Apparently the makers of this film only looked at the cover of a "Krampus: for dummies" book. The movie is extremely slow and must have had a 2k budget, but what really made this a 1 star review, is they only made a movie about an ancient demon with horns that hates kids and they mentioned twice it happened to be Christmas. They don't seem to know what Krampus is at all.
22 Reviews
Puts the 'Krap' into Krampus.
BA_Harrison13 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This is the third Krampus film written by Robert Conway. The first - Krampus: The Reckoning - was reasonably entertaining, but had a really bad CGI Krampus. The second - Krampus Unleashed - had a really dumb script, but at least gave us a practical make-up FX Krampus and lots of gore. For most of Origins, which has the worst script of them all, I was wondering whether the film even had a Krampus: it takes an age to get to the monster, and it really isn't worth the wait.
The first half an hour of the film tells how a magical book with the power to summon the Christmas Devil comes into the possession of schoolteacher Josephine (Katie Peabody), who has started working at a Catholic school for orphans in Arizona. This part of the film could have been wrapped up in less than ten minutes, but then the film would have been barely over an hour long (which would have been fine by me). The book gets into the hands of one of the school kids, who translates the ancient German text and summons Krampus, which manifests itself as a surly looking kid called Nicholas, who turns up on the school's doorstep at night and is taken in by the nuns.
There's not an ounce of the trashy fun of the second film, director Joseph Mbah aiming for either 'classy' or 'atmospheric', but missing both by a mile. He does, however, hit 'boring' and 'tedious' without difficulty, making the first two films seem like masterpieces in comparison. After an hour of forgettable, uneventful drama, we finally get to see Krampus, and a more crappy creature it would be hard to imagine: a man painted black wearing a horned helmet and with cheap-looking After Effects glowing eyes, Krampus just stands there, talking in a stupid demonic voice, ending each sentence with an extended, deep, guttural sound that is more laughable than terrifying.
After threatening to devour their souls and destroy the world, or some such nonsense, the pathetic monster is defeated by Josephine, who is protected by a handy amulet and who has conveniently been learning ancient Germanic languages as a hobby, thereby enabling her to read from the book and banish Krampus back to hell.
1.5/10, rounded down to 1 for using the font Helvetica on the school blackboard, a typeface that wasn't designed until several decades after the film is set.
The first half an hour of the film tells how a magical book with the power to summon the Christmas Devil comes into the possession of schoolteacher Josephine (Katie Peabody), who has started working at a Catholic school for orphans in Arizona. This part of the film could have been wrapped up in less than ten minutes, but then the film would have been barely over an hour long (which would have been fine by me). The book gets into the hands of one of the school kids, who translates the ancient German text and summons Krampus, which manifests itself as a surly looking kid called Nicholas, who turns up on the school's doorstep at night and is taken in by the nuns.
There's not an ounce of the trashy fun of the second film, director Joseph Mbah aiming for either 'classy' or 'atmospheric', but missing both by a mile. He does, however, hit 'boring' and 'tedious' without difficulty, making the first two films seem like masterpieces in comparison. After an hour of forgettable, uneventful drama, we finally get to see Krampus, and a more crappy creature it would be hard to imagine: a man painted black wearing a horned helmet and with cheap-looking After Effects glowing eyes, Krampus just stands there, talking in a stupid demonic voice, ending each sentence with an extended, deep, guttural sound that is more laughable than terrifying.
After threatening to devour their souls and destroy the world, or some such nonsense, the pathetic monster is defeated by Josephine, who is protected by a handy amulet and who has conveniently been learning ancient Germanic languages as a hobby, thereby enabling her to read from the book and banish Krampus back to hell.
1.5/10, rounded down to 1 for using the font Helvetica on the school blackboard, a typeface that wasn't designed until several decades after the film is set.
Out of the entire Krampus franchise, this is the absolute worst.
banglainey29 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This movie definitely deserves one star! As a fan of horror including terrible B movies, this film had no redeeming qualities. It seems to have been made by the same studio that made Krampus: Unleashed, which was only slightly better with 2 stars.
These two films tie into the same universe because of the backstory involving Arizona, which probably was just written in because that's where the people who filmed it lived so they decided to place it there, even though Krampus is a Germanic folklore demon, from Germany.
So, how does Krampus end up in the desert? Well, this movie will tell you, but in a very slow, boring uninteresting and uncreative way. They couldn't even write in an interesting way to get the German demon to the USA. The introduction opens somewhere in Germany during world war, where it shows some crazy German dude with a fancy necklace and a book screaming random stuff, he and everyone else gets shot, and the bodies of the US soldiers are sent back to the states. One soldier's wife, a teacher in Arizona, is sent her husbands belongings, which just happen to include the German book and necklace.
The first hour of the film is less like a horror movie and more like a very boring biopic of 1900's Arizona as we learn about their beliefs of the time, and how the orphanage they work at operates. It isn't until you get near the end that the story even has literally anything to do with Krampus. It's almost as if they started filming a story about an orpahange in early Arizona days, realized at the end that it would literally make people's eyes bleed from boredom, and decided to throw in Krampus in the last few scenes to write it off as a horror story instead. Then, when he finally appears, it is really just flashy colors or a still shot that depict the Krampus. No murder or anything even takes place, just scenes of people running, falling, screaming, and then the assumption that Krampus killed them, it's really absolutely terrible. I mean, I truly believe a B movie can be totally redeemed from its crappy graphics and usually bad acting and soundtrack with originality and gore, but this movie offers neither. Krampus himself looks like a guy in a black paper mache' mask with some flames edited in his eye sockets, and you don't actually see Krampus move around or anything, all you see is a scene of his face he kinda rocks back and forth, and the rest of the time, he is in the form of an evil looking little boy, or the screen flashes color (you know, because flashing colors means murders are going on!! you just can't see them).
At the end Krampus basically disappears* everyone except the teacher, because she had the German necklace the first guy was waving around and screaming about and for some reason Krampus can't kill whoever has the necklace. But then she manages to banish Krampus somehow despite only having just learned about him and the amulet 2 minutes beforehand and everyone pops out of thin air so Krampus really didn't do any damage at all and the whole thing was pretty pointless since they all lived happily ever after anyway.
The drunk priest wins award for best actor, everyone else was terrible. This was like a bad boring episode of little house on the prairie.
These two films tie into the same universe because of the backstory involving Arizona, which probably was just written in because that's where the people who filmed it lived so they decided to place it there, even though Krampus is a Germanic folklore demon, from Germany.
So, how does Krampus end up in the desert? Well, this movie will tell you, but in a very slow, boring uninteresting and uncreative way. They couldn't even write in an interesting way to get the German demon to the USA. The introduction opens somewhere in Germany during world war, where it shows some crazy German dude with a fancy necklace and a book screaming random stuff, he and everyone else gets shot, and the bodies of the US soldiers are sent back to the states. One soldier's wife, a teacher in Arizona, is sent her husbands belongings, which just happen to include the German book and necklace.
The first hour of the film is less like a horror movie and more like a very boring biopic of 1900's Arizona as we learn about their beliefs of the time, and how the orphanage they work at operates. It isn't until you get near the end that the story even has literally anything to do with Krampus. It's almost as if they started filming a story about an orpahange in early Arizona days, realized at the end that it would literally make people's eyes bleed from boredom, and decided to throw in Krampus in the last few scenes to write it off as a horror story instead. Then, when he finally appears, it is really just flashy colors or a still shot that depict the Krampus. No murder or anything even takes place, just scenes of people running, falling, screaming, and then the assumption that Krampus killed them, it's really absolutely terrible. I mean, I truly believe a B movie can be totally redeemed from its crappy graphics and usually bad acting and soundtrack with originality and gore, but this movie offers neither. Krampus himself looks like a guy in a black paper mache' mask with some flames edited in his eye sockets, and you don't actually see Krampus move around or anything, all you see is a scene of his face he kinda rocks back and forth, and the rest of the time, he is in the form of an evil looking little boy, or the screen flashes color (you know, because flashing colors means murders are going on!! you just can't see them).
At the end Krampus basically disappears* everyone except the teacher, because she had the German necklace the first guy was waving around and screaming about and for some reason Krampus can't kill whoever has the necklace. But then she manages to banish Krampus somehow despite only having just learned about him and the amulet 2 minutes beforehand and everyone pops out of thin air so Krampus really didn't do any damage at all and the whole thing was pretty pointless since they all lived happily ever after anyway.
The drunk priest wins award for best actor, everyone else was terrible. This was like a bad boring episode of little house on the prairie.
OK considering the budget.
lordofthewrenches19 December 2018
I actually liked the new take on Krampus as more of a human entity, and enjoyed the fact it wasn't just a slasher. Even though it was low budget they managed to cast a couple of decent actors with some credits behind them (Maria Olsen and Anna Harr). The rest of the actors ranged from adequate, to over the top bad. The bad consisted of actors trying to pull off dialects and accents that were beyond their ability, to the supremely annoying and over acted stuttering character of Bram.
To sum it up worth a watch if you don't expect too much given the budget, also if you're a gore fan you will definitely be disappointed.
Wrong from the get go.
iantom-331588 November 2018
Bad CGI, even worse acting.
ithaclies8 November 2018
Warning: Spoilers
I knew this one was going to be a stinker by the first few minutes. A group of soldiers are walking through enemy territory when a badly animated rocket flies past them and actually changes trajectory before exploding. Shortly after, a German soldier is listening to orders given to him in German and he responds with "Copy that"... in English! The minute the I saw the "Krampus" summoned by a German commander appear as if it was a poorly projected floating visage, I was already going to stop watching. Morbid curiosity made me fast forward through the rest of the movie, and I was right. It is a horrible movie, the special effects look like a highschool A/V club made it, and the acting was so laughable I actually felt bad for whoever attached their name to this dumpster fire. Who in their right mind would think that a Damien from "The Omen" mixed with silent & brooding Gladiator was a good idea? Seek a new line of work because after watching your movie, you owe the audience money.
Skip it
Tr-u-mpbilly11 November 2018
Boring high school student movie
JTMokko9 November 2018
Krampus Origins tells the tale of how everything started in Krampus movie series.
Premise is enticing - where did the monster come from?
Krampus movies have been very entertaining so far and a movie set in medieval Germany would have been inspiring.
For my great grief - this movie is not fulfilling the promise of Krampus franchise. First of all, sound mixing.. and everything related to sound, music included, was rubbish. Gun shots and explosions at the first part of the film were muffled, probably recorded at the sound stage.
Lighting and set design all were disappointments. Actors were hired from small town playhouse with a promise of one warm meal a day and credits in the film. Special FX.. these were none. Monster himself, Krampus, was just a horned buff dude with some black paint on him. Probably directors cousin who lifts weights.
I hope that, who ever owns the rights to the name Krampus, would be more careful who can make films in this franchise.
For my great grief - this movie is not fulfilling the promise of Krampus franchise. First of all, sound mixing.. and everything related to sound, music included, was rubbish. Gun shots and explosions at the first part of the film were muffled, probably recorded at the sound stage.
Lighting and set design all were disappointments. Actors were hired from small town playhouse with a promise of one warm meal a day and credits in the film. Special FX.. these were none. Monster himself, Krampus, was just a horned buff dude with some black paint on him. Probably directors cousin who lifts weights.
I hope that, who ever owns the rights to the name Krampus, would be more careful who can make films in this franchise.
Rather dull and low-budget Krampus feature
kannibalcorpsegrinder27 December 2018
At the end of WW I, the new teacher at an orphanage finds that a lost trinket sent by her husband from the war has been used by the curious children living there to summon the mystic demon Krampus who begins a deadly rampage at the location forcing them to band together to stop the creature.
While it does have some flaws, there are some positives here. The most likable element present is the rather nice backstory throughout here, which manages to include some intriguing real-life connections. The opening in WW I, with the soldiers shown infiltrating the German bunker to stop the creation of the creature as the scientist attempts to bring it to life, gives this a solid lead-in to the scenes at the orphanage where the same materials infiltrate their grounds starting up the creature's return. This is all handled rather nicely here as the build-up of the life at the orphanage as well as how the introduction of the summoning artifact to the building takes place provides a pretty intriguing start to this one. Once the introduction has been handled, this one does pick up rather nicely as the terror of their newfound visitor carries a lot of weight. With all sorts of strange maladies and physical interactions caused by his presence while in human form introduced at first, there's a nice setup present here that gives way to the creatures' attacks in the final half of the film. As the creature starts to get more involved with chasing down the kids and the other staff members, the darker lighting and mystic fog that sprouts up offer somewhat creepy images as the creature walks through the dark corridors trying to stop it while the occasional flashes to the group preparing their own vigils against it. These here are what hold it up over its flaws. The main flaw in the film is that the low-budget nature of this one shines through rather prominently, giving off a pretty overwhelming tone throughout here. The few soldiers used to denote the war taking place, the singular location of the orphanage and the utterly awful CGI used for the Krampus which looks like cut-scenes from a video game all come off truly apparent of what it's like here. The bland pacing and overly cheesy storyline don't help much, and there's a pretty blatant series of simple sets where it's placed at just hamper this one down as well. The other problem here is the sloppy and utterly underwhelming finale, which has no real bearing on the storyline brought up previously as the inclusion of mysticism and spell-casting is just lame, and the flat-out abrupt ending is simply jarring with the way it's handled. These here are what hold this one back.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.
While it does have some flaws, there are some positives here. The most likable element present is the rather nice backstory throughout here, which manages to include some intriguing real-life connections. The opening in WW I, with the soldiers shown infiltrating the German bunker to stop the creation of the creature as the scientist attempts to bring it to life, gives this a solid lead-in to the scenes at the orphanage where the same materials infiltrate their grounds starting up the creature's return. This is all handled rather nicely here as the build-up of the life at the orphanage as well as how the introduction of the summoning artifact to the building takes place provides a pretty intriguing start to this one. Once the introduction has been handled, this one does pick up rather nicely as the terror of their newfound visitor carries a lot of weight. With all sorts of strange maladies and physical interactions caused by his presence while in human form introduced at first, there's a nice setup present here that gives way to the creatures' attacks in the final half of the film. As the creature starts to get more involved with chasing down the kids and the other staff members, the darker lighting and mystic fog that sprouts up offer somewhat creepy images as the creature walks through the dark corridors trying to stop it while the occasional flashes to the group preparing their own vigils against it. These here are what hold it up over its flaws. The main flaw in the film is that the low-budget nature of this one shines through rather prominently, giving off a pretty overwhelming tone throughout here. The few soldiers used to denote the war taking place, the singular location of the orphanage and the utterly awful CGI used for the Krampus which looks like cut-scenes from a video game all come off truly apparent of what it's like here. The bland pacing and overly cheesy storyline don't help much, and there's a pretty blatant series of simple sets where it's placed at just hamper this one down as well. The other problem here is the sloppy and utterly underwhelming finale, which has no real bearing on the storyline brought up previously as the inclusion of mysticism and spell-casting is just lame, and the flat-out abrupt ending is simply jarring with the way it's handled. These here are what hold this one back.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.
SKIP IT!
dmsl-221937 September 2021
This is a movie that gets stale fast and stays there
kevin_robbins16 December 2022
Krampus Origins (2018) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline takes place shortly after World War I when a military officer finds an artifact and is killed shortly after. The artifact is sent to his widow who happens to run an orphanage. When the kids at the orphanage accidentally summon Krampus, the widow and orphans will have to try and stop him.
This movie is directed by Joseph Mbah (Battlefield 2025) and stars Maria Olsen (Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief), Anna Harr (Hot Seat), Amelia Haberman (The Covenant, 2017), Katie Peabody (Lear's Shadow) and Dustin James Leighton (Exit to Hell).
This is not a good movie. The attire and settings are okay, but the acting and dialogue is very average. The plot drags and doesn't have enough horror scenes; but when they do have horror sequences, they are average and disappointing. Even the background horror music is average and Krampus doesn't look like the cover.
Overall, this is a movie that gets stale fast and stays there. I would score this a 2/10 and recommend skipping it.
This movie is directed by Joseph Mbah (Battlefield 2025) and stars Maria Olsen (Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief), Anna Harr (Hot Seat), Amelia Haberman (The Covenant, 2017), Katie Peabody (Lear's Shadow) and Dustin James Leighton (Exit to Hell).
This is not a good movie. The attire and settings are okay, but the acting and dialogue is very average. The plot drags and doesn't have enough horror scenes; but when they do have horror sequences, they are average and disappointing. Even the background horror music is average and Krampus doesn't look like the cover.
Overall, this is a movie that gets stale fast and stays there. I would score this a 2/10 and recommend skipping it.
A very poor Krampus picture.
MonsterVision9924 December 2021
Making this a period piece was really ambitious and its take on the Krampus story is certainly creative but it ultimately falls flat and becomes a shore to get through because of its flawed execution.
Decent production values and cinematography for what it is but lacking on almost every other aspect including the writing, pacing and directing.
Decent production values and cinematography for what it is but lacking on almost every other aspect including the writing, pacing and directing.
***AWFUL***
trevd-2297719 November 2018
I don't like writing negative comments but this mess richly deserves to be panned. It has only the slimmest ties with the original film and absolutely none of the class.
There are a lot of good things about the digital revolution such as film restoration, home media & the like. One of the biggest problems with it though is that people who should not be making films now have the means within their grasp.The old saying holds true here- "Just because you can doesn't mean you should".
Avoid this film if you place any value on your time at all.
Good in bad
nebulous-637848 November 2018
Acting and cinematography were surprisingly competent. Peabody, Olsen, Hall, and surprisingly Waxman were pretty great. The stock music and special effects took me out of it but other than that I'm impressed for a low budget straight to dvd horror movie.
Horrible
ambermcduffe15 December 2018
Let me see if I can find a reverse spell
nogodnomasters26 November 2018
Warning: Spoilers
For Krampus origins, if you have Colonel Schneider with the amulet in the WWI bunker, you are correct. Although in all honesty, it is Krampus modern-day origin and not his real origin. The book used to conjure the Krampus ends up at a Catholic orphanage with a new teacher, student into the black arts, and a priest who drinks too much.
The story and acting were poor. The Krampus was more like Dark Lord Sauron than the Christmas Krampus we are used to seeing.
Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.
The story and acting were poor. The Krampus was more like Dark Lord Sauron than the Christmas Krampus we are used to seeing.
Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.
Went South SOOO fast
sindee081627 December 2023
Acting for most part was decent. Ambiance was not very believable as 1913 even though the tried. Very drawn out in the beginning but it was better than when we saw the monster. I refuse to call it Krampus. I dont know what it was supposed to be. I sat through over an hour (it seemed) of nothing but dialog that was questionable at times, for EVERY SINGLE death was done OFFSCREEN! Yea. Zero Krampus death scenes, unbelievable period piece and the absolute worst Krampus design. The Krampus dialog gave secondhand embarrassment for sure and the story didn't even line up with the legend. Had promise.
Terrible film
amyau-8807013 November 2022
Recently Watched the original Krampus for the first time with our 12 year old son. He loved the concept and the characters that much we decided to download this one. To say we were all disappointed is an understatement. We found the storyline tedious and incredibly boring. Even our twelve year old was bored to tears. We made ourselves watch until the end. Some of the acting was good, (and knowing the film was low budget we tried to give some leeway) despite this we could not give this movie more than one star. Personal opinion- avoid at all costs, it's an hour and a half of your life you'll never get back.
Historicly inaccurate
lusebeatrise24 December 2020
WW1 ended in 1918, Novembre 11. for your information. There is no way that ww1 was still happening till december. If you want to make a movie get your facts right and hire better actors. Couldn't even watch the movie because of it's inaccuracy.
This AIN'T Krampus
geraldleejones-2063925 December 2023
From the get-go the movie is riddled with MAJOR errors including saying that Arizona was a Territory in 1918, when it became a state in 1912, the orphanage has Awning of steel and glass right out of the year 2000. But...one doesn't expect perfection from a fairly low budget horror movie, so they are forgiven. However, a film about Krampus and his legend right out European folk lore SHOULD know that folklore and the identity of who and what Krampus is according to history.
The acting is pretty lousy from ALL the adults and most of the kids. One would expect the writing to attempt to recreate an aura of the World War One era, the way people talked and how they expressed themselves.... NONE of that here! The kids talk like big city street kids using modern expressions and idioms!
And the way they depicted this Roman Catholic orphanage and its priest are pretty shoddy and offensive.... I am offended and I am NOT a Catholic!! Pure Krapus!!!!
The acting is pretty lousy from ALL the adults and most of the kids. One would expect the writing to attempt to recreate an aura of the World War One era, the way people talked and how they expressed themselves.... NONE of that here! The kids talk like big city street kids using modern expressions and idioms!
And the way they depicted this Roman Catholic orphanage and its priest are pretty shoddy and offensive.... I am offended and I am NOT a Catholic!! Pure Krapus!!!!
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