Violent Night - Santa taking out some of his Naughty List

Violent Night is a Christmas action comedy movie that is directed by Tommy Wirkola and written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller. I was planning to do this review before Christmas as well but I was a bit too busy during the Holidays to get it done. Also there will be minor spoilers.

It follow a disgruntled Santa Claus portrayed by David Harbour as he fights a bunch of mercenary crooks who have taken a wealthy family as hostage in their own very home. The movie also stars Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Edi Patterson, Cam Gigandet, John Leguizamo,  Leah Brady, and Beverly D'Angelo.

Story wise Violent Night is a mixture of Die hard a nd Home alone but also adding the jolly ol’ Santa Clause movie. But this Santa is now a Grumpy santa. A bit of an alcoholic, disgruntled who uses the F word a lot. The violence if atmost Die hard level so it is definitely not for little kids. The movie even admits it is somewhat imitating the movie Home Alone with the movie being mentioned from time to time. Theres also that little Christmas magic you kow from the movie Santa Clause thrown in.

Having David Harbour as Santa Clause is an almost perfect cast as he has the wholesome charm of Santa but has the built of grizzly bear that makes a lot of the action scenes in the movie satisfying. He delivers the comedic one liners you would expect from David since his days as hell Boy. He is a huge a man who can be big and tough but also have that dad energy he has in Stranger Things. I also like that in keeping up with the Christmas concept the movie has Christmas codenames for the villains like peppermint, tinsel and Candy Cane. The villains jump from being satirical stupid as via Home Alone and being deadly like Die Hard.  

Despite the movies Home Alone set up it is definitely a bit too violent for little kids. I do like that despite its somewhat comedic action nature it does touches on how it views Christmas in a more realistic way. I also do like the movie has a different Santa origin story that having a sort of a former combat experience before being Santa and help explains why this version of Santa has the fighting skill to take down some fully armed guards. The plot is predictable but still has a few surprises that I didn’t expect which was always nice.

The side characters just feels like plot devices to get the story going and their acting can probably be improved. A grumpy Santa isn’t really new and unheard of but despite its hard edged look its surprisingly still entertaining. It definitely earns the R Rating it has as it uses a lot of the holiday items into a deadly weapon. David Harbour acting definitely what makes this the films work and I doubt anybody in the role could pull it off so well.

Overall the movie Violent Night has enough violent and Die Hard and Home Alone feel to get most folks entertained. Sure the plot is pretty basic and is mostly predictable but theres still enough entertainment to be had from watching jolly ol’ Santa kick some of the folks on his naughty List for a change of pace. If you like Home Alone and Die Hard then you might want to go give this one a once over during the Holiday season.