Nobody knows how long Krampus has been around, but some scholars think in some persona or the other he may have been spreading his nastiness for some 2,000 years. Since the 17th century he’s been thought of as the anti-Santa Claus in Germanic folklore–where Santa is good to good boys and girls, Krampus… well he isn’t so good to those who have been naughty. If you don’t have the Christmas spirit, then beware.
We here at borg.com think the best story ever to feature Krampus was a 2013 episode of NBC’s Grimm, “Twelve Days of Krampus,” which made our Best of 2013 list. Stream that episode to see what the next vision of Krampus should be compared to.
Grimm’s Krampus left coal behind after he kidnapped anyone caught being naughty. He’d put them in a basket hung from a tall tree and at the Winter Solstice he was to eat them. Yikes!
And that next vision of Krampus is this Christmas’s horror release, suitably titled Krampus. We haven’t yet been able to glean a good look at the new fellow, other than the silhouette image at the top of this article, but we hear the production modeled him after images on classic German holiday cards. Krampus stars Oscar nominee Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense, Muriel’s Wedding, Shaft), Adam Scott (Star Trek: First Contact, Parks and Recreation, Veronica Mars), and David Koechner (Anchorman, Get Smart, Paul, Monk).
From the first trailer released this might be a light-hearted romp as horror movies go, although there’s definitely plenty of demonic nasty types that are going to be jumping into your lap. Here’s the first look at Krampus:
