Review: 'Krampus' Starring Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Allison Tolman, David Koechner, And More

The holidays go to hell in “Krampus,” a feel-bad Christmastime fable helmed with a moderate black humor but too few scares by “Trick ‘r Treat” director Michael Dougherty. Opening with Bing Crosby crooning “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” while shoppers stream into a big-box retailer and engage in the sort of violent, greedy, hysterical combativeness that’s become an annual November-December retail tradition, Dougherty’s film sets a caustically bleak tone that continues once his gaze turns to the inner workings of a suburban family’s poinsettia and wreath-decorated home. There, the mood is anything but jolly, as dad David (Adam Scott) and mom Sarah (Toni Collette) are cold to each other, daughter Beth (Stefania LaVie) is more interested in her boyfriend than Yuletide festivities, and son Max (Emjay Anthony) finds that his continued belief in Santa Claus earns him only condescending eye-rolls — save, that is, from his cookie-baking German grandmother Omi (Krista Stadler).

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