Santa Claus is coming to town with his bag of toys and a war hammer to take down some very bad mercenaries who are on his naughty list in the holiday comedy, Violent Night.
The movie begins with Old Saint Nick (David Harbour, Stranger Things) sitting in a bar in England on Christmas Eve. Santa’s drowning his sorrow and misery, fed up with all the greed in the world. So many little kids are only interested in getting presents and don’t actually have any real Christmas spirit.
As he flies off in his sleigh to continue his night of gift delivery, the bartender – who followed him to the roof, concerned he might fall – watches Santa fly away with his reindeer. She’s pleasantly awestruck…that is until her head gets covered in Santa’s projectile vomit as he dashes off. This sets up what the audience can expect from the film for the next two hours.
Back in the U.S., Jason Lightstone (Alex Hassell), his estranged wife Linda (Alexis Louder), and their daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) arrive at Jason’s wealthy mother Gertrude’s elite family compound to spend Christmas with her and Jason’s sister, Alva (Edi Patterson). Jason puts his best foot forward and attempts to charm Linda to make this Christmas something special for Trudy, who still believes in Santa. Trudy truly hopes Santa will make her Christmas wish for her parents to get back together come true.
Later that night Santa lands on the rooftop, uses his Christmas magic to go down the chimney, and starts leaving presents. His busy night’s suddenly interrupted when a group of elite mercenaries, led by Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo) – yes, it’s a Christmas code name – breaks in, killing the guards and staff and taking the Lightstone family hostage.
Initially, Santa just wants to try to escape. But when he sees a terrified Trudy and her family being held prisoner, the man in the red suit decides to take the bad guys down.
Violent Night is a vulgar, distasteful, unoriginal, and overly brutal dark comedy that wants to be a cross between Die Hard and Home Alone but fails miserably. The film’s filled with bland characters and a callous and crass Santa, and the humor is sophomoric and stupid at best.
John Leguizamo is wasted in the role of Mr. Scrooge, the leader of the killers who hates the rich and everything about Christmas. He’s a one-note, uninteresting villain. It’s unclear why such a talented actor and performer would sign on to play such a nothing villain.
Young Leah Brady who plays Trudy has zero chemistry with anyone on screen but tries her best to be cute and likable. Sadly, that just doesn’t work. The comedic timing that Macaulay Culkin had when he portrayed Kevin in Home Alone is sorely missing. This becomes painfully clear in a scene in the attic where she unleashes booby traps on some of the mercenaries who come looking for her.
David Harbour does deliver the best performance of the otherwise disappointing holiday comedy as the cranky, beer-guzzling malcontent who at first just wants to escape the nonsense but thinks better of it and goes into warrior mode to save Trudy and her family. Unfortunately, his performance isn’t enough to make the film worthwhile.
Violent Night is a HO-HO-NO-NO on the Christmas movie viewing list. Give yourself and your loved ones a gift this holiday season and skip it.
GRADE: D
MPAA Rating: R for some sexual references, language throughout, and strong bloody violence
Release Date: December 2, 2022
Running Time: 1 hour 41 minutes
Directed By: Tommy Wirkola (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters)
Studio: Universal Pictures
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