Christmas at the Kringles: Why Mixing Action, Comedy, and Horror Is So Hard, and What Has Worked Before
Halloween landed on a Saturday this year, and the only wide release that bothered to open against it was a movie about people who celebrate Christmas 365 days a year. "Christmas at the Kringles" arrived Oct. 30 in 1,825 theaters through Briarcliff Entertainment. It is rated R and runs 1 hour, 38 minutes. The Seversons (Ron Livingston, Rachel Bilson, and their son) move to a quiet suburb and find that their neighbors, Nick and Carol Kringle (Thomas Lennon and Arden Myrin), keep the lights up all year and plan to hypnotize and indoctrinate them. Wikipedia files it under "action comedy horror," so the movie attempts three genres at once. That is the interesting part of this release, because it puts the question that holiday genre movies keep asking back on the table: how many tones can one film carry?
The track record offers a pattern. "Krampus" (2015) cost $15 million, grossed about $61.8 million worldwide, and opened at No. 2, with critics split at 66 percent. "Violent Night" (2022) cost $20 million and grossed $76.6 million worldwide, with a $13.4 million domestic opening and a B+ CinemaScore. Critics called it "Die Hard" with Santa Claus, which is a useful clue. The most successful holiday-violence movies tend to pick one engine and let the other genres ride along. "Violent Night" is an action film with jokes, and its comedy comes from a clear hero and a clear set of stakes. "Krampus" is a horror film with family comedy around the edges. "Kringles" tries to be a slasher, a farce, and an action movie in the same scene, and that is the part critics have focused on.
The reception so far is harsh, and it is worth being specific about where the problems are. Rotten Tomatoes shows 0 percent on 24 reviews, and Metacritic has it at 21 based on five critics. Variety called it visually obnoxious but uninventive. Peter Travers gave it 1 out of 4. The more useful critiques point to a craft issue rather than a lack of effort. InReview argued that director Kevin Lewis seems more comfortable with the comedy than the horror, and described scenes built on incessant improvisation. Keith and the Movies said that the early gags land, since the idea of the Kringles is funny, but that the film never creates tension. That fits a point comedy and horror writers often make: both depend on timing, and a cast of improvisers running every scene to the rafters leaves little room for dread. Several reviewers also noted that Lennon and Riggle commit fully to their roles, and that the cast is better than the material.
The cast list is the other new detail. It reads like a roll call of working comedy: Rob Riggle as Drunk Santa, Donald Faison, David Wain, and Thomas Lennon of "Reno 911!" fame. Beverly D'Angelo, who appears in "Kringles," was also in "Violent Night," so she has now been inside both of the decade's big Christmas bloodbaths. Lewis, who directed the 2021 Nicolas Cage film "Willy's Wonderland," has said the project grew from his wife's fascination with Hallmark movies and described the goal as a "zany and bonkers genre film in the vein of Willy's Wonderland." Bilson said she agreed to join when she heard "Christmas horror comedy," without needing to read the script. Briarcliff has called it the most unhinged Christmas movie you will ever see.
The box office picture is modest. The film earned $200,000 in Thursday previews, and Deadline and others forecast a low-single-digit opening weekend, with no top-five finish expected. There is a reason it matters beyond this weekend, though. Universal's "Violent Night 2," with David Harbour, Kristen Bell, and director Tommy Wirkola back, opens Dec. 4, five weeks from now, and its trailer has been out since August. If "Kringles" is the first holiday-horror release of the season, "Violent Night 2" is the one that shows whether the audience for this genre wants a hybrid or a clear identity.
So what should you expect? A loud, gory, joke-heavy R-rated comedy with a game cast and a premise that gets its best laughs early, plus a time jump to Valentine's Day that one critic called one of the film's more interesting ideas. If you want the tonal balance of "Krampus" or "Violent Night," the reviews suggest you will not find it here. If you go for Lennon and Riggle at full volume, there is a chance you will. For anyone who writes in these genres, it is a useful case study in why the best mixed-tone movies pick a spine first.
