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Violent Night
(Universal Pictures)
By Lucas Allen
Back in 2020, Mel Gibson made a career comeback playing a gun-toting Saint Nick battling a psychotic assassin in “Fatman.” This year, we have another Santa Claus ready to fight the forces of evil who are on his naughty list in the new holiday action/comedy “Violent Night.” The film is directed by Tommy Wirkola, who’s no stranger to giving mythical characters some bite, having directed 2013’s “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.” More surprising, the script is written by Josh Miller and Pat Casey, who previously wrote the two “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies.
On Christmas Eve, Santa (David Harbour) is doing his usual one-night-a-year job, though he’s becoming dismayed by the workload, especially with the once joyful holiday becoming too cynical and commercial. During that time, estranged parents Jason (Alex Hassell) and Linda (Alexis Louder) take their daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) to the mansion of the family matriarch Gertrude (Beverly D’Angelo) and other in-laws. A group of thieves led by Scrooge (John Leguizamo) break into the mansion to demand $30 million that Gertrude has stored in her personal vault. Who else would be there during this hostage takeover other than Santa himself?
In this version, Santa was once a mighty Viking warrior from thousands of years ago, and he uses his old fighting skills to take out the terrorists one by one. Of course, none of the evildoers nor the hostages believe it’s really Santa, except for Trudy, who uses a walkie-talkie to communicate with the battle-scarred old man. With a little help from that holiday magic plus his skills with a sledgehammer, Santa will have to save the family and the holidays from pure evil.
In a way, this whole thing is more absurd the more you think about it. But if you do leave your brain at the door, you’ll find the absurdity of it all to be fun and entertaining. Think of it as a “Die Hard” clone mixed with “Home Alone” and “Bad Santa,” with the shock value of “Silent Night, Deadly Night.” The action is blood-soaked and bone crunching, while also played well for comedy with some traps deadlier than anything Kevin McCallister could come up with. You know, the kind of stuff you’d expect from any good old-fashioned holiday movie.
Sadly, the supporting characters aren’t interesting enough to latch onto, with some written as stereotypical personalities. But the way Santa is written in this film, it offers a deeper analytical view on how the holidays are treated in our modern times. Like Gibson’s character in “Fatman,” this Saint Nick is immortal but not invincible, and certainly has a human nature reacting to everything that’s going on. He does bleed and feels pain, especially during the action scenes, like he’s John McClane in “Die Hard.” When he does get into those intense fight scenes, he’s more like John Wick with a bigger beard.
Regardless of how you feel about this story, Harbour brings a humanistic performance to this magical character with sadness, grumpiness and joyful action. Because of the new backstory, it feels as if his Red Guardian character from the MCU suddenly took up a Santa position. Leguizamo is certainly trying to make something out of a bland villainous role, having some sort of fun, but lacking the sinister charm of the late, great Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber from “Die Hard.” And fans of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” will be more than happy to see D’Angelo back in a holiday comedy this time in a different kind of performance that suits her very well.
To sum things up, “Violent Night” lives up to the title and embraces the absurdity of the story it was going for. Like any modern holiday comedy, it’ll certainly have a yearly viewing experience for its fans though it may not be for everyone’s taste. But when you do see it, you might find it worth lighting up your holidays.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: R (for strong bloody violence, language throughout, and some sexual references)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 3.25 Stars (Out of Four)
