Mother Krampus

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.

'12 Deaths of Christmas' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if not particularly original premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive as well as the low rating and poor reviews.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. '12 Deaths of Christmas' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is next to nothing to recommend.

Lets start with the sole positive. The setting is atmospheric and spooky.

Unfortunately, it is not done justice by the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited and the drab colour palette, so much so it was hard to appreciate it, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm. In particular, the camera work was a nauseous assault on the eyes with its excessive amateurish-ness.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting that shows a huge indifference to the situation and what is going on and extremely awkward prolonged pauses.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés, lots of unintentional humour that makes some of the film play like a really bad spoof and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both very poorly done.

A lot of '12 Deaths of Christmas' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper.

There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. Everything here is neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease, with the chemistry between the characters and actors coming over as constantly random and aggressive with the subtlety of an axe. The Christmas spirit is completely lost underneath all the gratuity, dreariness and mean-spiritedness and the deaths are neither creative or scary with a complete lack of suspense or sense of horror.

Overall, awful with no redeeming value apart from an element that is difficult to appreciate with it being complemented so badly. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Instead of this movie going from 0 to 60, it went from 60 to 0. It started out like it was going to be a good movie, but somewhere towards the middle right down to the end it became horrible. The story line was good, but the acting and directing started to suck, it seems like the actors lost their scripts, gave up and started improvising. The acting was bad and the movie turned ridiculous. Save yourself 1:28:45!

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 🍀

I have seen some bad movies but this is the worst in my opinion. I usually can tell a bad movie within 5 min of watch time; sometimes even less. I gave this movie a chance because I liked krampus. I actually liked two krampus movies and the third one was just ok. But this, was shyt on a stick ,pretending to be a corndog. Disappointment all around. The story, the actors, the acting, the blood and gore, the special effects, the climax, the ending. I don't know how this movie is on hulu for ppl to watch. I feel like i should be refunded a year of hulu subscription fees because I was able to watched this. Hulu should have standards. Only watch this movie if you want to see the worst movie made thus far. I feel like actual middle school kids could make a better movie.