Mother Krampus 2 by Fatal Follower

Mother Krampus 2: Slay Ride
aka Naughty List
aka Lady Krampus
Director: Eddie Lengyel
Starring: Katelynn Newberry, Roger Conners, Robbie Barnes, Tiffani Hilton, Rachel Anderson, George Tutie, Kris Smith and Janine Sarnowski.

Synopsis- It’s Christmas time in Cleveland, Ohio and four young ladies are on the verge of completing their mandatory thirty days of community service. With only one night to go, they are required to make a series of in-home visits to the older and less fortunate. Upon arriving at their final stop for the night, they become introduced to a pleasant older woman who graciously welcomes them into her home for the evening. However, as darkness falls and the cold settles in, they begin to realize that there is far more to their seemingly innocent host than meets the eye.

*Out November 13, 2018 Via ITN Distribution*

Aside from Halloween, Christmas is the other “horror movie holiday”, that just keeps giving year after year. Some of my favorite horror movies, slashers specifically, are rockin that Yuletide glee, and It’s with that I bring you Mother Krampus 2: Slay Ride! But, what about Mother Krampus 1, you ask? Well… skip that one (it’s a tough one to get through to be honest)… and dive in to this one, which is a completely different slasher flick all of its own. I must confess though, there’s a couple things that really get me in the holiday spirit, psycho-masked Christmas freaks, and drag queens with catty baditudes. Lucky for me, this bloody flick has got them both!

This gem starts out pretty solid with an escaped mental patient (wearing a mask looking like Michael Myers older sister) Dorothea, as she racks up an impressive bodycount, right off the bat, or should I say AXE! We then meet our three leading ladies and one saucy drag queen, as they are completing their last assignment for the evening with community service. Normally, these indie features don’t really do a good job developing the leading group of characters, but with this one, I was really impressed with the time spent on getting to know this group of troubled gals. Despite not necessarily caring if they all survived, there were a couple that I was rooting for.

After assisting with dinner at the local soup kitchen, the ladies end up getting assigned home visits to some lesser fortunate folks, and that is when this unlucky group will meet our titular villain. You see, Dorothea has showered the blood off, and gotten into the Christmas spirit, with a holiday vest and a cup of cocoa, this hostess is all ready for visitors!

Despite an initial awkwardness when the gals meet Dorothea, it was nice to have our lovely drag queen Athena Slay, provide some much needed comic relief. I really enjoyed Roger Conners in Chill: The Killing Games, and with this role, he was the “The Scream Queer” you continue to root for. Also, I really enjoyed the characters Gracie and Victoria, they stood out to me as the most relatable,but the whole cast was really spot on. I did have have an issue with one part of the movie, it was a few cringy moments towards the latter half, specifically with how the girls sort of “make themselves at home”, in a house they were technically supposed to be working in, but it didn’t add up to a huge complaint overall. I mean, they were some troubled girls needless to say!

The movie does play to all of my slasher movie sensibilities, my favorite being the kills. There were some really brutal axe deaths and a viscous ice skate kill, to name a few. Also, I really dug the two different looks of Dorothea, as masked loon with an axe and then on to a grinning matriarch with a cup of hot cocoa. The two sides shown to Dorothea demonstrated a unique dichotomy that you don’t always get to see in a slasher movie, I really dug it. Kris Smith played the villain superbly, I would love to see her suit up again!

Sadly, I think the movie would benefit from its previous title, Naughty List much more. The title fits the killer’s motivations more, and also is unique enough to stand apart from being lumped to an unrelated previous entry…but I think this was out of the creators control.

I’m really looking forward to picking this one up on dvd later in the year and adding it to my list of indie Christmas slashers to watch! Director Eddie Lengyel has already won me over with his previous slasher, Scarred (2016), but I can tell a huge leap in quality thanks to an even better team behind this slasher tale!

Solid two thumbs up on this one!