, there’s a stereotype they’ve built with this character, sticking with it, and he’s all about food. And [00:49:00] he’s an idiot. My apologies to all, how would you and yours out there?
Sarah wakes up. Here’s the screams grabs the kid by the legs and she’s trying to pull them down while she’s doing this. She gets pulled into the fireplace. She kicks out a log from the fireplace. It rolls into the Christmas tree, catches the Christmas tree on fire. Tom is helping Sarah try and save little Howie Jr.
And he’s yelling to max, get a fire extinguisher to put the Christmas tree out, which he does, and then shoot how he’s gone because Sarah loses her grip and Howard’s looking up the chimney and a shoe comes down and hits him in the face as his son is. Joining Beth. He is
[00:49:48] Stephen: no more. Sarah starts freaking out.
Cause one of the gingerbread come down and tour.
[00:49:54] Rhys: I saw one of the gingerbread moving and this causes OMI [00:50:00] to launch into the story of Krampus. Yes. She says it’s the whole family’s fault. She switches to English and the film goes into this really nicely done animated sequence.
[00:50:11] Stephen: It was yeah. Gorgeous. It looked like, uh, those old tin moving toys.
Animation ones.
[00:50:19] Rhys: Yeah. Yeah. And she’s talking about when she was a child and people were starving and they’re fighting over bread and OMI is there as a young girl, she’s got the Santa Claus doll and she’s gay. She gets her bread and then all the adults around her, knock her down and take her bread and run off.
And she’s there. And her parents are fighting and there’s a brief wimps of an advent calendar on the way. And it is built off of the advent calendar that is used in the movie to show the passage of time. Every time a day goes by, they open the advent calendar and it’s the 23rd. So they actually, it shows that this is an advent [00:51:00] calendar that she brought with her from Austria kind of thing, which I thought was a neat little detail.
They had turned in there definitely are parents tear off this Santa Claus, head on her doll and drop it. And she gets mad and throws it all in the fireplace and changes her Christmas wish from whatever she wanted for Christmas, just wished that they all went away and Krampus arrives and takes everyone with her, takes everyone with him and leaves her behind.
She said
[00:51:31] Stephen: that everybody else will remind her. She’s the one who made the wish.
[00:51:37] Rhys: So she said, I knew St lik Saint Nicholas, wasn’t coming this year. Krampus came not to reward, but to punish and a little Krampus bell is left for her, which she keeps to this day. She’s got it with her. Um,
[00:51:52] Stephen: and and-or these comment or another, that’s still coming up here in a second.
[00:51:55] Rhys: She’s she’s telling this story and it’s the only time Krampus has ever actually [00:52:00] mentioned in the entire movie every other time. He’s just this monster everyone’s running away from, of course, Howard doesn’t believe it. And while she was telling the story, there were Christmas carols being played as the background music.
Again, very subtly intertwined with what the background music is. It sound like it was just really well done. They’re
[00:52:25] Stephen: worthwhile watching.
[00:52:28] Rhys: Yeah, it would be actually cool to get ahold of the soundtrack and just play it. Oh for
[00:52:33] Stephen: Christmas, I’m sure somebody put it up on YouTube.
[00:52:36] Rhys: I’m sure. Somewhere Howard’s made up his mind to go out and take whatever this is.
Head-on he doesn’t believe that it’s a monster or anything, but he’s going to go take this thing. So he takes the gun, opens the door and the two, three snowman has turned into an army of creepy snowmen in the front yard. And there’s little figures of something running around in between the things. And they pull them [00:53:00] back in and Sarah shuts the door and she’s, don’t open the door being very serious, reminding me of the character from heredity.
And then we get this fade to black and they’re opening another advent day. And I think it’s the 24th maybe.
[00:53:17] Stephen: And at this point that has gone there. There’s definitely some weirdness going on. But they don’t see a whole lot of upset about it. There’s just, okay, let’s try and stay together. Which always gets me in movies like this.
Cause man, I, most parents would be freaking out and losing their absolute mind, which I understand that they got to handle what’s in front of them too. But it’s always that one child totally missing in a blizzard that would be on their mind. But that would change the story
[00:53:46] Rhys: if, to illustrate your point.
The next day starts with Linda sorting through the Christmas gifts and trying to figure out which ones need rewrapped after the fire, after the fire. And Hey, here’s this [00:54:00] football one for Howie Jr. I guess we don’t need that one anymore. While she’s doing that, the girls are asking OMI what to do about Krampus and she’s answering and max is translating and she gives this answer.
And the girls look to max and he’s, I don’t understand what that means. And this is where Dorothy says it means you’re fucked
[00:54:22] Stephen: because I’m old enough to know when life is coming at you with its pants down. That was like my favorite line,
[00:54:29] Rhys: great line. Uh, Tom is in the kitchen making plans. Linda defines this Jack in the box, amidst all the other gifts and notices that it’s making noise, shakes it.
And it’s like playing music. She’s about to open it when Sarah calls her away. And so here’s their big plan. Tom is going to get that snowplow and bring it back to the house. Then they’re going to drive to one of the public shelters around in the snowplow, which honestly isn’t a bad plan. No. Assuming
[00:54:59] Stephen: [00:55:00] he’s going to plow the way and they’re gonna fall in the station wagon.
And I love it because they have a map and they haven’t circled and he’s drawing lines. Yeah. And this plan is not that complicated, but okay.
[00:55:10] Rhys: Yeah. Get to chapel hill. Okay. I don’t need a map. I’ve been living here in the attic. You have all these gifts that are in the attic and they start to shake and start to unwrap.
Max actually looks outside and sees Krampus and then Krampus has gone because this giant hulking thing just vanishes all the time. Stevie and Jordan have gone upstairs to use the bathroom because aunt Dorothy has apparently destroyed the one downstairs
[00:55:38] Stephen: we’ll use to let them go. She, I didn’t realize there was another option
[00:55:43] Rhys: as they’re going down the hall, they hear Beth’s voice up in the attic.
It’s calling them upstairs and they’re like, oh, okay. Let’s go see Beth’s upstairs. Where are you been? And then there’s screams from. Sarah grabs an ax and she [00:56:00] and Linda and Tom head up the stairs. And there’s a noise in the kitchen. Howard takes the shotgun and head that way.
[00:56:09] Stephen: He tells the dog to go first because he’s the big brave man send the little dog in first.
And the smart dog runs the other way. Yes.
[00:56:17] Rhys: Yep. So again, you have this, this back and forth between the two. So we’re just going to actually do deal with one at a time. The attic is covered in ice and icicles and everything. Linda finds the gifts and notice they’ve all been torn open from the inside. Then they note this grotesque Jack in the ma Jack in the box clown kind of monster that is actively swallowing.
One of the girls, Tom shoots at it, and then this angel doll monster swoops down and attack. This angry Teddy bear attacks, Linda, and this robot drops onto his back and start stabbing him with scissors. The angels actually wrapped [00:57:00] Christmas lights around Sarah’s neck and is hauling her up. So she’s strangling with Christmas lights and Linda’s just had it.
She grabs this icicle and jabs through the Teddy bears. I, yes. Yeah. She cuts the lights with the ax and hits the robot with the accent. It goes flying, but she’s too late to save Jordan, but they find Stevie.
[00:57:23] Stephen: And this is another example of the great special effects because all these toy monsters are absolutely frightening looking and scary as all get out.
[00:57:34] Rhys: Yeah, no CGI there it’s just puppetry
[00:57:38] Stephen: and it was just, they looked so good and they were so scary and there’s hanging the mother by the lights. So it was a really freaky scene.
[00:57:48] Rhys: And I think that’s one of the things why it works so well is because that’s what a Jack in the box monster would look like. It would look like a demented puppet, you know?
So downstairs. [00:58:00]
[00:58:01] Stephen: Yeah,
[00:58:02] Rhys: yeah. Splits apart like predator. Yeah. Um, Howard goes into the kitchen and it’s trashed and there’s gingerbread men in there and they have the nail gun, which again, we’ve talked about how this isn’t, how nail guns work, but for the show, they, they drill some nails into his leg and he limps away and pulls the cutting board in front of him in front of him and more nails hit the cutting board.
So he takes his gun and shoots this lantern or something. And it explodes slow-mo. Yes. Slow-mo of these gingerbread men on fire flying away. They’re trying to put the fire out, but of course they can’t, they’re sticky, deliciousness, sugary stuff. So they’re on fire. The two of them just run at it, still on fire.
And he shoots, one of them tries to shoot at the other one and misses and he just like cringes and waits and then nothing. And then he hears like this [00:59:00] chomping sound and the dog has come back and is eating the third. Yeah,
[00:59:05] Stephen: that was perfect. Cause she’s wearing like a buck to two or something and she is just this French bulldog and she’s chewing on the cookie.
That was great.
[00:59:18] Rhys: Rosie is her name and probably one of the greatest crimes ever committed in cinema. The gingerbread men were voiced by Seth green and he was not credited
[00:59:29] Stephen: really.
[00:59:32] Rhys: Yeah, uncredited gingerbread man. And, uh, cramp everyone’s downstairs. Rosie is dying to get into the air grades to go after the monsters because the last one she had was delicious.
Max lets her in and she goes in and Howard’s no good. And all of a sudden there’s this groaning sound and is what would actually happen. The ductwork falls through the ceiling and the giant Jack and the mock Jack in the box monster falls through the ceiling. [01:00:00] Howard’s going to shoot it, but the angel shows up and the wounded Teddy bear and Dorothy gets a hold of the shotgun and shoots the bear and the angel.
And she’s about to shoot the Jack in the box. When a horn sounds you’re in trouble. When the Jack in the box starts clapping its hands like this.
[01:00:18] Stephen: So perfect because it made it even creepier than just this mindless monster that there’s this reaction. And that was, I loved that.
[01:00:29] Rhys: OMI says L like it’s a curse word, L damn L and they burst through the window.
And these are like your Icelandic Yule, lads. This is exactly how they’re depicted. You have this whole uncanny valley thing going on because they’re not quite human sized, they’re hunched or shorter, or their faces are masks that don’t move. And the people who are playing them or doing everything like twisted angles and contorting, and very sharp movements.[01:01:00]
It’s not quite human, just not quite enough to make it really uncomfortable.
[01:01:04] Stephen: It’s like they hired Cirque de Soleil, or however you say that cert this LA SLA,
[01:01:10] Rhys: there you go. Yeah. They come busting in and put the fire out and they corner the family. Cause they’re all armed like chains and hooks and nasty looking weapons.
Tell Ray. Yes. They chain up aunt Dorothy, take her and the Jack in the box and the baby and
[01:01:29] Stephen: throw the whole damn.
[01:01:32] Rhys: Yeah, I’ll see you in hell. The horn sounds again, and they all leave. Tom grabs the gun and reloads and they decide they’re just going to make a run from the snowplow OMI suicide. She’s going to stay behind tells max to be good and locks the door.
Tom at first is no, we’ve got to, we’ve got to go through the window and get her. And max is no, she’s [01:02:00] doing this for us. So Tom’s like see a mom
running for the snowplow and OMI meets Krampus for the second time, the house is actively icing over as he comes down the chimney and they made the very interesting choice to have him come down. The chimney headfirst. You always see Santa come, you see his boots come down and then he’s magically in the room, Krampus, crawls down the chimney and you see his claws first and then his horns.
He
[01:02:32] Stephen: almost oozes out. Yes. A lot like the Grinch.
[01:02:36] Rhys: Yeah. It’s the first good look we get of him. He’s got this crazy long tongue. He puts this sack down in front of it, her and he opens it and there’s all these bishops toy monster things in there. And then it cuts to the family and the snow. Yeah. So OMI has made her final sacrifice,
[01:02:58] Stephen: which really [01:03:00] not really did.
I think it was more, she was redeeming herself from
earlier.
[01:03:07] Rhys: They see the snowplow and the distance and make a run for it. The under snow monster, for lack of a better word heads towards them. And Tom shoots at it a couple of times. Oh, I’m sorry. I get it gets Howard. Yeah, the undertone monster grabs Howard.
Then Tom shoots at a couple of times, he tells them all to run while he stays behind and it circles him. And while it’s circling and he’s firing at it and apparently missing, and then he’s out of ammo, he just closes his eyes and he’s gone. We get to the snowplow and they get Stevie in the snowplow.
Linda gets sucked into the snow, Sarah grabs max and puts him in and then she gets pulled on.
[01:03:51] Stephen: So everybody starts sacrificing themselves to save who’s left. And it’s almost comical because there’s just nothing they’re doing is really helping. [01:04:00] And I was thinking if that was like me and you and the situation with our families, you would have had it better off because you had more kids, you could sacrifice to the enemies, but now I’ve actually got more.
So between the two of us, we probably could have made it out. We got enough.
[01:04:15] Rhys: And the dogs in the
[01:04:16] Stephen: mix. Oh God. Yeah. A couple of cats.
[01:04:19] Rhys: We’ve probably got four or five of us actually in the cab of that truck right
[01:04:22] Stephen: now, we could have made it all the way to Cleveland. By the time we got through all the people.
[01:04:26] Rhys: Sure. I find it funny because all of a sudden, max, this kid, he looks like he might be what 12 it’s supposed to start and drive this truck, soccer, this flash. It doesn’t start when he tries to turn it over. And
[01:04:40] Stephen: the tough family, Stevie she’s just screaming started not helpful,
[01:04:45] Rhys: not so much. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to listen to Stevie much because there’s an elf at the window and it smashes the glass and pulls her right out.
He tried to start it. He gets out of the truck and then Krampus is there in front of him. He grabs a tire iron that’s important. He gets out of the truck with a tire [01:05:00] iron and Krampuses in front of him and drops this thing of paper or gives this piece of paper to him. And max looks at it and it’s crumpled up is torn up Sandoz note and inside his armies Krampus.
And then Krampus has gone.
[01:05:17] Stephen: So you go corn up or a bad Christmas wishes are definitely the magic spelled.
[01:05:25] Rhys: And, and from Krampuses point of view, that’s it story done? Cause that’s how it was though me. It was like, everyone’s gone, here’s your bell and I’m going to leave you alone now. So that’s what should have happened with backs.
But max, isn’t taking this line down, he returns to the house, there’s a returning towards the house and it sees all these monsters and elves Krampus and like these big, weird reindeer, for lack of a better word, pulling this giant wagon thing. It’s a real, a real parade of geeks [01:06:00] and they’ve got Stevie. And so max yells at him and throws the bell at Krampus and says he takes back his way.
And the bell sinks through the snow and the earth cracks in this volcano thing for him, just like this giant hole that leads such a pit straight to hell. And the elves are dragging Stevie to the edge as max rushes up to Krampus and he begs him to fix it. He said, I know you can fix it. He offers himself in exchange.
If you’ll just bring them all back, he’s got this tear and Krampus reaches down with one claw and takes his tear and pulls it back and then starts to what you can only assume for Krampus laugh at the boy. As they throw Stevia, then Krampus grabs max by the head and holds him over the hole. And max apologizes, he says, I’m sorry.
I, I just want a Christmas to be like what it used to be. [01:07:00] And then he drops him
and then it fades to white. And max wakes up in his own bed and falls into. You’re like, oh, it was just a bad dream. He had downstairs and everything is great. Like the entire family’s here, everyone’s opening gifts. It’s
[01:07:19] Stephen: Christmas,
[01:07:19] Rhys: Carol. It is someone hands him a gift and he opens it and it’s the Krampus bell.
And everybody stops what they’re doing and gets this very disturbed look in their eyes. And the camera starts to pan back and they are trapped. That entire house is trapped in a snow globe and Krampuses claw pull away and there’s shelves full of houses and snow Globes. One of them in there is the house from psycho.
And another one that is in there is actually Michael Doherty’s house for when he was growing up. Oh, that’s
[01:07:55] Stephen: cool. Yeah. Th this Krampus bell is definitely a little more [01:08:00] ominous than the one from the polar express.
[01:08:02] Rhys: Yes. Yes. It apparently can open pits of hell, right in your backyard. If you throw it, there’s a lot of debate about what the ending beans
[01:08:12] Stephen: say.
A
couple
[01:08:12] Rhys: things on that. The common debate is it is one. They are trapped in this thing forced to relive. Basically what’s Max’s wish was, is that Christmas would go back to what it was
[01:08:28] Stephen: perpetually over and over. So it’s like forever. That Groundhog’s day thing. And you think it’s great. We’ll do it every day.
Now you’re going to hate it. I saw that
[01:08:39] Rhys: the other debate, the other side of the debate is no, this is actually Christmas day. The whole thing with the snow globe is that now on Krampuses watching the house closed between the two. I like the, this is, they’re just stuck in this. They’ve all been sent to hell and this is their hell.
And it’s Christmas day for [01:09:00] eternity. Well, I wondered
[01:09:01] Stephen: about. That one, because that would mean Alma is in two different Christmas, snow globe that she should have been reliving. The one from when she was a kid,
[01:09:12] Rhys: unless you consider this entire thing was all part of her snowglobe.
[01:09:18] Stephen: Yes, that’s true too. And you mentioned earlier about Oman and max were the only two that believed in Christmas were the only two that caused all these things to happen.
So it’s almost a statement. If you believe in Christmas, then you’re the reason, all these bad things, but these people that believe in it actually had a better Christmas because Krampus didn’t visit. Yeah. It was several things. I, I picked up on that and I love the fact that they were using the phonies and newspaper to wrap presents because I do that.
[01:09:47] Rhys: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you’re high class just like Lyndon Howard. Yep. Where we live. Yeah. Mac and cheese and hot docs license. [01:10:00] Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, happy holidays, everyone. That’s breakfast.
[01:10:07] Stephen: It’s definitely. I like to watch the Christmas horror movies between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Cause it’s that transition between horror and Christmas and it almost extends the Christmas season that there’s a couple other pretty good Christmas horror movies out there.
Some really bad, a couple of good ones. This is definitely worth watching.
[01:10:25] Rhys: Oh yeah. You know, a lot of it’s over the top and stereotypical it’s also farcical. It was a choice made. To reinforce the point. So it wasn’t done because Hey, all high school kids have a BA boyfriend with a bomb. Now it was a choice made to be like, this is what everyone thinks of is typical.
And we’re going to take all of that, turn it on its head and introduce a giant Christmas evil spirit.
[01:10:52] Stephen: The one that does want to look it up and watch it, make sure you get the right one. Uh, you’ll probably know it. Cause if you’re like this sucks, that’s probably the wrong one. [01:11:00]
[01:11:00] Rhys: If you make it 15 minutes in and beyond then you’ve probably got the right one because the rest of them really, you can’t go much for,
[01:11:09] Stephen: yeah.
We watched a few movies with low budgets, but some of those really must have $2 budgets. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:11:16] Rhys: Paramilitary Krampus is just not something that’s enjoy.
[01:11:23] Stephen: All right, man. So happy holidays.
[01:11:26] Rhys: Thanks Cindy, you and yours,
