Mother Krampus

I guess some marketing wiz thought that having the word "Krampus" to the title might make a few folks watch it. Deceitful and shameful. This movie had nothing to do with Krampus. It was just another "scary" movie capitalizing on the horror Christmas theme.

Mother Krampus (2017) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows the story of German Urban Legend of Frau Perchta, the Christmas Witch. In a small town there's a legend of a witch in the woods who steals a kid from town every day for 12 days leading up to Christmas. The town thought they rid themselves of the witch in the 20s but when children start disappearing again they may not be as rid of the witch as they believe.

This movie is directed by James Klass (House on Elm Lake) and stars Tony Manders (The Young Cannibals), Tara MacGowran (Secret Places), Oliver Ebsworth (Nightmare on 34th Street), Sian Crisp (Rocketman) and Becca Hirani (The Gardener).

The best part of the movie is the horror background music. The horror elements are very weak and most of the kills are disappointing. There is a good back stabbing in the woods scene. The acting and dialogue are weak and the makeup used to create the witch was mediocre. The villain doesn't look anything like the cover art at all.

Overall, this is a below average addition to the horror genre that I would score a 3/10 and recommend skipping.

Most of the acting: BAD Directing: BAD Screenplay: ALMOST AS BAD Music: NOT SO BAD ACTUALLY Title: COMPLETELY OUT OF PLACE Theme: GOOD ONE Final twist in the story: BRILLIANT Team JAMES KLASS & SCOTT JEFFREY, guys, please do not make any more movies 🍀

Heading off to her father's cabin, a woman and her daughter intending to get through the Christmas holiday together find themselves the subject of a town-wide curse as the spirit of a witch that was killed years earlier comes back for revenge, targeting the daughter and forcing them to try to stop it.

This one wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been. A lot of the film's positives center on the fear of children being targeted by the vicious creature. The real-life inspiration here for the figure coming back to haunt the citizens of the community based on the curse of the woman that the town burned alive has a great setup here with the witch coming back to target the kids. Based on the historical setup given through the church-meetings that go into the connections between everyone in the village to the hanging of the woman years ago, the overall setup from the film is quite enjoyable that turns over to the kids being the target of the creatures' rampage as it centers on the parents forcing themselves into action to save them. There's also the really enjoyable work here with the witch's confrontations and encounters with the kids. The opening abduction of the kid from the church is a chilling opening encounter, while the sightings of the witch lurking around the family tempting the daughter all come together to give this a creepy atmosphere. Other scenes, including the stalking of the babysitter and the young daughter in their darkened home or the witch's ambush in the woods, get far more brutal than chilling and it makes for a nice setup leading into the finale where the creature attacks the house. The action here is rather fun and frantic, leading to several nice confrontations with the creatures' powers providing some bloody scenes, giving this one a lot to really like. There are some problems to be had with this one. One of the biggest issues is the film's rather puzzling setup that includes some unnecessary elements here that drag the pacing out longer than it should be. The human-interest storyline involving everyone dealing with cheating spouses and long-buried secret identities doesn't provide the film with much, carrying on merely in the interest of bringing the husband and his girlfriend into the picture for more bodies to carve up sine their inclusion isn't warranted at all. These scenes are boring and not in the slightest interesting, much like the seemingly endless house ambush that goes on forever and seems to exist solely to show the witch engaging in brutal exaggerated torments on the group rather than going for its target that it could've easily done so at various chances throughout the sequence. The other real issue with this one concerns the film's cheap look and overall tone. The one-location setting and lack of any real grandiose sequences won't be any real reason to knock this but they do help the film come off with no budget. As well, there's the penchant for on-location lighting that renders a lot of the night scenes hard to make out due to the darkness present and relying on the localized candles and Christmas lights to constitute the only enhancements present in the scene. The witch make-up is simply atrocious, looking like running eyeliner after a heavy night of drinking that makes her look hung-over rather than a vengeful witch. These here are what hold this one down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language and children-in-jeopardy.

This has nothing to do with Krampus. Not even remotely. The acting is atrocious. The little girl being the worst. They makeup, bad. Bad script. Honestly with the exception of a few lights and a tree, it has no reason to even be related to Christmas. The is a story about a vengeful spirit. I wouldn't even call her a witch. This is on the independent film that should not have been made list, I'm sure. Do the best you can to try not to turn it off. It took all I could not to.