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  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Krampus' motivations seem to be quite similar to Sam's. The prequel comic Trick 'R Treat: Days of the Dead made it clear Sam was a full-on Eldritch Abomination with the ability to do things like turn an entire wagon train of people into pumpkins. It's not hard to imagine that he can also shapeshift when enforcing the rules of another holiday.
    • The ending where Krampus and his minions laugh at Max's attempted Heroic Sacrifice before chucking him and his family into the pit together anyway is generally considered proof that the Krampus really is an evil bastard beneath his duty to maintain Christmas spirit. Others interpret it as the Krampus being happy that Max finally learned the lesson he's been trying to teach the boys whole family and having one last act of terror to hammer it in.
    • The conflict between Max and his cousins could be interpreted as sincere antagonism, or merely as Values Dissonance. Max is clearly a fairly sheltered child, so it's possible that playful ribbing is their way of showing affection.
    • A lot about Omi is open to interpretation depending on whether you see the ending as Krampus subjecting the Engels to an Ironic Hell or just leaving them a reminder that he's keeping an eye on them: Was her family really taken away by Krampus, leaving her the Sole Survivor? Or were their fates reset as well, and she just embellished her story so the Engels would properly learn their lesson? Did she let Krampus capture her to face her past with him and buy the family time, or did she go knowing she'd survive, and that it wouldn't end any other way? Or both? She notably has a resigned, knowing look on her face when Max and the family realize their encounter with Krampus wasn't a dream after all, which could easily support any interpretation.
    • Are Tom and Omi being punished too, of just caught up in their family's mess. You could argue that Omi refusing to speak English until the end shows she's trying to minimize interactions with the others and being standoffish. As for Tom, he does try harder than the others to put aside his grievances, but in doing so he shows surprisingly little concern for his son's emotional well-being beyond how it makes his family look bad.
  • And You Thought It Would Fail: A minor example, but a particularly hilarious one. Most outlets were predicting an opening weekend haul in the low-teens, but Brad Brevet of Box Office Mojo posted a forecast predicting complete supremacy for Mockingjay and The Good Dinosaur, saying that an opening weekend forecast of $6.5 million for Krampus was "generous," and a weekend haul over $10 million was "unlikely". Then came the the Friday numbers on that very website, showing Krampus breaking $6 million in one day and conquering both Mockingjay and The Good Dinosaur (the latter of which didn't even make the top 3). To Brevet's credit, he acknowledged his mistake without hesitation.
    • Also of note is that on the Internet Movie Database, it's currently the highest rated movie ever made that wasn't screened for critics. Still not that high (6.8) but much better than most.
  • Angel/Devil Shipping: One fanfiction that can be found on Deviantart presents the idea of shipping Max and Der Klown...
  • Angst? What Angst?: In the most providential scenario, Beth somehow manages to stave off the supernatural threats hunting her, all the while caught in the jaws of a merciless blizzard. Realistically, one of those things turns her into a corpse. Her parents' composure and unrealistic optimism concerning her fate can be hard to swallow with that in mind.
  • Better on DVD: The 4K "Naughty Cut" of the film released in 2021 contains roughly 5 minutes of extra footage not included in the theatrical release of the film or the previous release. This footage attempts to soften the more abrasive relationships of the family with some genuinely touching and down to earth interactions.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Der Klown quickly became very popular with fans. In terms of the human characters, Tom and Aunt Dorothy are popular as well.
  • Evil Is Cool: Krampus himself and his minions.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Krampus is a dark holiday spirit determined to teach a harsh lesson to anyone and everyone who has lost faith in Christmas. Krampus uses his magics, his army of unique toys, and various frightening ploys to scare his targets into showing guilt for their actions and selflessness in helping others. Imparting his lessons to drunk mall Santas, guilt-ridden cops and elitist jerks to make them all better people, Krampus's latest victims are the Engel family members, snatching them all away one by one through baiting and trickery. His ultimate target being young Max: Krampus gets the boy to sacrifice himself to spare his family and then, like all of his past hauntings, restores the Engels to a happy Christmas morning, with assurances that he'll be watching them and will return to torment them if they ever lose their Christmas spirit again.
  • Narm: The way in which Max falls into the underworld hole at the end just looks kinda silly.
  • Narm Charm: Der Klown happily giving his elf savior a hug should be stupid. It's actually quite creepy in some ways and legitimately heartwarming in others.
  • Newer Than They Think: Omi refers to the Krampus as "more ancient" than Santa Claus / St. Nicholas, which is not true. The earliest references to the Krampus we can find date back to the early 1700s.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: It seems intentional to set up numerous grating characters only to learn they're more useful or to show they're not so bad. Whether it succeeds with all or some of them is a matter of perspective. Most notably Howard, who starts off disliked in and out of universe for his small-minded, conservative, condescending personality but in the eyes of some fans he gets somewhat better, being shown to care very much for his family and start bonding with Tom, who saved him from the snow creature. He even lunges at Der Klown in a attempt to save his baby daughter, knowing fully well he'd be killed.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Omi borders on being The Scrappy to many fans for knowing the story of Krampus but taking so long to reveal what's going on to the rest of the family. Her defenders are quick to point out how unrealistic it is that anyone have really believed her (as opposed to thinking she was senile) if she told them straight away that the weird things happening were the result of a demonic spirit intent on punishing them for lacking the Christmas spirit. They were very skeptical even after all the weird things that had happened. Also, given the proof that Krampus and his henchmen were unstoppable in their assault on the family, it's arguable it wouldn't have mattered if she had told them about her experience or not since nothing they did made a difference.
  • Rooting for the Empire: Though the family eventually does show they have a few redeeming qualities throughout the film, don't be surprised if you find yourself rooting for Krampus and his henchmen to teach this family of Jerkasses a lesson.
  • Signature Scene: There are five contenders for this so far.
    • The opening slow-motion scene set to "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" while featuring behavior most definitely not in the Christmas spirit.
    • The chase sequence on the rooftops
    • Omi's stop-motion flashback sequence
    • The attic scene with the killer toys.
    • The entrance of Krampus.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Beth, who could have escaped her initial attack to make it back to the house and play a bigger role for a while. The fact that her early capture keeps her relationship with Max from being developed as much as it could have been adds to this.
    • While not technically a character, the creepy snowmen don't really do anything at all besides look threatening.
      • Unless they're the neighbors that you never see, posed to look like snowmen. This is hinted at with the snowman that looks like Howie Jr.
      • There's also the possibility that they're simply a Shout-Out to the disturbing snowmen Calvin builds.
  • Ugly Cute: Some have had this reaction to the monsters, like the Gingerbread men or Teddy. Even the terrifying Der Klown got hit with this due to the aforementioned scene where it's seen hugging one of the elves.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The practical effects used for the toy creatures (as well as Krampus himself) are nothing short of amazing, with Teddy and Der Klown standing out in particular.
  • Win Back the Crowd: The success of the film could, in theory, bring the Christmas Horror genre back into the public square. Prior to Krampus' release, there had not been a single film under the Christmas Horror genre since 2006's Black Christmas, which was also a box office success but was critically panned.
  • The Woobie: Max. All he wanted for Christmas was for his family to not fight and hate each other anymore.

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