Horrifying Christmas – Final Girl – North Pole Nightmare Review

Just in time to miss Christmas by a few days, how about checking out a Christmas-themed Final Girl feature film with all the bells and whistles of cheer and good tidings to you!

Oh, and some evil monster wanting to kill everybody (including you) at the North Pole.

It’s time for Mrs. Claus and one of the Elves to step up and fight him off!

Yes, North Pole Nightmare is a Final Girl feature film set in Santa’s Village with the maniacal Krampus as the villain.

Let’s nail all of those Christmas traditions!

This feature film was designed by A. J. Porfirio with art by Vincent Dutrait (what a catch!) and was published in 2023.

It’s a “Special Feature” for Series 2.

This one is a straightforward bloodbath, except that it has a few extra twists which really make this one engaging.

Before Krampus steals all of our presents away (those left over from Christmas because I’m lame and couldn’t get enough plays done in time), let’s take a look at it.

Both the location and the killer have unique traits that really add to the game’s mechanics.

Let’s talk about Krampus first.

Krampus is the evil creature of European legend and he’s pretty bad here as well.

As you can see from his bloodlust track, he’s going to be hiking the Horror on you a lot.

Horror management will be required when facing him.

Otherwise, as far as his board is concerned, he’s a pretty straightforward killer.

But then we get to his unique mechanic: presents.

As you can see on the board above, his Killer Action (before the Finale is revealed) is that he attacks whatever is in his space, then he moves toward his next victims, and then he throws a present out onto the board.

The presents are double-sided, with the present on one side and what that present is on the other.

He essentially throws the present using the dice number system used when panicking victims, so it could go into his space (if there’s no panic number matching what’s rolled) or it will go into an adjacent space.

If there’s a victim there, they will open it immediately, revealing it for what it is.

If you’re there, you can open it or not, though if a victim is with you, they’ll open it first because they’re greedy fucks.

If nobody’s there, then the next person to enter the space will open it (or can open it, if it’s you).

There are a few good things, like gaining 2 Time and reducing Horror, but there are a lot of bad things as well (increase bloodlust, increase Horror, lose 2 Time).

The Hat and the Krampus symbol represent specific gifts, though.

Krampus just grabbed them all, so some of them actually are Santa’s gifts!

If you get a hat, then you draw a Santa’s Gift card (though if a victim opened it, they steal it and you don’t get the benefit, assholes).

Recover all of your health? Yes please!

Reducing Horror to 0 is amazing!

And you never say no to free items.

If it’s a Krampus token, however, then you draw a Krampus Gift card and it doesn’t matter who opens it.

It’s bad.

These can be brutal, but if you can get a Santa’s Gift card to yourself, you will be very very happy.

I got hit by Demonic Suggestion twice, once myself which means that I ended up killing a victim that was in my space!

That made me sad.

Krampus’ Terror cards are also pretty nasty, of course.

“Oh No, he’s disguised as Santa” is especially bad because often (especially in Santa’s Village), that will bring a whole bunch of victims together into one space.

I’ll tell you why that’s bad in the Village when I get there, but it’s never that good no matter what location you’re in.

Cursed Caroling can bring a lot of presents out, depending on where he is compared to you. Which can really cascade some bad (or maybe good?) things if there are victims in each space, as they get opened immediately.

At least he doesn’t kill them as he moves, like some killers.

Anyway, there are definitely some unique Terror cards in the Krampus deck.

A Silhouette in the Distance is just horrible unless there are presents on the board, except for the fact that most likely those presents are near Krampus, so it just brings them closer to him!

“It Has What?” is really bad because it increases Krampus’ damage to you when he attacks. One of the things we’ll find out when I get to Santa’s Village is that most of the weapons don’t do that much extra damage, but if you get him into the cottage in A Knock at the Door, that shotgun will do nasty things to you!

But you might get lucky and get a weapon that doesn’t actually do any additional damage (that will also be highlighted later).

Especially interesting is the Coal Balls card, which can kill up to 3 victims (or potentially do 3 damage to you).

If you get lucky and none of them hit anything, he comes after some victims anyway!

Krampus is also the first Killer that I’m familiar with that actually has three Minor Dark Powers.

Especially brutal is Demonic Will.

One-hit kill on you? Oh no!

Thankfully there’s only one heart on it, so all you have to do is hit him once and it’s gone, but still.

North Pole Magic sending him directly into his target’s space?

Yeah, people are gonna die quickly.

You’d better be ready to hit him hard and soon.

Finally, let’s get into his Dark Powers and Finales.

Because yeah, they’re bad too.

They all have to do with the presents, with Blood and Cookies making sure there are a bunch more presents on the board.

Explosive Gifts makes picking up presents really dangerous, and since the victims can’t help themselves, very dangerous!

As for the Finales, they are more hit and miss and at least one is in my opinion too weak unless you get really unlucky (though I don’t mind occasionally winning!)

Unholy Gifts has Krampus move to the nearest present and eat it, regaining 2 health.

However, if there are no presents on the board, then that doesn’t happen.

In my final game with Krampus before this review, it was very present-light since his Killer action doesn’t distribute presents like his Killer action before the finale does.

The action itself is quite brutal, with him moving and then attacking twice.

However, I was able to stay in his space so he didn’t go after victims (I also had the Dark Power where every time he killed a victim, he threw out a present).

I was able to attack, Retaliate, and Guard well enough that I was able to defeat him because he couldn’t heal.

The other two basic finales are pretty bad, though I never faced them (my two other games, I died before the Finale came out) so I’m not sure just how bad they are.

But just appearing in the target’s space is never good.

My opinion on Krampus is that the presents really make him a cool killer to face, just from a mechanic standpoint.

Otherwise, he’s pretty straightforward.

He’s also quite difficult, which is never a bad thing (unless you’re getting really frustrated).

I love the presents, even though I think I’ve only received a Santa’s Gift once (they came out more often but the stupid Elves opened them instead).

All in all, Krampus is a solid villain.

How about the location, Santa’s Village?

That’s a bit more of a hit or miss affair.

It’s very colourful and I do love that aspect of it.

However, that colourful aspect and wonderful art does actually get in the way of the gameplay a bit, because I found it very hard to tell the spaces surrounding the Village Centre apart.

Where did they stop and start?

Granted, part of that is because I play in a relatively low light area, so brighter lights might actually help. I say that because in the picture above, it is easier to differentiate.

But it’s still a little confusing.

Then there are the outer areas (Santa’s Workshop and the other three that are in similar places around the map).

Again, you can tell due to the panic numbers on the spaces, but I just found it annoying to tell them apart when trying to look them, especially when you have a bunch of victims in the same place (yes, I know there are “victim overload boards” in the Core box that can make that easier, but it still doesn’t make the issue much less).

And in Santa’s Village, you will often have victims in the same place, especially if you’re facing Krampus.

Overall, then, the Village board is beautiful, but not as user-friendly as I would like it to be.

The mechanics of the Village, on the other hand, are quite fun (and annoying at times, but in a fun way).

First, as I mentioned above when talking about victims (the other Elves in this location) gathering in one space, the reason that’s bad is because when you enter a space with one or more Elves, you lose one Time per elf there!

Moving into the Village Center above would cost you three Time.

Not good.

That’s the main rules addition from Santa’s Village, but it is a doozy.

The Terror cards are really interesting, though.

One of them, the Elves attack the bad guy!

Of course, it’s kill or be killed, so it’s also a good way to potentially lose a lot of victims.

Ok, it’s possible to have a “no effect,” which means they’re going to die on the next killer turn anyway.

But if you get lucky, that will really help you deal with the killer.

After the picture above, I rolled 5 dice. Two damage to Krampus, two victims dead, and one no effect.

Other Terror cards are not as potentially good for you.

Elf Hunt is probably going to kill two Elves right off the bat.

Public Execution, in addition to being just nasty to imagine, will only kill one victim but it will increase Bloodlust twice!

Santa, Where Are You?” will either increase Horror twice or will cause you some damage. Hopefully you have a Guard or Retaliate!

Others will bring out new Event cards and potentially new victims (and one also brings the killer directly to you next turn, though at least you have time to purchase a Reaction card first).

The Fire one can be especially bad if they elves have congregated, which they tend to do (though least it’s not always in one of those locations).

The Event cards are pretty typical, though the special victims ones are all quite interesting.

The Yeti brings out a “victim” whose sole purpose is to attack and kill things.

I like that it’s first preference is the killer!

The Head Elf is a good way to help search locations without needing a Search card.

And Santa…well, he’s Santa! Everybody follows Santa. If he comes out, that’s a good way to do a mass rescue (or get everybody killed, though at least he’s the last victim to die in a space).

Other events can be helpful or annoying.

Caroling actually gives you a reason to enter a space with tons of elves in it.

Reducing Horror by two is never a bad thing.

Christmas Eve is just annoying.

Busy Busy Busy brings out even more Events!

And the Blizzard makes it really hard to move around the Village Center because it rotates around it (in two separate spaces, as you can see from the markers in the below picture) and you can’t enter its space.

They can really get in your way.

Then you get an event like this one, which means the killer is going to have way too much fun.

That’s just serving them up to him on a platter.

There are some of the standard Item cards in this one, but some unique ones as well that are really fun.

The Misfit Toys are wonderful because they’re an easy (and less dangerous) way to do some damage to the killer.

There are three tokens and they all move one space toward the killer during Upkeep.

Inevitably one or two of them will end up going off, doing one damage to the killer each.

Of course, once you only have one left, often the killer is moving away from it, but you can sometimes draw them back to the toy.

I love these.

The BB Gun is just hilarious (you’ll put your eye out!).

It doesn’t do any additional damage, so is ideal for the Krampus Terror card that steals a weapon card and uses it.

Instead, when you hit with it (it only modifies a Weak Attack, so not always that useful), Horror goes down by 1.

Sadly that doesn’t happen when Krampus hits you with it, but you can’t have everything.

Other items can be very helpful as well.

The Woodcutter’s Axe is the only one that does two extra damage, though the Tree Star can if you throw it rather than use it in melee. That’s a one-use effect, though, as it’s discarded if you do that.

The Ice Skate…well, it’s pretty basic, but just imagining it in a film makes my blood curdle.

The Workshop Hammer serves two purposes.

It does an extra damage in melee and it also means you only spend one Time when entering a space with elves, no matter how many there are!

That can be incredibly helpful and I made use of it more than once.

Then we get to the really helpful items.

Discard to recover all of your health? Um, yes!

Snowballs is neat because you gain it as soon as it’s visible without actually using a Search action.

You can discard Snowballs when adjacent to the killer to get a free Distraction (which reduces Horror) action card.

Very useful!

Candy…well, what can you say about Candy? Unless you roll five 1s, in which case it kind of sucked, but that’s on you.

Santa’s Sack, a free item is never anything to sneeze at.

Finally, there are the Setup cards, which are pretty standard and also can be pretty bad for you when you’re playing Krampus here.

Lots of congregating elves, which is going to cost you Time, though there are plenty of individual spaces as well.

For me, Santa’s Village is a great location with some interesting mechanics, but the useability of the map leaves a lot to be desired, at least for me and my tired eyes.

It’s kind of neat how a lot of it is a ring around the Village Center, and how prominent that Center becomes (either because you or the killer start there, or because there is a fairly large complement of elves there) but that can also become a bit tedious as well.

A really cool aspect of this entire package is the miniatures (though my copy did not have the Cindy miniature, Van Ryder Games is kindly sending me one).

I’m not a painter, but I can see myself using these when I’m not necessarily taking pictures for the blog.

The flat grey doesn’t really look great in pictures and, as I said, I’m not a painter.

But they are cool!

Comet can be useful getting you around the board, though sadly he won’t let any of the elves ride him alongside you.

They must have treated him badly, or maybe said they like Rudolf better (and where’s the Rudolf card? Missed opportunity).

Anyway, let’s get to the Final Girls in this one.

Mrs. Claus is of course a mainstay for Santa’s Village, but with one issue.

Both of them only need to rescue four victims to get to their ultimate side, which is awesome.

But all of Mrs. Claus’ spots heal you!

Most of the time, for your first four victims, you are not going to have taken any damage yet.

Unless you’re spending the health to Walk when you fail your roll.

You are less likely to actually use her abilities as you are others, because at least for most others there is only one (maybe two) heal spaces, out of five or six.

This gives you more options until you need to heal.

Of course, if you do need to heal, this is a godsend!

Cindy is an elf, so her victim bonuses are designed to help you with getting around when the other elves just aren’t cooperating (by costing you time).

Again, though, you only need to rescue four victims to get her ultimate power going.

And boy, what ultimate powers they have!

Mrs. Claus has no maximum health limit!

That means if you gain health (by, say, rescuing a victim), your health goes up even if it was at “maximum” before.

I’ve seen stories of people having 10-12 health on her.

Not bad.

Cindy’s isn’t quite as good, but it is very useful as well.

When Walking or Sprinting, she pretty much always succeeds (unless you roll a “discard 2 cards to get a star” result, in which case you don’t unless you discard the cards).

Being able to Walk and Sprint around the board at will is pretty handy.

I love both of these, though I never really got to use Mrs. Claus’ ability to its maximum benefit.

Both of these Final Girls do really well in Santa’s Village, but I can imagine them doing even better in some of the other locations.

My final verdict on North Pole Nightmare (if you’re just skipping to the end) is that Krampus is a great killer, fun to play with and the random presents just add to the story nature of the game.

Santa’s Village is a decent location marred by the map (as beautiful as it is).

Also, while the ring around the center can be fun, it can also get a bit stale.

The Final Girls in this package are very cool, though.

I wouldn’t recommend this as your first Final Girl film, but it can be quite a pleasant second film or beyond.

(This review was written after 3 plays of this film)

Check out all of my Final Girl reviews here! More will be coming.

Final Girl Reviews