LoPretzel Productions
Cinematography Portfolio

For my second scene critique, I chose a scene from Krampus, a 2015 film directed

by Michael Dougherty (who also wrote Superman Returns and two X-Men films). A lot of his inspiration came from classic 80s horror films, according to the BTS video (linked to the right). Krampus is based off of central european folklore about a companion of Saint Nicholas who punished misbehaving children (a Christmas Demon), while Saint Nicholas rewards well behaving children. While Saint Nicholas carries around a sack of presents, Krampus carries around whips and chains to chase children with, before stuffing them into a sack to bring them to Hell. This is displayed in the film, as we never really see characters killed first hand. Instead, the scene cuts off before they could presumably be killed. However, instead of death, they are pulled off into the darkness and viewers never see them again. As the story goes, Krampus can be bribed with a shot of schnapps, which is actually hinted at during a scene in which the great aunt brings all the children into the kitchen to teach them how to make peppermint schnapps, while the parents talk about the terrifying happenings. Krampus forces the dysfunctional family to work together to try and save each other, though it doesn't work out as well as they had hoped. 

The scene that I chose to critique was about halfway through the movie, when

three of the parents go up to the attic to investigate the disappearance of two girls, Stevie and Jordan, and the father of Stevie and Jordan (Howard) stays down on the main floor. Attics generally have a scary connotation for most people, and having characters go up to the attic creates feelings of uneasiness for viewers. Another thing that creates uneasiness, is leaving a character by themselves, such as Howard being alone on the main floor. During this scene (the first two youtube videos on the right, I thought it would work better as one continuous scene instead of two separate ones), the viewers are introduced to "Der Klown" and other "Terror Toys". These toys are the minions of Krampus, who help him hunt down and capture those non-believers and misbehavers to bring to Hell. Throughout most of the movie, and especially this scene, the movie is very dark, as to portray the horror feeling. In the beginning of the movie, as Krampus first is brought to the world, the power goes out for their entire neighborhood (setting shot). As it becomes later and closer to nighttime, the darker the movie gets. On occasion, there's flashes of lighting or a fire that provides light in the other scenes. Each character has their role in this film, as well as this scene. Howard is known to be the kind of hillbilly guy who shoots guns, therefore he is shown to be fighting back against the gingerbread men with his gun. Linda, the mother of Jordan and Stevie and the wife of Howard, is the strong willed mom. As she turns her head to the side, she sees her daughter Stevie's head, barely visible behind boxes. After seeing her daughter, she finds sudden strength to save not only herself, but Tom and Sarah as well. She picks up an axe and as she goes to fight the Jack in the Box, it slips away into the vent. Tom tends to be the comic relief, he is a hard working, sarcastic father of the main character, Max, and he often makes sarcastic comments, such as "Oh, come on!" when he first sees the Jack in the Box. The final character in these scenes is Sarah, the mother of Max. She tries to keep the peace as much as possible, but she has her breaking points. The camera work in this scene is important to the overall feel of it, as many of the shots are fast paced, switching between multiple characters as they all fight their own monsters at the same time. The pan shots and the angles that introduce the Jack in the Box trick the viewer into seeing the monster as larger than it really is, and the movement with Tom/Robot and Howard/Gingerbread men display a frantic feeling. During Howard's part of this scene, there are times when the camera moves into his place, to give the viewer Howard's point of view. 

This is actually one of my favorite horror movies of all time. It's not too scary, and

there are comedic moments to lighten up the mood. I also really like the whole story aspect of it, with the lore of Krampus. The creatures were thoughtfully created (I actually linked to a video where the people who worked on the props and costumes talked about their thought processes, I thought it was interesting!), and everything works well together to create a well functioning movie. All in all, I would recommend this movie to people who like lore oriented horror movies!