Michael Dougherty Wanted To Make A Horror Christmas Movie Since He Was A Kid And Krampus Granted His Wish
Since its release, "Krampus" has become a Christmas favorite of mine. "Rare Exports" and "A Christmas Horror Story" are often listed among the best adaptations of the Germanic legend, but I believe director Michael Doughtery's 2015 holiday horror flick has done the best job at bringing the titular mischief-maker to the screen. The story about a household being overtaken by Krampus and his adorable holiday minions introduces the centuries-old legend in a concise, hilarious, and thrilling way that only the filmmaker behind the influential "Trick 'r Treat" could have pulled off.
"Krampus" features a pretty spectacular ensemble with Emjay Anthony, Toni Collette, Conchata Ferrell, David Koechner, Adam Scott, Krista Stadler, and Alison Tolman. On top of all of that, the film nestles in quite nicely alongside "Gremlins" as a wonderful piece of holiday gateway horror. That's pretty much what the legend is, anyways.
Where the story of St. Nicholas encourages children to be kind, loving, and selfless so that they'll remain on Santa's nice list, Krampus encourages the same values so they don't end up on his radar. Rather than presenting a naughty child with a lump of coal, the demon of Christmas doles out punishments by whipping them with birch sticks, loading them up in his back satchel, and dragging them into the underworld.
Doughtery's interpretation skews towards a more Americanized version of the Christmas demon but is still an effective tale nonetheless. It also speaks to the kind of horror movie he envisioned as a child.
Even Krampus had his own Christmas cards
During an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Doughtery talked about how he wanted nothing more than to make a Christmas horror movie of his own. When he was growing up, "Christmas Evil" and "Silent Night, Deadly Night" were the closest the genre came to embracing the darker, bloodier side of the holidays. "When I was a kid, I used to draw a character called 'Santa Claws' because that was like, the wittiest thing I could come up with then," says Dougherty.
As the idea of a bloodthirsty Santa Claus became more commonplace into his adolescence, Doughtery's childhood dreams found a new vessel in the discovery of Krampus. According to History.com, it was around 2004 when graphic designer Monte Beauchamp shined attention on the Christmas legend in America by publishing a series of terrifying greeting cards. Krampus typically doesn't distribute presents, but in this case, the existence of these cards gave Dougherty a dose of Christmas horror that he fell for right away:
"So, all of the greeting cards that they used to send out in the 1800s, early 1900s started popping up online, and I just fell in love with it. Like, the idea that there really was this dark, devilish Santa Claus-esque figure from European folklore, it was just irresistible."
Although Dougherty's "Krampus" maintains the horns, hooves, and protruding tongue, the film version skews differently from how he's presented on the greeting cards. Where these illustrations show a hairy, black demon with a gleeful smile across his face, the film largely obscures him in a massive chain-laden Santa outfit, seemingly wearing human skin. I do love the idea that the original Krampus is just hiding beneath a dismembered human disguise in the vein of Leatherface.
"Krampus" is now streaming on Peacock.