It is painfully obvious almost immediately into Krampus: The Christmas Devil that it is a film made on a shoestring by industry novices. The videography is amateurish, often shot using natural lighting. At one point, Jason Hull tries to direct a barroom fight scenes and the results are woefully unconvincing. The film also arrives at an abrupt and downbeat resolution that feels like it leaves the plot unresolved

Despite being the film’s headline act, The Krampus of the film never gets to do much. He drags one or two children away and is even seen in his cave (apparently located in rural Pennsylvania) with children in cages and a naked woman chained up. Far better is the less-than-family-friendly version of Santa who greets Krampus “What the fuck, brother?” and calls a kid “You snivelling little shit.”

The film does manage to reign in genre regular Bill Oberst, Jr for a single scene appearance where at least he gives a rather deranged performance that lights the film up as he promises to do things to A.J. Leslie’s family. The rest of the cast give the impression they are the director’s friends he has persuaded to take roles – certainly, A.J. Leslie makes a reasonable lead and you could expect him to on to doing other things.

Jason Hull, A.J. Leslie and several others returned for a sequel Krampus: The Devil Returns (2016).

Director Jason Hull, along with many of the actors here, had previously made the horror films Chasing Darkness (2007) and The Four (2012).
 

Trailer here:-