Nerds That Geek Movie Review – ‘Krampus: The Reckoning’

Written by Scott Edwards

It is always hard to know what to get someone for the holidays, especially if they have been naughty.  Even if they try to be nice for a certain part of the year, in an effort to show everyone what a ‘good’ person they are, it does not replace what they do the rest of the time. It can be difficult for someone to change their stripes, no matter how hard they try to, and their true nature can wind up hurting them in the long run. During the season of giving, it is easy to overlook these things, but once you have been marked for being bad in one way or another, it is almost impossible to get rid of that label.

Being different is something that Zoe has been getting used to her entire life. With her friends not wanting to be around her since she is more fascinated with death than they are, she tries to entertain herself back at the house, but that is not a safe place for her either. Trying to watch something on television while her foster mom is listening to music in her headphones, Zoe is reamed for changing the channel. Going to her room and hearing her foster parents starting to get busy in the bedroom, Zoe takes a quick peek and is shunned back to her room, but this time the door is locked from the outside. The only option in her room is to play with her dolls, so she pulls out her favorite one and removes the chains that keeps the secret of her favorite one at bay.

Getting a call from a neighbor, the police are called in to find out what has happened at the Hoelzer foster house. With two burned bodies in the driveway, young Zoe has nothing to say to anyone about what really happened. Being taken to the hospital for further evaluation, Zoe keeps her mouth closed to the doctors, but when Doctor Rachel Stewart makes it on the scene, the young girl opens up just a little bit. Only being able to get Zoe to say that her foster parents were not nice people, Rachel wants to get more information and makes a promise to bring back the dolls that are hidden in her bedroom. With a police escort to the crime scene, Rachel sees how unhappy the house really was, but when she finds the young girl’s dolls, she is in for a story that she will never forget.

Being a child psychologist, Rachel believes that she will be able to help the young girl, but even after handing the dolls over to Zoe, the girl still refuses to open up. With strange nightmares starting again, Rachel is dependent on her own medication to keep her mind at bay. But that is not enough as her friend, Detective Miles, is looking to become more than a friend and her foster child Lamaar is focused on things other than his family. Rachel's hectic life is starting to take its toll, and when word of another burned body comes across the wire it only gets worse, because she now knows that there might be something wrong with Zoe and checks the girl’s history. Finding another set of foster parents that Zoe lived with, Rachel is in for the shock of a lifetime when she finds out how old the little girl really is and that she might be harboring some sort of power.

When it comes to making a decent horror movie, you have to remember that kids are not immune to being the baddie and this movie proves that fact. I must admit that I was feeling bad for young Zoe when seeing how she was treated early on, but once I found out that she has the power of Krampus on her side, then she became a little scary. Rachel had demons of her own, but not remembering her childhood really put a damper on her being able to work through them and instead of getting help for it, she tries to better the world with her work. This really was a noble cause and being a foster child herself, she never wants to see a child suffer when going into the system. But that proves to not be enough when someone knows who she really is, and the Krampus will have his way. With some Christmas music, burning bodies, distorted flashbacks and a killer Krampus, this is quite the fun little Christmas flick. Stay Scared.

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