Krampus photos: First look at Michael Dougherty’s festive horror

Krampus photos: First look at the Christmas-themed horror story from Michael Dougherty.

The first images from Michael Dougherty‘s Christmas-themed horror movie Krampus have just been posted online. The film is due in cinemas for the holiday season from Universal Pictures, and USA Today revealed the five first-look Krampus photos earlier today.

Universal are clearly enjoying their horror movies at the moment, with M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit due in cinemas later this week (we’ll share our feelings on that film tomorrow). The studio is having a remarkable year, and hopefully The Visit and the upcoming Krampus can add to their already record-breaking box-office numbers.

Here’s the plot of Krampus.

[quote_box_center]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.[/quote_box_center]

The effects of the movie are delivered by the geniuses at Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, who brought us the Lord Of The Rings movies, King Kong and many others. Dougherty is the genius who brought us the rather good Trick ‘R’ Treat a few years back, and also co-wrote the first couple of X-Men movie screenplays with Dan Harris.

Krampus opens in UK and US cinemas on December 4th. Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, Stefania Lavie Owen and Krista Stadler star.

Here are those new images.