Naughty or nice... he's coming for you.
Krampus Unleashed (2016)
In pursuit of buried treasure, a group of fortune hunters unearth an ancient demonic summoning stone that holds a terrible curse and awakens a timeless evil, the Krampus. After centuries of slumber, Krampus has awoken with a thirst for blood.
rating 3/10 User rating 39 votes 48% ❄ Christmas Connection
The film is set entirely over Christmas and uses Krampus, the Alpine folkloric demon who punishes naughty children on St. Nicholas Eve, as its central monster. The whole premise pivots on the ancient Christmas-season tradition of Krampusnacht. No Christmas, no movie.
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Our Review
Krampus Unleashed (2016) arrives with one job: put a convincing Krampus on screen and let him kill people. Director Robert Conway, shooting on a micro-budget in Mesa, Arizona, manages half of that assignment. The costume is legitimately good. The rest is the kind of filmmaking that makes you appreciate how hard it actually is to make even a mediocre movie.
The film opens in 1898 with a group of German outlaws digging up a summoning stone in the Arizona desert, which immediately calls forth Krampus and gets them all killed. Then it jumps to the present, where a large, loosely connected family gathers at a remote property for Christmas. A kid finds the stone. A cigarette accidentally activates it. Krampus comes back. People die in sequence.
That is the entire plot.
The Creature That Carries the Film
Here is the honest case for Krampus Unleashed: the Krampus costume, built as a full practical man-in-suit design, is more impressive than anything you would expect from a production at this budget level. It is a genuine physical creation with horns, chains, shaggy fur, and real presence in the frame. Performer Travis Amery, who also served as cinematographer, gives the creature a lumbering weight that CGI monsters rarely achieve on limited money.
The practical gore effects back it up. When Krampus kills someone, it looks like a Krampus killed them. That specificity matters in creature horror.
Conway was making a deliberate course correction from his previous Krampus film, Krampus: The Reckoning (2015), which used digital effects that reviewers found unconvincing. The shift to practical work was the right call. The problem is that a good monster suit cannot carry 80 minutes on its own.
What the Film Gets Wrong About Krampus
The original Krampus mythology has a tight logic to it. In Alpine tradition, Krampus accompanies St. Nicholas on the night of December 5, Krampusnacht, to punish children who misbehaved during the year. He is a servant of a moral system, however brutal. He shows up because children were naughty, not because someone dropped a magic rock on a cigarette.
Conway's version strips the creature of all that context and turns it into a generic slasher monster triggered by an artifact. The victims are mostly adults. Nobody is particularly naughty. Krampus kills a pair of Bigfoot hunters who have nothing to do with Christmas at all.
This is not necessarily fatal for a horror film, but it wastes the one thing that makes Krampus interesting as a villain: the moral calculus. The Krampus in Krampus Unleashed could be any monster. Rename the summoning stone and you have the same movie.
Pacing and the 75-Minute Problem
The film runs approximately 80 minutes. It feels longer. A horror movie of this length should not have a pacing problem, but Krampus Unleashed does. Conway spends a significant portion of the first act establishing a sprawling ensemble of family members who are not differentiated clearly enough for the audience to track or care about.
Dread Central's Scott Foy awarded the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, specifically criticizing how little happens for how long. That is an accurate read. The kill sequences, when they arrive, have energy. The connective tissue between them does not.
The cast, including Bryson Holl, Caroline Lassetter, Tim Sauer, and Emily Lynne Aiken as the central family members, work with what they have. The script does not give them much.
Robert Conway's Krampus Franchise
Krampus Unleashed is the second film in what became a three-movie series for Conway, sandwiched between Krampus: The Reckoning (2015) and Krampus Origins (2018). Conway, who studied filmmaking in Tempe, Arizona, and produced his first feature in 2009 while still in film school, has built a career entirely in low-budget genre work. He joined the Western Writers of America in 2019, which suggests his interests range wider than Christmas demons.
The Uncork'd Entertainment DVD release landed December 3, 2016, timed perfectly for the holiday season. It is the kind of film that fills a specific niche: something to put on at a Christmas horror night when everyone has already seen Michael Dougherty's Krampus (2015) and wants to go further down the rabbit hole.
Compared to Dougherty's studio production, Krampus Unleashed is outclassed in almost every category. Compared to the cheapest Krampus knockoffs flooding streaming platforms, the practical effects work gives it something to stand on.
Who This Is For
Fans of practical monster effects and low-budget horror who can tolerate sluggish pacing will find something to appreciate here. Anyone expecting a coherent story, developed characters, or a Krampus film that engages with the actual Krampus mythology will be disappointed. The summoning stone origin is a creative choice that trades folklore for convenience.
The IMDB rating sits at 2.5 out of 10. That might be harsh for a film with genuine craft in its creature design, but it is not wildly off. Krampus Unleashed is a movie where the costume deserved a better screenplay.
Fun Facts
The Krampus costume in the film was a full man-in-suit practical creation, a deliberate departure from Conway's previous Krampus film, which used CGI effects that critics found unconvincing.
Travis Amery, the actor inside the Krampus costume, was also the film's cinematographer, making him responsible for both what the camera saw and the monster it was filming.
The film was distributed on DVD by Uncork'd Entertainment on December 3, 2016, timed to arrive in stores three weeks before Christmas.
Principal photography took place in Mesa, Arizona, meaning the Alpine winter demon famous from Austrian and Bavarian folklore was transplanted entirely into a desert setting.
Robert Conway directed three separate Krampus films: Krampus: The Reckoning (2015), Krampus Unleashed (2016), and Krampus Origins (2018), making him arguably the most prolific director of Krampus-specific cinema.
In actual Alpine tradition, Krampus appears specifically on the night of December 5, Krampusnacht, as a companion to St. Nicholas. The film's Krampus operates with no such schedule constraints.
The Austrian government distributed pamphlets titled "Krampus Is an Evil Man" in the 1950s, expressing concern that encounters with the Krampus character could damage children's mental health.
Conway joined the Western Writers of America in 2019, the professional organization for authors of western fiction, after building his career almost entirely in horror and thriller films.
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