Showcasing alongside the mystifyingly dark 'Wrath of the Gods', the final entry in the beloved Wicker Man trilogy is 'Krampus', a Bavarian short horror film that takes traditional folklore and compounds it into a frightful yet alluring and haunting portrayal of morality and the fates of guilt.
This fairytale-esque horror begins with robed and masked figures dancing around a lit fire in the middle of otherwise darkly barren woods, with the narrator telling the legend of Krampus, a mythical creature who revels in the punishment of misbehaving youth. With goosebumps slowly creeping in, the camera cuts to Xaver's (Tim Rabanter) solemn room as his sister Maria (Lieselotte Bocksberger) reads to him this chilling tale, before their cruel and unjustly stern matriarch (Catrin Bocksberger) interrupts with nothing but pure venom for Xaver. This hatred has been brewing throughout Xaver's life, with everyone, including his fellow churchgoers, reminding him of his tarnished existence. With the relentless strife that has been inflicted on Xaver, he summons Krampus to crash down on those with ill will, leading to a sinister spiral in which evil takes over.