Some viewers have complained that Krampus' face, which looks like a twisted, screaming Santa Claus, looks too fake, like a mask. The answer is simple: it IS a mask. Michael Dougherty has gone on record saying that the "face" seen in the film is a mask worn by Krampus as a kind of sick joke, a darkly tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of his status as the "dark shadow" of Santa Claus.