“Violent Night time delivers on its wild premise after which some, and gives a bloody-good Christmas motion film.”
Execs
- Delivers on its wild premise
- David Harbour is completely solid
- Massive laughs, brutal motion
Violent Night time isn’t the primary movie to ship an R-rated Santa Claus story, but it surely’s probably the greatest when you discover the concept of jolly outdated St. Nick partaking in a little bit of the outdated ultraviolence interesting. Directed by Tommy Wirkola (Useless Snow) from a script by Sonic the Hedgehog writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller, Violent Night time casts Stranger Issues actor David Harbour because the bearded, gift-giving avatar of Christmas. Disillusioned by the state of the world and sliding boots-first into alcoholism, Santa finds his messy Christmas routine interrupted when a ruthless gang of thieves targets a mansion he’s visiting throughout his vacation rounds.
With a view to defend a younger woman trapped in the home, Santa is pressured to slice, stab, and bludgeon his approach by means of a horde of mercenaries on his naughty listing to avoid wasting not solely the woman, however Christmas current and future. It’s a wild premise that might have simply been overplayed or underexecuted, however Violent Night time manages to keep up a intelligent, entertaining steadiness between humor and hard-hitting motion all through its well-paced working time of lower than two hours.
Slay journey
Like lots of Wirkola’s movies, subtlety isn’t the purpose of Violent Night time, which wears its influences on its woolly, red-and-white sleeve.
The recipe that went into this film unabashedly borrows from a number of movies of Christmases previous. One half Unhealthy Santa, one half Die Onerous, and one half Dwelling Alone, Violent Night time drops all of them right into a blender with a hefty pour of spiked eggnog and Harbour’s gritty attraction, then purees all of it right into a cocktail robust sufficient to make the vacations tolerable for even probably the most jaded Grinch.
Laughs are straightforward to return by in Violent Night time, which by no means takes itself too critically as Harbour delivers holiday-themed catchphrases whereas dispatching one villain after one other in more and more ugly vogue. When his grizzled, bloody Santa Claus growls right into a telephone, “Santa Claus is coming to city,” the phrase takes on a completely new weight that expertly walks the road between humorous and genuinely threatening.
The movie seemingly revels in barreling its approach by means of one holiday- and action-movie trope after one other, typically deconstructing the absurdity of them, typically leaning into them with intelligent elaborations or twists. The movie’s spin on Dwelling Alone-style home protection gives slightly little bit of each, for instance, showcasing the extra real looking, grisly potential of the form of traps set by Macaulay Culkin’s character within the 1990 movie, whereas additionally placing a contemporary spin on how a baby would possibly envision residence protection within the trendy period. The blood and gore makes the sequences adults-only fare this time round, however the humor comes from an analogous place because it did with Dwelling Alone: watching villains get their comeuppance in cartoonishly violent vogue.
You higher be careful (no, actually)
Because the movie’s unlikely — and reluctant — motion hero, Harbour is completely solid within the function of a hard-drinking, hard-living Santa Claus susceptible to relieving himself off the aspect of his sleigh whereas flying above cities and stealing from the liquor cupboards of sleeping owners. He’s a personality you need to love, however his actions and perspective make it troublesome to take action. His Santa is just not a far cry from his Stranger Issues character, whose world-weariness hides his horrifying potential when the chips are down.
Harbour has a knack for juggling motion and comedy, and Violent Night time is a movie that performs to his strengths in a lot the identical approach Die Onerous did with Bruce Willis. Each Harbour and Willis channel an analogous “Common Joe” motion hero vibe, and Violent Night time overtly samples from the Die Onerous playbook on multiple event. When Harbour’s Santa has a weary heart-to-heart over a walkie-talkie with Trudy (Leah Brady), the woman trapped within the mansion, the scene clearly riffs on the second of sincerity shared between John McClane (Willis) and Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) when the pair linked over walkie-talkies throughout a lull in Die Onerous‘s tower siege that unfolds throughout a vacation get together.
That’s tremendous supply materials to attract from, and Violent Night time does so early and sometimes, whereas additionally managing to keep away from slipping into parody or too-familiar territory.
Santa loopy
The remainder of the Violent Night time solid additionally does nicely to find the center floor between enjoying the premise straight and acknowledging the silliness of all the things unfolding round them.
Because the movie’s major villain — code-named “Mr. Scrooge” — , John Leguizamo doesn’t attain the excessive bars set by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman’s iconic Die Onerous villain) or Dwelling Alone‘s Moist Bandits (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), however he’s nonetheless enjoyable to observe in a approach that forestalls the story from dropping momentum when Harbour is off-screen. Leguizamo is clearly having enjoyable with the function, and that elevates his efficiency, however while you’re appearing reverse an ass-kicking Santa Claus, the extent of issue in matching that form of spectacle is at all times going to be exceedingly excessive.
The remainder of the supporting solid additionally retains the vitality excessive throughout the moments between Santa’s appearances, with Alex Hassell (The Boys) and Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gem stones) portraying the grownup youngsters of rich household matriarch Gertrude Lightstone, portrayed by Beverly D’Angelo (which creates one more reference to Christmas movies previous, due to her Nationwide Lampoon’s Christmas Trip function). Alexis Louder and Cam Gigandet painting the siblings’ respective companions, whereas Alexander Elliot performs the teenage “influencer” son of Patterson’s character, who shares greater than slightly in widespread with Judy Gemstone, her hilariously naive, smarmy character on The Righteous Gem stones.
Jingle brawl
With so many vacation movies on the market already and extra launched yearly, it’s troublesome for any movie to face out from the group. Violent Night time has no drawback in any respect doing so, although, and gives one thing nicely exterior the normal Christmas film fare.
It’s actually not for everybody — and undoubtedly not for youthful audiences — but when the concept of a surly Santa Claus with anger points taking up a crew of Christmas-hating mercenaries appears interesting, Violent Night time received’t disappoint. The truth is, it’s extra more likely to exceed keen audiences’ expectations, due to its gifted solid, intelligent inventive crew, and a premise that it absolutely commits to from the beginning.
Given the standard expectations for holiday-themed movies, it appears like a Christmas miracle that Violent Night time even exists — and an much more wonderful feat that it’s as wildly entertaining as it’s. Merry Christmas, certainly.
Directed by Tommy Wirkola, Violent Night time is in theaters now.
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