Those are not movie's faults, those are just personal preferences.
About the creatures wearing masks, that's the creative decision made by the people who worked on the movie, it's what they wanted.
That's like if I watch Halloween and complain how Michael Myers shouldn't wear that William Shatner mask, he should wear a pumpkin mask instead.
Or if I watch a zombie movie and complain how the zombies should burn people by touching them, not eat them.
As for the movie being a horror comedy, again a personal preference. The director did say it was going for a Gremlins feel, so you shouldn't have expected something dead serious. There's a ton of Krampus movies coming out anyway, at least one of them will be the dead serious one the OP expects.
Again, that's like if I watch something like Alien and say: This should've been a horror comedy, it's not good because it's serious.

YES!
or that there is no good plot or just flat characters

Like his disappointment how the movie isn't dead serious and that creatures wear masks?

he wrote also some well explained reasons

So, you went into it with a negative attitude, and walked out with one? Shocking.

Thank you. I'm glad other people can see what I mean. Appreciate it.

There's one scene I enjoyed where we first see Krampus jumping from house to house. That had a nice visual flair and a storybook feeling, but that's the best I can say about the entire movie.
That was the only scene I liked too. I liked the howling noises too.
You're going to Camp Blood, aint ya? You'll never come back again.

I agree thank you. Just because they are traditional, doesn't necessarily mean it is right for the movie. It's called screenplay, and sometimes literary things are changed from script to screen for a visual reason.

If you have great makeup, you don't need CG monsters or masks. The 80's is full of incredible makeup effects and illusions.

The 80's was the pinnacle of incredible makeup effects and animatronics!

to be honest, i am not quite sure about this.
i grew up WITHOUT CGI-stuff,
but if they are not able to make oldschool-masks which can express anything,
maybe it would have been better, if they had used CGI

• or a mixture.
  i would be happy if it works without CGI,
  but i dont think it worked here

I liked that they did the mask route. CG monsters seem so cheap, at least we can both agree that the elves and Krampus looked pretty cool instead of animated bullsh**

yes, that was a thing which they have taken from the tradition, you are right!
but that doesnt mean it was a good decision to stick to the tradition here.
because in the tradition there are humans under the mask
and everyone knows that.
the film claims those creatures are real,
so the masks were - i think - out of place.
the whole scene when the earth opens was somewhat cheap looking
and that was the time it was obvious that they were wearing just masks
edit: it threw me completely out of the illusion. this scene was too obvious just a played one.

The masks aren't a cop-out, they are sticking to traditional. Do some research, dawg

aarrrrrrrrrgh!

^_^
(no Gremlins reference here, except its a PG13-Christmas-horror-flick)

I think it would've helped that you knew they were influenced by movies like Gremlins, you'd at least know what to expect from it and wouldn't be so disappointed.

comparable with E.T. in the basket of the bycicle in front of the moon.
maybe even better,
because it had really this fairy tale book flair.
really great!
(though such a big and heavy creature which is jumping in that speed from roof to roof
would have cleared away all of the roof tiles
or even the whole roof trusses :'D
but. reality is no scale here, right?! )

I'm glad other people like the jumping scene as I did. It really stood out.

Man what is with people like you on message boards - the acronym TL;DR applies oh so much to this post.

Oh my gaaaaawd reading this turd of a post made me lose all hope in humanity, hope the Krampus get's you next Christmas or cancer. All the best from Germany!! (I'm from GERMANY, YOU KNOW!?)

I wouldn't call this a 'horror' movie in the modern sense of the word. More like in the very OLD sense of the word. Back when horror was left up to the imagination and much happened off screen of behind a lit bed sheet so we can see the shadows of what's going on, but actually seeing it happen. I really didn't see this as a horror movie. It was creepy, fun, wierd, dark and Christmasy it was an odd mix, but a good mix (if the language was toned down, I'd try to take my 7 year old to see it to freak him out for fun.
If you think you're going to see heads spin and blood spurt everywhere no, this isn't that type of movie. I really liked it! Now I pretty much spoiled everything HERE before I went and saw it, but I still really enjoyed it, and would love to see it again. I'm not allowed to spend any of the money overflowing in my bank account anymore not even for a $1.50 movie or even a 20 oz drink on sale for $1 so I won't be seeing it any time soon, and what I did TO see it, was luck in itself.
I didn't have ANY problems with the art work, the masks or the look of the film. Can't believe all the gripes some people had with this movie. But that's their issue. They don't like it, they don't like it. I still don't like comparing this to Gremlins. Gremlins freaks my kids out too and we SEE people get killed or nearly killed in THAT movie. Stripe scratches up Billy pretty good and goes after him with every sharp tool and bow and arrow he can find mono e mono and how disgusting (and cool) the blob Stripe becomes after he turns to goo. Hate he was near comedy in the sequel oh well. But what worked for Gremlins was how serious all the cast members were in the movie. Their believability really help force the weight of the situation to the audience.
Krampus isn't like that. We're nearly taught to NOT like the family. It's hard to take the people seriously, because what they are experiencing they can't believe it themselves. Krampus yet comes off much more serious than Gremlins, because they are fending for their lives collectively especially near the end. Krampus DOES become much more serious and less the comic book humor of Gremlins. But explaining the masks (esp the elves) makes sense it that they may have 'fallen out; with Santa and decided to work for Krampus instead and hiding their faces out of fear or what not so to speak. But I loved the masks. It gave it an otherwordly feel to it, almost that 'over the pond' old European/Germania look. I kind of imagined they could have made their masks from wood from the Black Forest (where many Kukoo Clocks used to be made from - I have one btw) or something along those lines.
I remember really trying to look at Krampus's face when we saw it and at first I thought it WAS his face but then sort of saw the Santa face it was strange but fit. I enjoyed it and can't wait to see it again. I finally saw Star Wars last night, but I still want to see Krampus again
3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers it was Drandul, dude!

I question how well you know what constitutes a "good horror movie," considering this is meant to be at least as much a comedy as it is a horror film.

Krampus was a piece of beep If you're a giant pussy who knows nothing about good horror movies and CGI gingerbread men scare you then maybe you'll enjoy it.

Are you serious right now?