After writer/director Michael Dougherty gave us the delightfully entertaining anthology Trick 'r Treat in 2007 he kind of laid low for a while, especially since the movie was sadly dumped to DVD instead of getting the theatrical release it was meant to have. Despite that, positive word of mouth spread enough for the flick to gain a following and now remains as one of the most watched movies during the Halloween season. Luckily for us he's finally back with a new tale in the form of Krampus, which recently hit theaters in the US and shows that Dougherty is making himself out to be the king of seasonal horror, because this is yet another fun effort from the filmmaker.

The movie opens up to a hilarious slow motion montage of a slew of eager holiday shoppers pushing, biting, and stomping their way through a department store, essentially symbolizing what the meaning of Christmas has become. Then we transition to our cast of leads consisting of a lot of familiar faces like Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Allison Tolman, and David Koechner, who are all part of the same family that have come together for Christmas. After everyone has established that they hate each other, the flick kicks into gear when a heartbroken young boy rips up his letter to Santa, which inadvertently calls upon the wrath of Krampus, who is essentially an evil Santa that hands out punishments instead of gifts.

I had a lot of fun with this movie, which is naturally not to be taken too seriously since it's more in the vein of comedic "horror" flicks like Gremlins. In fact there are some pretty evil Gingerbread Men here that reminded me of the chaos and silliness of Gremlins. That brings me to one of the key reasons why I liked the pic so much--villain variety. Instead of simply just focusing on Krampus we watch as all sorts of different minions hunt down the family. Not only do they look cool (and sometimes creepy) but each one offers something unique, like the giant Jack in the Box snake creature, mischievous Gingerbread Men or the sinister looking sharp-toothed teddy bear. Even Krampus himself looked pretty damn menacing with his long horns and massive frame.

Though there were some short creepy or suspenseful bits here and there, the pic mostly offered a more light and comedic tone; never getting too dark, but just dark enough. This may turn some people off if they go in completely expecting a full on horror flick, which it's not. Also, while comedy is subjective, the jokes and physical gags worked for me and some viewers may be split on its semi-ambiguous and unconventional ending, however I found refreshing.

Michael Dougherty successfully blends the right amount of fun and frights together and delivers another solid seasonal genre effort. Definitely give this a look, but go in expecting more of a silly dark holiday tale than a straight forward horror pic.