(This review may contain spoilers).
When I saw this film advertised originally, I was instantly curious. The ‘bad’ Santa is something I’ve heard of before… but it was an interesting movie to watch.
There were some members of the family who were thoroughly unlikable. I was disappointed not to see much depth to some of the characters. I did like Max and it was sweet to see his relationship with Nomi. I also thought it was really easy to empathise with his desire for things to be the way they had been.
It was good that, although most of the movie was violent, there wasn’t much blood and gore shown. I felt that enough was left to the imagination, which was a good way of doing things.
I liked being able to see the conflicts and affection between Sarah and Linda. I would have liked some more details about their history and different home lives. While there were parts of this movie that were a little amusing, I wouldn’t say it’s actually a comedy-horror.
I did like the opportunity to learn more of Nomi’s past, though it was confusing to see that her son didn’t have any idea. When Nomi was talking about her past, I thought that the use of a different style worked really well… and I had a lot of sympathy for the child she’d been.
The puppets were really creepy, but I would have liked more details about how they related to Krampus. The atmosphere in this movie was really creepy and chilling… and I felt that the town looked really deserted and creepy. I was confused about why Krampus was targeting the whole town, though.
It was interesting that Krampus himself didn’t appear very much in the movie. I thought it was more scary when he wasn’t there than towards the end, when he was.
I would have liked the ending to be more certain and less open-ended. There were a few jump scares in this movie, but nothing that left me absolutely terrified and on the edge of my seat. It was entertaining to watch, but not all of the characters were easy to relate to and I felt that the storyline didn’t go into as much depth as it could have done. I don’t know if I would watch the movie again.
Ink of Blood 