So was the whole thing all a dream right from the beginning? When Max wakes up and sees his family, they act like nothing ever happened, and then Max tells everyone he just had a bad dream---then Max opens that present and sees that Krampus ornament, then the camera pans out to a snowglobe type display, then the monsters leap out and the movie ends----I don't get it! Can someone explain?
shareBasically, it's not a happy ending as one might thinks.
Krampus is a demon and what do they do, collect souls. The family is all dead and their souls are entombed in those snow globes.
#1 You can see the neighbors homes from outside the window on Christmas morning.
#2 The film makers have explicitly said that it's a happy ending, not 'trapped in a snow globe'.
So... That said, if you prefer to believe that they're trapped forever in a snow globe, then have at it.
#1 - They still are living in the same neighborhood, everything is just like a dream version of reality.
#2 - bad filmmakers are the only ones who need to explain their own endings. If you or a separate source have to tell the audience what the film was doing than your film did something wrong.
The film just isn't very good and the ending has problems.
7/10=good()5/10=mediocre
#2 - bad filmmakers are the only ones who need to explain their own endings. If you or a separate source have to tell the audience what the film was doing than your film did something wrong.
The film just isn't very good and the ending has problems.
I guess I like happy endings because I choose to believe that lessons were learned and things put back to normal, but that Krampus left a message in the form of the bell. You better not lose the Christmas spirit again or I'll be back and finish what I started. The family is safe, for now, and not in hell/purgatory/snow globe.
shareThat is much too simple. The ending was purposely ambiguous.
Any movie can leave with some bs happy ending but this tried to be more clever and ironic than that imo.
7/10=good()5/10=mediocre
They all suddenly remembered the events of the night before and how it was almost lost- not just the little boy. The lesson was learned but remember "he sees you when you're sleeping, knows when you are awake...", in other words, he is keeping an eye on them in case they forget the lesson and dire warning given about the loss of Christmas Spirit.
shareThis is for everyone who has responded.
Before I start let's not pretend this movie is high art or well written, it isn't.
The kid's wish is unrealistic and such a wish could only happen in a fantasy world. He then just gives up on it.
A Christmas Carol is just a point of reference not a map. It has no bearing on the ending of this film. In fact, Krampus is actually calling BS on the ending of A Christmas Carol. In the real world nobody changes overnight.
At the end of Krampus, the kid does make a sacrifice and thus gets his wish, but his wish was for something unrealistic and thus he and the family is doomed to live in a happy but false reality forever.
My argument against the "they learned their lesson" ending is because of the unnatural dreamlike or happy Christmas movie feel and because they are all acting like completely different people at the end. Sorry, real life doesn't work like that and that is the point of the end of the film.
I saw the point of the Krampus ornament as letting them know they are doomed to that existence forever. After all, no one really learned anything during the course of the film.
Remember that this is a horror movie after all and one of the major clichés of horror films is the strange/off endings. It reminded me of the very ending of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
The point of the film is to be grateful for what you have, because for the kid in the film in retrospect it isn't all that bad. It is asking, do you want to live in a dream? or in reality?
7/10=good()5/10=mediocre
"A Christmas Carol is just a point of reference not a map. It has no bearing on the ending of this film. In fact, Krampus is actually calling BS on the ending of A Christmas Carol. In the real world nobody changes overnight."
Except the part where the comic is canon and the director helped write it. The director also said he was HEAVILY influenced by A Christmas Carol and was also inspired by It's A Wonderful Life. The clues for Christmas Carol are throughout the movie including the ending. The comic even shows what happens when you learn your lesson and when you don't. So really? Not a map?
"My argument against the "they learned their lesson" ending is because of the unnatural dreamlike or happy Christmas movie feel and because they are all acting like completely different people at the end. Sorry, real life doesn't work like that and that is the point of the end of the film."
Of course they were acting different. They got the Christmas spirit scared back into them.
Not trying to argue, just trying to clear things up.
At first it crossed my mind that he might have somehow trapped their spirits in the snow globe, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Not much of a hell or anything to just get to live in the comfort of your home. I think the Krampus gave them a second chance and left the "gift" for Max to let them know that no, that wasn't all a dream and to warn them that he will be watching them, which I think he does through the snow globe. And I think all the other snow globes were supposed to be everyone else's house - including the audience's. That seemed to be the natural horror movie ending to me.
shareNot sure about him giving them a second chance as they say time and time again krampus does not give things he takes it so they are stuck in the globe forever and just repeats christmas over and over again like groundhogs day or something. So they will mess up at some point and they will remember each and every day and unwrap that bell each and every day forever. And the grandma already had here problem with him so they might of already been in the globe the whole time and he had to come back into the globe because of the kid . Where did the original snowman come from who put it there krampus did as they where already in the globe thanks to the grandma.
shareThey were all killed and their souls are trapped in the snow globe.
At first, the others don't remember what happened or being killed, while the boy remembers but thinks it was just a nightmare. Once he unwraps the gift, they all start to remember. I think that soon after they remember, they'll try to go somewhere and figure out they're trapped and doomed to spend eternity there - together (deserving since they hated each other's company in the beginning) and totally flip out on one another under the weight of that realization. The snow globe is like their own special Hell, a sick joke for Krampus' amusement at their expense.
I don't think Krampus was ever there to teach them a lesson, I think he was there to prey upon them and the boy made his family vulnerable to Krampus by "inviting" him with the wish. In other words, the boy unwittingly opened a door for a demon who wants to kill and keep the souls as trophies...Not a demon who cares about teaching lessons or the true meaning of Christmas haha. That's evident in that he kills the baby and how he still kills the two kids at the end, despite the boy seemingly "learning his lesson."
Then why if they are all 'trapped for eternity' in there, then if they get tired of one another, they can just go across the street to one of the other empty affluent houses to live? That makes no sense either.
3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!
I like both theories, i guess until the DVD comes out with the commentary, we won't know for sure.
I just wonder, at the end when the screen zooms out of the globe, they play the song 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town':
He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
As if he wanted to point out that it all happened, they died and Krampus had his fun but like the kid says, Krampus can fix it. So as long as they keep being a good family and enjoy Christmas, Krampus will let them be.
To be honest, even that theory isn't a happy ending. Being eaten alive by monstrous toys or thrown into a fire pit is something to be traumatized for the rest of their lives.
That bell made them remember their horrific deaths, how the hell can you expect to be happy on Christmas after that. Soon or later, they will ruin Christmas once again and Krampus will be back.
That would make Krampus mischievous, a trickster. What's more evil than letting someone remember those events and knows he's always watching. It's alot more fun for him.
Umm your post makes no sense.
share