Written by Charlie Brigden
Yesterday Thanksgiving! This means a lot in America but fuck all over here in the UK, but we will nevertheless be thankful, especially for Krampus! Coming out soon is the new movie dedicated to the mental Germanic legend of “Krampus”, who is basically the anti-Santa Claus, and having just listened to Douglas Pipes‘ score for the film my anticipation is through the chimney.
Basically, Krampus the score is a whole sackful of fun. If I had to sum it up I’d say it’s Jerry Goldsmith’s Gremlins meets Danny Elfman’s Batman Returns, a full orchestral feast that mixes Christmas carols with cloven hoof percussion and terrifying strings. It opens very traditional – at least when you get past the howling moans of ‘A Cold Wind’ – lulling you into a false sense of security with hammered dulcimer and chimes with a Kevin McCallister-esque mischievousness, and before long we’re hearing a wonderfully warm and traditional rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
But things change with ‘The Wish’, which gives us the Krampus motif, a wonderful ascending melody that runs through the rest of the score, along with the Elfman choral parts. ‘Bells, Bones, and Chains’ brings the motif into full creepy mood, seductive and haunting like you’d expect from a half-man, half-goat that looks like the Beezelebub from The Devil Rides Out. The score really goes into overdrive after this, with the void of strings and bells of ‘Into The Storm’, the cacophony of strings in ‘Christmas Angels’, and the full-on assault of ‘The Snow Beast’.
Krampus is at its best when it launches into these attacks, like the terrifying strings in ‘Season’s Eatings’ and the horribly (intentionally) off-key rendition of ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ in ‘Creatures Are Stirring’. This is where it really resembles the aforementioned Gremlins, with the quiet moments of respite punctuated with these bursts of mischief , like the music box version of ‘Silent Night’ interrupted by a flash of the Krampus motif in ‘Bells…’
‘Elfen’ sounds like a downright homage to Gremlins with its big homicidal reading of the motif, and then there’s ‘Sacrifice’, where beautifully emotional strings are broken by huge brass. Later in the track there’s a fantastic moment when an ethereal choir turns into more ‘Silent Night’, which is then overtaken by chants of “Gruß vom Krampus!”, and it’s hilarious and creepy. That’s really what Krampus is, both funny and terrifying, and hugely successful.
It isn’t all cloven tapdancing however, and it gets a bit long at times, although that’s really a complaint I could level at most score albums I listen to these days. But what matters is Krampus is utterly creepy in places – it knows what scares you, and both it and you have a ball doing it. Let’s hope ‘Krampus Karol of the Bells’ quickly becomes a Christmas classic – or the horned one might be paying us a visit.
Krampus is out on vinyl from Waxwork Records, on digital from Backlot Music and on CD from La La Land Records on December 4th.
Charlie Brigden is a longtime horror nerd who runs his own site about film scores and soundtracks, Films On Wax. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter as well as subscribe to his podcast on Soundcloud.
