Krampus Featurette Depicts A Festive Fairytale Gone Awry

Michael Dougherty’s festive horror-comedy is edging closer and closer to release, but before Universal summons the titular Pagan demon for all to see – and fear – the studio has pumped out another Krampus featurette, this time ushering the core cast to talk about Christmas, the film’s monster in the closet and general seasonal shenanigans.

Laying out the premise behind Dougherty’s delightfully dark feature, today’s clip isn’t so much a new trailer for Krampus as it is a concise rundown of the core story. Forget ol’ Santa Claus and the season of giving he heralds, the horned legend paying a visit to Max (Emjay Anthony) and his family hails from a very darker strand of folklore.

Feasting on non-believers, Max unwittingly conjures the half-human, half-demon creature and his legion of minions from the shadows. What follows is a riotous whirl of horror, heart and humor, and while it remains to be seen if Krampus can balance that trio across its running time, everything we’ve seen from Dougherty’s latest holiday treat fills us with gleeful delight – fear, too, but mostly delight.

In terms of the cast that the director has assembled, Anthony will be joined by Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, Emjay Anthony, Stefania LaVie Owen, and Krista Stadler.

Krampus is primed to loom into theaters on Friday, December 4, and you can catch a fleeting glimpse of the deity in action through the poster below.

Legendary Pictures’ Krampus, a darkly festive tale of a yuletide ghoul, reveals an irreverently twisted side to the holiday. When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max (Emjay Anthony) is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family’s home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.