Michael Doughtery's movie Krampus has the most accurate depiction of the mythological Christmas demon, making it the definitive version of Krampus.
Over the years, horror creators have adapted the folklore of the infamous Christmas demon, but Michael Dougherty's 2015 movie Krampus is the definitive version of the creature. With so many versions of the mythological demon existing in popular culture, its true origins often get lost in translation but here's why Dougherty's movie captures the most accurate depiction of the beast.
Dougherty is known for his ability to craft horror movies surrounding specific holidays with historically influenced and accurate characters. His 2007 anthology Trick 'R Treat utilizes the mythology of Samhain to capture the Celtic pagan origins of Halloween. In Krampus, he diligently examines the Christmas demon's appearance, powers, myths, and origins across the globe in order to accurately recreate the creature. According to several traditions, he isn't just the opposite of Saint Nicholas, he is actually the devil, appearing with a long forked tong, cloven hooves, and pointed horns. Being that he is a Christmas demon, he will traditionally don a bag of tricks to kidnap children or drown them.
Other movie adaptations of the Krampus mythology include Krampus: The Reckoning, Krampus Unleashed, and A Christmas Horror Story. In truth, few of these movies are at all good in comparison to Dougherty's. This is primarily due to the fact that they utilize an egregious amount of gore and transform a relatively tame creature into one filled with malice and revenge. He goes against Saint Nicholas, as if they've had a century-long rivalry, but this is never present in the actual mythos of Krampus. When directors make the Christmas demon into a malevolent force rather than a cautionary tale, it removes the true essence and originality of the character.
Dougherty's Krampus artfully weaves together the various traditions of several different cultures and he never loses sight of the true meaning behind the demon. Historically, he was used as a cautionary tale told to children as the holiday season approached, and just like Saint Nicholas, he abides by the rules of naughty and nice. Only, a little more troublingly, instead of giving coal, he takes naughty children or those who have lost the Christmas spirit to hell. In other variations, he drowns them or whips them with a bundle of birch branches. In the 2015 movie, nearly every member of the Engel family has lost their Christmas spirit, but once Max tosses out his letter to Santa, the true horrors of the holiday come rushing towards them.
The movie does break away from some traditional elements of Krampus, especially with the Yule lads who are owned by the witch Gryla from Icelandic folklore, who were featured in The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina winter special. He utilized the behaviors of the Yule lads to personify the gifts in Krampus's bag. He sends in dolls, presents, gingerbread, and more to torment the Engels and trick the children into coming with him to hell. He is predominately tied to Germanic and Austrian culture, as the folkloric devil merged with the Christian tradition in central Europe. This is likely the reason that Dougherty made the Engel's matriarch a woman of Germanic descent who dealt with Krampus in her childhood.
The director worked diligently to ensure that every piece of the Krampus mythology, folklore, and origins were covered in the 2015 movie. By making the grandmother a German woman with experience with the devil and telling his history orally, as it is still done today, he captured the essence of the early emergence of the Christmas demon. His appearance is an amalgamation of several variations that tend to be more or less the same. When Dougherty ensured that all variations were accounted for, he recognized the difficulties of pinning down a specific mythological belief and utilized the several available to make one terrifying demonic presence. Ultimately, it is a testament to how detail-oriented Michael Dougherty is when creating holiday horror movies such as Krampus, especially because these details made it the definitive version of the demon.
