Krampus Ending & What The Snow Globe Really Means Explained
Christopher Ramos Krampus is a straightforward horror movie about the Christmas spirit, but its ending and the meaning of the snow globe could use some explanation.
Krampus is a horror-comedy movie about keeping the Christmas spirit, but there is some debate about its ending and what the snow globe really means. The movie is a refreshing romp through a nightmarish Christmas landscape that follows a young boy named Max on a dark adventure to regain his Christmas spirit. It is somewhat akin to other dark Christmas stories, including the likes of Gremlins, It's a Wonderful Life, and Charles Dickens' often copied A Christmas Carol. The plot of the 2015 movie is simple; it is largely about the value of spending the holidays with family, but despite its simplicity, there is a considerable amount of controversy and confusion about what the snow globe really means.
The movie opens with a Jingle All the Way–inspired montage of shoppers fighting viciously over toys and gifts in a shopping mall. This sets the tone for the substantial comedic elements of the movie, a vivid contrast to the dark themes surrounding the Krampus, a sort of anti-Santa Christmas devil. Max is portrayed as a defender of Christmas, and gets into several confrontations over his desire to believe in Santa Claus. The Krampus is introduced in the movie through a story told by Max's Grandmother, Omi, a German-speaking immigrant whose presence in the movie seems to imply that she imported the Christmas demon to the New World, reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. In the movie, the Krampus is a demonic mirror image of Santa Claus. He takes where Santa gives and punishes where Santa rewards.
According to Omi's story in the movie, she had once lost her Christmas spirit and wished her family would go away—the Krampus granted her wish. After losing her family to the demon, she regained her Christmas spirit and has feared the Krampus ever since. When he appears, she seems to feel responsible for it. Amid the contentious family fighting that breaks out leading up to Christmas Day, Max makes the same wish that his Grandmother made when she was a child, and the Krampus comes to grant it. The Krampus uses his dark magic to menace Max and his family, cutting their electricity, bringing a terrible snowstorm, and sending his minions to stalk and capture Max's family.
What Does The Snow Globe Really Mean?
By the end of the movie, each member of Max's family has been picked off one by one by the Krampus and his minions until he is the only one left. Max confronts the Krampus, telling him that he just wanted Christmas to be like it used to be. The Krampus and his minions laugh at this, and he throws Max into a fiery pit. Max then wakes up in his room on Christmas morning, the night's events seemingly never having taken place. He finds his family gathered in the living room happily waiting for him to join them. As they exchange gifts, Max sees that his gift is a sleigh bell from the Krampus. The camera pulls back to show that despite the happy scene, Max and his family are seemingly inside a snow globe that sits among many others on the Krampus' shelf in his demonic workshop.
The controversy surrounding what the snow globe really means revolves around whether or not it represents a happy ending for Max or a tragic one. The director himself, Michael Dougherty, refuses to give up what type of ending he and his co-writers, Todd Casey and Zach Shields, intended. However, he was quoted in an interview with Bloody Disgusting as saying that he wanted the movie to be a sort of "pro-Christmas" movie and that one of his main inspirations for Krampus was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which undoubtedly supports the argument that Krampus' ending is a happy one. However, the snow globe in the movie's ending certainly leaves room for interpretation. Without referring to director Michael Dougherty's comments or any other sources external to the movie, the ending can be taken both ways.
The snow globe may be interpreted as the Krampus' viewport into and portal to the real world, much like Santa's naughty or nice list and his reindeer and sleigh. Taken this way, the ending of the movie is a happy one. The snow globe may also be interpreted as a prison for Max and his family for losing their Christmas spirit. However, it is most likely a happy ending since Omi had a similar experience and didn't end up in a snow globe. When Omi encountered the Krampus, she never took back her wish and thus lost her family. Max did the opposite and got his family back. It makes sense that Max's opposite action would produce an opposite result to that of his grandmother. Additionally, none of Max's family was actually seen being killed, which could mean that the Krampus was giving Max time to rescind his wish, testing him.
The Real Meaning Of Krampus' Ending
Despite the controversy surrounding the snow globe, at least one thing is for certain. The real meaning of Krampus' ending and in fact, the entire movie, is to be careful of what you wish for. Christmas is supposed to be about giving and spending time with the important people in one's life. In today's culture, this is largely forgotten, and the more commercial aspects of giving are the highlight. Instead of being selfless, people are selfish. Instead focusing on what people give, people focus on what they get. This skewed focus often results in wishing for the wrong things. Krampus is essentially a 98-minute episode of Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone, a warning not to lose focus on what is truly important.
The Krampus character is a mirror image of Santa Claus, but it is also a reflection of society's propensity to take and punish rather than give and reward. If the story of Santa Claus is about the joy of giving whatever you can, then the story of Krampus is about the perils of taking too much.
