An aging couple lives together, coexisting peacefully — perhaps even contentedly. When we meet them, Geoff (Tom Courtenay) and Kate (Charlotte Rampling) have been wedded 45 years minus one week, and they plan to spend that week organizing a large-scale anniversary party for their friends. Kate, we sense, is dominant in the relationship. She’s direct, witty, and organized, and sure of herself and her marriage. When the two sexagenarians drive somewhere, she takes the wheel and plays classical music. For Kate, things seem to be settled.

Whether or not you enjoy his work — and for the record, I do — you have to admire Todd Haynes for artistic integrity. Over his career, he has been fairly consistent with his cinematic interests and styles. When he isn’t operating as Todd Haynes the rock & roll experimentalist, he works as Todd Haynes the neo-Sirkian, Fassbinder-infused melodramatist. Carol obviously falls into the latter category of Haynes’ work, along with Far From Heaven and his HBO mini-series adaptation of Mildred Pierce.

It’s a holiday miracle when a multiplex horror film achieves a semblance of originality. On that basis, Krampus, with its efforts to turn a paint-by-numbers “home for the holidays” yukfest into a frozen hell, hikes a leg up above the rest, but it’s not enough. Michael Dougherty’s long-awaited follow-up to his straight-to-video treasury Trick ’r Treat sports a bigger budget and brighter cast without any licensed property to oblige. It’s also, unfortunately, haunted by the looming shadow of a PG-13 rating, pulling the reigns on anything too grim.