Official Nominees for the 2017 Fright Meter Awards

The Fright Meter Awards recently announced its nominees for the 2017 Fright Meter Awards that yours truly is involved in. Here's the complete list of nominees.

Best Horror Movie

Don't Breathe
Green Room
The Invitation
Krampus
The Witch

Best Director

Fede Alvarez - Don't Breathe
Michael Dougherty - Krampus
Robert Eggers - The Witch
Karyn Kasuma - The Invitation
James Wan - The Conjuring 2

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Vera Farmiga - The Conjuring 2
Jane Levy - Don't Breathe
Kate Siegel - Hush
Anya Taylor-Joy - The Witch
Mary Elizabeth Winstead - 10 Cloverfield Lane

Best Actor in a Leading Role

John Goodman - 10 Cloverfield Lane
Stephen Lang - Don't Breathe
Logan Marshall-Green - The Invitation
Henry Rollins- He Never Died
Anton Yelchin - Green Room

Best Supporting Actress

Tammy Blanchard - The Invitation
Kate Dickie - The Witch
Melynda Kiring - All Through the House
Jena Malone - The Neon Demon
Imogen Poots - Green Room

Best Supporting Actor

Richard Brake - 31
John Gallagher Jr. - 10 Cloverfield Lane
Ralph Ineson -The Witch
Dong-soek Ma - Train to Busan
Patrick Stewart - Green Room

Best Screenplay

10 Cloverfield Lane
Don't Breathe
The Invitation
Krampus
The Witch

Best Make Up

31
Baskin
Bite
Clown
Krampus

Best Score

31
Green Room
Krampus
The Neon Demon
The Witch

Best Editing

10 Cloverfield Lane
Don't Breathe
The Invitation
Krampus
The Witch

Best Cinematography

The Conjuring 2
The Invitation
The Neon Demon
The Shallows
The Witch

Best Short Horror Film

Heir
Killer Friends
Night Stalker
Sandman
The Stylist

Best Special Effects

10 Cloverfield Lane
The Conjuring 2
Krampus
Lights Out
The Shallows

Michael Dougherty's Dark Christmas Horror Film "Krampus" Lands on DVD & Blu-Ray

Universal Pictures recently released DVD and Blu-Ray information for Michael Dougherty's Christmas hit "Krumpus". The film stars Adam Scott ("Parks and Recreation," Black Mass), Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine, The Sixth Sense), David Koechner (Anchorman Series) and Allison Tolman (TV's "Fargo").

Special features on the DVD and Blu-Ray includes Alternate Ending, Deleted Scenes, Extended Scenes, Gag Reel, The Naughty Ones: Meet The Cast, Still Galleries – Still Images from the set and Feature Commentary With Director/Co-Writer Michael Dougherty and Co-Writers Todd Casey & Zach Shields

Features exclusive to the Blu-Ray includes Krampus and His Minions, Practical Danger, Inside the Snowglobe: Production Design, Behind the Scenes at Weta Workshop: Krampus, Dougherty's Vision.

"Krumpus" hits DVD and Blu-Ray on April 26th.

Press Release:

An ancient demonic avenger lays siege to an unsuspecting family in Krampus, a truly terrifying, darkly comedic tale coming to Digital HD on April 12, 2016, and Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand on April 26, 2016, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. From Michael Dougherty (writer and director of cult horror favorite Trick 'r Treat, writer of X-Men: Apocalypse), Krampus is "a must see film" (We Got This Covered) that delivers inventively nasty laughs as it plunges viewers into a nightmarish world ruled by a legendary monster bent on total destruction, punishing those who have lost faith. Krampus on Blu-ray™, DVD, and Digital HD also comes with exclusive bonus features including an alternate ending, deleted scenes, gag reel and extended scenes.

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.

Adam Scott ("Parks and Recreation," Black Mass), Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine, The Sixth Sense), David Koechner (Anchorman Series) and Allison Tolman (TV's "Fargo") star in this gleefully gory horror thriller that delivers the kind of deep, dark laughs and hair-raising scares that make for a delightfully twisted holiday classic.

Film Review: "Krampus

It’s been a while since I had the chance to review a theatrical release on this site. Most of it was money reasons and most of it was just the handle of running two blog sites. When I heard “Krampus” was coming out, I knew that I had to reviews this because of how much I loved Michael Dougherty’s last film “Trick r Treat”.

The film is about a family that is completely dysfunction as they get ready to spend Christmas together. A young kid named Max (Emjay Anthony) becomes disenchanted by the idea that Christmas is a great time and doesn’t believe Santa is real. This unleashes a demonic entity on him and his family known as the Krampus. As everything starts hitting the fan he and his family are forced to fight together if they intend on making it to Christmas Day. The film also stars Adam Scott (Black Mass, Park and Recreation), Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine), David Koechner (Anchorman) and Allison Tolman (Fargo, The Gift).

If you’re going in to this thinking that “Krampus” is going to be “Trick R’ Treat” all over again, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re looking for a good Christmas theme horror film, you’re in luck as I had a good time with this film.

One of thing that make this film very good was the directing. Michael Dougherty does a very good job making sure the film has a creepy and sometimes dark feel to it. Whether it was the way the scenes looked to how he handles the material, everything felt dark enough to make the scares works well as there were a couple that made me jump out. It helped make up for the minor gore that this film has. The other thing that Dougherty does very well is the way he directs his cast. He does a good job making sure the performances hit the right note which was tricky as it had humor to go along with the terror. This is what makes the characters interesting even though there were annoying which this script was trying to go for.

The screenplay written by Dougherty & Zach Shields & Todd Casey does a good balancing the horror and comedic aspects. One of the things that makes this screenplay good was the fact the horror scenes were creative considering its rating. I know that this is a PG-13 (which I’m surprised given the language this film has) film but I liked the fact that this film had little gore. I liked how they just take away the characters or not get too graphic about it. It gives you the thinking of what happened to them in your mind and it also works with the payoff of the film’s ending. It’s different and something I wasn’t expecting but it went in a direction that works in the end. The other thing that I liked about it was the way they used the black comedy aspect. The writers do a good job making sure that its witty and timed right. It’s done in a way that it doesn’t drown out all the creepy and dark aspects of the plot and tone.

Would I add this alongside other holiday horrors like “Black Christmas”, “Silent Night” and other holiday horrors? Yes, as “Krampus” is a scary and fun horror film for the holidays.

Review Rating: Four Stars.