Current Events > How did the movie Krampus get made?

(+) Yeah! (+)

How did Michael Dougherty walk up to some suits at Universal and say "I'd like to make a Christmas horror comedy where a dysfunctional family gets attacked by horrific versions of toys led by evil Santa. Oh, also it'll have a ton of practical effects and costumes and it'll have an ambiguous downer ending where everyone dies and fucking goes to hell. Hows 15 million sound?" How did this get greenlit by a big studio? Does he have dirt on some studio exec? The only movie he made before was Trick r Treat which wasn't exactly a hit but he has enough clout to get Krampus greenlit? Then, after making two movies which, although great, have middling reviews and no one saw, he gets Godzilla? Is Michael Dougherty a witch?

What the hell?! Trick R Treat is a great movie.

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Yeah? I said that. Doesn't change the fact no ones ever heard of it. There's a reason every single time it's mentioned it's referred to as Cult Classic Trick r Treat. A cult classic with average reviews doesn't give you much dick swinging power in Hollywood.

Duncanwii posted...

What the hell?! Trick R Treat is a great movie.

Lol

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Because Krampus is a badass legend compared to pussy ass Santa.

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I saw a trailer for Krampus Unleashed or something like that and it looked so fucking terrible.

Is that what you're talking about

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Duncanwii posted...

What the hell?! Trick R Treat is a great movie.

This. It's literally considered one of the best horror movies of the decade, and it's a crime it didn't get a theatrical release.

OctilIery posted...

This. It's literally considered one of the best horror movies of the decade, and it's a crime it didn't get a theatrical release.

My dad and I watched it on Halloween this year. So good.

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cheesy horror movies like that are ate up at the movies.. especially a cheesy horror Christmas movie


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darkprince45 posted...

cheesy horror movies like that are ate up at the movies.. especially a cheesy horror Christmas movie

This is the opposite of the Blumhouse model of cheap assembly line horror movies that people love to pay money for. It was still fairly cheap but looks like a huge risk on paper. Apparently the only way he got them to say yes was to bump it down to PG13.

Tired-Insomniac posted...

I saw a trailer for Krampus Unleashed or something like that and it looked so fucking terrible.

Is that what you're talking about

That is a different Krampus movie that is a sequel to another different Krampus (Krampus: The Reckoning) movie. There's apparently another duology (Krampus: The Christmas Devil and Krampus: The Devil Returns) that is also not the Krampus movie being discussed.
TC is referring to the one just called Krampus.

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Krampus is one of the few films to survive a bad twist at the end. It's still entertaining the whole way through.

In general, twist endings in horror movies are pretty played out. Most of them, Krampus included, feel like they're tacked on out of sheer protocol. At this point, we're conditioned to expect a surprise ending. That makes it about as much of a surprise as a Jack-in-the-Box popping out.

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Skye Reynolds posted...

Krampus is one of the few films to survive a bad twist at the end.

Probably by not having a bad twist.

It's a shitty ending. It should have ended with the kid having to live with the responsibility of summoning the demon that killed his family. The whole "the family is now trapped in a snowglobe" ending was shit. The problem isn't that it's downbeat. It's that it's kitschy. It's as tacky as an aluminum Christmas tree.

But the movie before that was so good that a minor hiccup at the end doesn't really hurt it. It's not a like a twist ending that changes the outcome in the closing seconds. We never had any doubts about who had won the primary conflict. It just expands upon the established ending in a way that doesn't really benefit the film.

If a twist doesn't make you say, "Woah! That was awesome," it doesn't need to be.

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I don't know. The ending had me reeling for a bit the first time I saw it. It was fantastic. I watched the alternate ending which is basically just the last shot of the "reveal" cut out and it's like a wet fart in comparison. The alternate ending also has the family not noticing so it has no real impact.

the realest question is how did rapsittie happen

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Skye Reynolds posted...

It's a shitty ending. It should have ended with the kid having to live with the responsibility of summoning the demon that killed his family. The whole "the family is now trapped in a snowglobe" ending was shit. The problem isn't that it's downbeat. It's that it's kitschy. It's as tacky as an aluminum Christmas tree.

But the movie before that was so good that a minor hiccup at the end doesn't really hurt it. It's not a like a twist ending that changes the outcome in the closing seconds. We never had any doubts about who had won the primary conflict. It just expands upon the established ending in a way that doesn't really benefit the film.

If a twist doesn't make you say, "Woah! That was awesome," it doesn't need to be.

But they aren't trapped in a snowglobe though. I thought it was to show that he's always watching now.

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^That's a theory but I think it falls apart pretty quickly.