History Headscratchers / Krampus

* Krampus has been known to punish though who are naughty, so how does losing the Christmas spirit fall into that category? Sure, Max may have said and done some naughty things, but that wasn't his fault. The same goes for Omi when she was a child.

* [[spoiler: How did the Jack-in-the-Box Jester get from underneath the delivery man's truck with Beth to the attic? It moves slow as hell since it has to drag itself across the ground, and there was no way for it to sneak upstairs to lure Jordan and Stevie up. The chimney obviously wouldn't work, since it doesn't lead to the attic, so how did it get there? This is of course assuming that the two Jack-in-the-Boxes are in fact one and the same.]]
** If they are in fact one and the same, there might be a possibility that Krampus or one of the elves put the Jack-in-the-box in the attic after it [[spoiler:attacked Beth]].
** [[spoiler: There are likely two Jack-in-the-Box monsters. The bag of "presents" is delivered before Beth leaves the house and is attacked. Later, when Linda is going to re-wrap the presents, we see one of them is a Jack-in-the-Box; this box is also seen later with signs of whatever was inside having burst out. There's also all the toys in Krampus' sack when he takes Omi.]]

* Why does Krampus have what appear to be muskox pull his sleigh? Are muskoxen the opposite of Reindeer? Or was it so they could show them [[RuleOfFunny butting heads]]?
** They didn't necessarily appear to be typical Earth oxen (the correct pluralization) as much as horrendous, horned hellbeasts, much like Krampus himself. They weren't necessarily the direct antithesis to the reindeer as much as just darkly-twisted versions of them.
** The credits listed a couple actors as "The Yule Goats". Perhaps they were actually demonic goats?
** Check Wikipedia for "Yule Goat" or "Joulupukki". Large, terrifying goats that served Saint Nicholas. Eventually evolved into sort of Christmas party animals, and even merged with Santa in Finland. Also, the goat-chariot ties in to Norse origins of the Santa myth.
** This version of Krampus seems to be going for older elements. As mentioned above, in some cultures the Santa is pulled by goats. Like many of these characters they vary highly from region to region, city to city and sometimes even family to family. But there's precedent for nasty Yule goats. That being said, while it's clear where the first literary version of Santa having reindeer came from, exactly when and where the reindeer got in isn't clear. Although likely we should be looking for European areas with domesticated reindeer in the 1700s as the most probable birthplace of Santa having his reindeer. But of course while we're at it in some places Santa had a horse and in others he just plain walked.

** Odds are, she did get burned and just didn't care. Some dogs are just like that, especially when confections are involved.

** If they are in fact one-in-the-same, there might be a possibility that Krampus or one of the elves put the Jack-in-the-box in the attic after it [[spoiler:attacked Beth]].

* How did the dog catch and eat an evil living Gingerbread cookie that was on fire without getting any burns?

** This version of Krampus seems to be going for older elements. As mentioned above, in some cultures the Santa is pulled by goats. Like many of these characters they vary highly from region to region, city to city and sometimes even family to family. But there's precedent for nasty Yule goats. That being said, while it's clear where the first literary version of Santa having reindeer came from, exactly when and where the reindeer got in isn't clear. Although likely we should be looking for European areas with domesticated reindeer in the 1700s as the most probable birthplace of Santa having his reindeer. But of course while we're at it in some places Santa had a horse and in others he just plain walked.

** Check Wikipedia for "Yule Goat" or "Joulupukki". Large, terrifying goats that served Saint Nicholas. Eventually evolved into sort of Christmas party animals, and even merged with Santa in Finland. Also, the goat-chariot ties in to Norse origins of the Santa myth.

** The credits listed a couple actors as "The Yule Goats". Perhaps they were actually demonic goats?

** They didn't necessarily appear to be typical Earth oxen (the correct pluralization) as much as horrendous, horned hellbeasts, much like Krampus himself. They weren't necessarily the direct antithesis to the reindeer as much as just darkly-twisted versions of them.

* Why does Krampus have what appear to be muskox pull his sleigh? Are muskoxen the opposite of Reindeer? Or was it so they could show them [[RuleOfFunny butting heads]]?

* I'm not sure how it would work in the narrative of the film, but I would have loved to see a nod to the part of the Krampus legends that say you can delay your punishment by offering schnapps.
** This doesn't really belong as a Headscratchers entry. Perhaps an entry for a "TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot" entry in the [[YMMV/{{Krampus}} YMMV page]]?

* I'm not sure how it would work in the narrative of the film, but I would have loved to see a nod to the part of the Krampus legends that say you can delay your punishment by offering schnapps.

* [[spoiler: How did the Jack-in-the-Box Jester get from underneath the delivery man's truck with Beth to the attic? It moves slow as hell since it has to drag itself across the ground, and there was no way for it to sneak upstairs to lure Jordan and Stevie up. The chimney obviously wouldn't work, since it doesn't lead to the attic, so how did it get there? This is of course assuming that the two Jack-in-the-Boxes are in fact one and the same.]]