''Krampus Unleashed'' is a 2016

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

written and directed by Robert Conway. Premiering on video on demand before being released direct-to-video, the film stars Bryson Holl, Caroline Lassetter, Tim Sauer, and Emily Lynne Aiken as members of a dysfunctional family who run afoul of the mythological creature Krampus (Travis Amery) while spending Christmas with relatives in the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

Plot

In 1898, a German outlaw named Erik Klaus allegedly buried treasure somewhere in the Arizona desert before disappearing, leaving behind an ominous warning to anyone who went looking for his stash. Years later, a group of cowboys discovers the loot, which turns out to be a coal-like "summoning stone" that releases Krampus when exposed to open flames. According to myth,

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...

left pieces of the stone in the shoes and stockings of his enemies, so that Krampus would kill them when the clothing was placed by a fire to dry. Krampus is accidentally summoned when the stone is dropped on a lantern, and it proceeds to massacre all of the cowboys save one, Cooper. While Cooper flees, the summoning stone falls into a stream, and is lost. Decades later, a family consisting of Will and Amber, and their children Tommy and Fiona, travels to Arizona to spend Christmas with Amber's parents, Dale and Alice Henderson. Amber hasn't seen her parents in a long time, so she's excited for the reunion. Also present are Amber's environmentalist brother, David, his wife, Vivian, and their delinquent son, Troy. While

gold panning Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts especi ...

in a creek near the house, Tommy finds the summoning stone, which brings forth Krampus when Troy accidentally burns it with a lit cigarette. Krampus runs amok through the area, murdering a pair of

Bigfoot Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims o ...

hunters, as well as the boyfriend of a woman named Bonnie who lives nearby. Bonnie seeks aid from the Hendersons and uses their telephone to call 911. As they wait for the police to arrive, Will, Dale, Alice and Amber are all slaughtered by Krampus. David, Vivian, Fiona, Troy, Tommy and Bonnie try to flee in a car, but it crashes, killing Vivian. David attacks Krampus to buy the others time to run away and is ripped to pieces. Bonnie, Fiona, Troy and Tommy make it to Cooper's trail who has spent his life studying Krampus ever since he survived it all those years ago. Cooper reveals that Krampus is summoned by fire, but can be banished back to

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

by earth. Cooper, Bonnie, Fiona, Troy and Tommy lure Krampus into an abandoned mine shaft with the summoning stone, and Cooper sacrifices himself to collapse the cavern on Krampus with TNT while the others escape. In the morning, Bonnie, Tommy and Fiona and are found by Bonnie's ex-boyfriend, a

state trooper State police, provincial police or regional police are a type of sub-national territorial police force found in nations organized as federations, typically in North America, South Asia, and Oceania. These forces typically have jurisdiction ...

named Dan. Troy, who had become separated from the others, is mauled by a baby Krampus that had hatched from the summoning stone.

Cast

Release

''Krampus Unleashed'' premiered on video on demand on November 1, 2016 and was released on DVD by Uncork'd Entertainment on December 3, 2016. It was made available on the streaming service

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in December 2018.

Reception

Scott Foy of

Dread Central Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...

, who awarded ''Krampus Unleashed'' a score of 1½ out of a possible 5, commended the film's creature design and gore effects, but heavily criticized every other aspect of it, writing, "When your movie is only 75 minutes but feels longer because so little happens for so long, that will definitely get you on my naughty list." While fellow Dread Central reviewer Ted Hentschke was slightly more lenient towards the film, giving it a grade of 2/5, he still derided it as being "uninteresting" and "bland" and concluded, "It wasn't good enough to want to love, and wasn't shit enough to make me hate it." Chris Coffel of

Film School Rejects Film School Rejects is an American blog devoted to movie reviews, interviews, film industry news, and feature commentary. It was founded by Neil Miller in February 2006. The site was nominated for Best News Blog by ''Total Film'' magazine and na ...

wrote, "This is the second Krampus movie on this list from director Robert Conway ('' Krampus: The Reckoning''). You would think if one director was going to make two different Krampus movies that Krampus would have the same mythos, but that is not the case. This film does offer up some

practical effect A practical effect is a special effect produced physically, without computer-generated imagery or other post-production techniques. In some contexts, "special effect" is used as a synonym of "practical effect", in contrast to "visual effects" ...

s with the creature which makes it far better than Conway's previous film. It's still not good at all, but I'll take the slight improvement as a step in the right direction." Nolen Boe of Horror News opined that the film's gore effects were its only positive quality, and dismissively stated, "''Krampus Unleashed'' was not entertaining, in any way worth my money as a consumer." A score of 3/10 was awarded to the film by ''

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's'' Scott Clark, who wrote, "Sure it's better than Conway's first Krampus flick, but that's not saying much. The dialogue feels clunky and overdone, the acting is passable yet never involving, and worst perhaps is that its plain old dull" before concluding, "There's potential here for a good horror comedy ( rednecks mistake Krampus prints for

) but Conway takes things too seriously and spends too much time acquainting us with Krampus fodder families. ''Krampus: Unleashed'' feels most comfortable when its offing terrible people with terrible violence, we just wish it did that more."

References

External links