As every year, the Engel family’s Christmas looks like it’s going to be a disaster. While Sarah struggles in the kitchen to rediscover the magic of the holidays with her son Max, her daughter Beth and her husband Tom, the arrival of her sister Linda and her turbulent family transform the reunion into a nightmare. Desperate, Max decides to rip up his letter to Santa, convinced that celebrating Christmas is useless. But when a strange storm hits the area and weird creatures start appearing, Max and his family discover there are much worse things than a reunion around the Christmas dinner table...

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Krampus is neither really funny or really scary, and therein lies its failure. On the one hand trying to make another Gremlins (a social satire of mainstream America, where sometimes the funniest creatures are the most scary) and on the other to tell a horrifying tale (with a light beginning gradually transforming into proper suspense), Michael Dougherty’s movie eventually gets lost, unable to provide either service. Krampus promises a lot but doesn’t deliver enough to be convincing, let alone become a future cult hit. Too bad, because Dougherty’s great cast (Toni Collette, Adam Scott) and wonderfully designed creatures would have helped make it a luxury B-movie franchise.