Editorials
How Did YOU Interpret the Ending of ‘Krampus’?
Today, December 5, is Krampusnacht (aka Krampus Night), the night the Christmas demon known as Krampus roams the streets, ahead of the Feast of Saint Nicholas.
So what better day to revisit Krampus, Trick ‘r Treat director Michael Dougherty’s 2015 film that is, and likely will forever be, the be-all, end-all Krampus movie!
One of the most talked about aspects of Dougherty’s Krampus is of course the ending, which suggests that pretty much everything we saw throughout the movie did not really happen. After Krampus kills his whole family and tosses him into the fiery depths of what is presumably Hell, Max (whose loss of faith in the Christmas spirit invited Krampus into his home in the first place) wakes up in his own bed on Christmas morning. Downstairs, he finds his family opening up presents by the tree – happy and still very much alive.
A normal, happy family Christmas is exactly what Max had wanted most, and the film seems like it’s going to end on that uplifting note; all the bad stuff was nothing more than a nightmare. But then Dougherty hits us with another twist. The camera pulls back to reveal that Max and his family are in some sort of hellish snow globe, which Krampus sets down in his underworld lair. They’ve seemingly become part of his collection, suggesting that the film’s events weren’t a dream at all.
The assumption one might derive from the film’s final coda is that Max and his family are literally trapped in Hell for the rest of eternity, doomed to live out that particular Christmas morning on an endless loop; a sort of cruel reminder of what they *could’ve* had when they were alive… if only they appreciated what they had.
But is that what Michael Dougherty really intended to convey? Did he give us a happy ending and then immediately rip it away in favor of a super depressing one? It’s certainly a valid interpretation of the film, though my personal take-away from the ending, as I originally relayed on Halloween Love back in 2015, was that Dougherty was imparting genuine holiday cheer – and a message we could all stand to learn.
The way I viewed Krampus, the events of the film weren’t an extended nightmare sequence but rather a hellish vision that Krampus forced Max to see – think A Christmas Carol, which was obviously a huge influence on Dougherty. Since Max learned the lesson Krampus wanted him to learn, offering himself up to the Christmas demon in the end, that vision, in so many words, did not end up coming true. It would have, of course, if Max didn’t learn his holiday lesson – we know this because Max’s grandmother failed to reverse Krampus’ evil deeds when she was a child, resulting in the death of her parents.
It was immediately after Max lost his inner Christmas spirit that Krampus and his twisted pals arrived, and it was precisely because Max lost sight of the true meaning of the holiday that they came knocking. Max wished that his family would go away, and by taking him on a nightmarish journey, Krampus showed Max that what he thought he wanted wasn’t what he wanted at all. Max realized that, and so Krampus gave him the ultimate gift.
He gave Max his family back.
But how is it a happy ending if they’re all trapped in a snow globe? Well, they’re really not. The way I saw it, that was just Dougherty’s way of showing that those snow globes are Krampus’ portals to the real world. He has one for every family, and when they’re not respecting the spirit of the season, he strikes. He’s keeping tabs on every single family in the world, quite literally like an evil Santa Claus. He sees them when they’re sleeping. He knows when they’re awake. And he damn sure knows when they’ve been bad or good.
As for the bell that Max opens up on that happy Christmas morning, I viewed that as Krampus reminding Max that he’s watching, and letting him know that though none of those awful things actually happened to his family, it was all something more than a mere nightmare – even his family members seem to recognize the bell in some way, suggesting that they too experienced the same nightmare. Should Max lose sight of the Christmas spirit again, Krampus will return, as the family is forever under his watchful eye. The bell is merely a symbol – a reminder to never lose that Christmas spirit.
Though he may not be as cute or cuddly, it seems clear to me that Michael Dougherty views Krampus in much the same way he does Trick ‘r Treat‘s Sam; they’re both living, breathing cautionary tales for their respective holidays, existing for the primary purpose of teaching people to respect, appreciate, and uphold holiday traditions and values.
If you don’t, well, you know what’s going to happen to you…
Found footage movies rely on immersion and a particular kind of suspension of disbelief in order to scare viewers, so it stands to reason that playing along with the “kayfabe” of it all is necessary for these movies to be effective. However, despite being something of a purist when it comes to in-universe recordings, I’ve come to accept that traditional productions can benefit from the occasional injection of found footage thrills.
For instance, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation makes genius use of the analog gimmick in order to trap us in the titular rooms alongside our main characters before effortlessly switching back to a more cinematic language. In honor of these dynamic films that manage to combine the best of both worlds, today I’d like to share six other hybrid horror movies that successfully incorporate found footage into their scares!
For the purposes of this list, “hybrid” horror movies are defined as any flick that shifts between diegetic recordings and traditional filming techniques for a significant amount of time (or at least for pivotal scenes).
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own hybrid favorites if you think a particularly freaky one was missed.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. The Last Broadcast (1998)
Internet critics may have overstated the influence that Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast had on The Blair Witch Project, but the found footage subgenre still owes a huge debt to this underrated piece of avant-garde filmmaking. However, while the movie sets itself up as a documentary about the disappearance of a group of cryptid-hunters attempting to track down the Jersey Devil, things take a darker and much more grounded turn towards the final act.
I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that the jarring shift in perspective actually helps to sell the idea that everything we’ve seen before the finale was an attempt at using filmmaking to manipulate the public perception of a “real” incident.
Not bad for a movie with a $900 budget!
4. Cam (2018)
When you consider just how much the internet affects our daily lives, it’s strange that we don’t see Screenlife elements pop up in more movies these days. For instance, Isa Mazzei & Daniel Goldhaber’s highly underrated Cam only works as a freaky parable about online sex-work because it masterfully balances Madeline Brewer’s intimate moments with highly immersive segments within cyberspace.
While one might argue that the entire film could have been produced as a Screenlife experience, the hybrid approach allows the filmmakers to explore our main character’s life beyond the screens – with the duality of modern human existence actually becoming a recurring theme in the story.
3. Banshee Chapter (2013)
Most of H.P. Lovecraft’s popular stories were told in the epistolary format (where the text is presented as an in-universe compilation of letters or personal notes), so it makes sense that a spiritually faithful adaptation of his work would incorporate elements from the modern-day equivalent to epistolary fiction – found footage!
That’s why Blair Erickson’s Banshee Chapter is such an effective scare-fest, as this hybrid adaptation of From Beyond -retold through a conspiratorial lens as it references MK-Ultra and even secretive numbers stations- immerses viewers in a mind-bending tapestry of Cosmic Horror that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
2. The Deep House (2019)
The underwater setting does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s The Deep House, with the film being especially uncomfortable if you’re already scared of tight spaces and being deprived of oxygen. However, even the universally unsettling elements of the flick only work because the POV often shifts into claustrophobic footage courtesy of our main characters’ GoPro cameras.
Telling the story of a couple of YouTubers who encounter a haunted house at the bottom of an artificial lake while vacationing in France, The Deep House’s first-person exploration sequences contain some of the film’s scariest moments. In fact, I’d argue that the movie didn’t even need ghosts, as becoming trapped in the titular House already sounds like a fate worse than death.
1. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
My personal favorite instance of filmmakers successfully managing to combine traditional cinematography with POV filmmaking, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is proof that the two formats can co-exist if the right story comes along.
After all, what better way to conclude a mockumentary all about reality getting increasingly more cinematic than by ditching the found footage gimmick altogether during the finale? Not only does this shift in presentation work on a conceptual level, but it also elevates Behind The Mask into a proper Slasher, which is probably why we’re so excited for that long-overdue sequel!
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