VIOLENT NIGHT : Tuesday 13th December 2022.

To get myself into the Christmas spirit, I saw the MA15+ Rated 'VIOLENT NIGHT' this week. This American Christmas fantasy black comedy action film is Directed by Tommy Wirkola whose previous feature film making offerings include 'Dead Snow' in 2009, 'Hansel & Gretel : Witch Hunters' in 2013, 'Dead Snow 2 : Red vs. Dead' in 2014, 'What Happened to Monday' in 2017 with Noomi Rapace, Glenn Close and Willem Dafoe, and 'The Trip' in 2021 with Noomi Rapace again. This film saw its World Premiere at the New York Comic Con on 7th October and was released here in Australia and the US on the 1st and 2nd December respectively. It cost US$20M to produce, has so far grossed US$46M and has generated largely positive reviews.

The films opens up on Christmas Eve in a pub somewhere in Bristol, England, with Santa Claus (David Harbour) sat at the bar lamenting the fact that children have become increasingly materialistic, and increasingly unaware that he actually does exist. He's chatting to the barmaid and another (faux) Santa Claus who has just come of his shift, when he decides to leave saying that he still has much work to do but seriously under the influence of a few too many pints of beer. He goes up to the roof of the bar and there waiting for him is his sleigh and reindeer. As he takes off the barmaid appears on the roof to see Santa circling above, when he vomits over the side of his sleigh right on to the upturned barmaids face. 

In Greenwich, Connecticut, Jason Lightstone (Alex Hassell), his separated wife Linda Matthews (Alexis Louder), and their daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) visit his mother Gertrude's (Beverly D'Angelo) mansion set in its own gated community to celebrate Christmas with his alcoholic sister Alva (Edi Patterson), her new boyfriend and wannabe-action movie star Morgan Steel (Can Gigandet), and Alva's online influencer young teenage son Bertrude (Alexander Elliot). 

Following a somewhat frosty and strained Christmas Eve reception Jason and Linda take Trudy to bed, but Linda berates her estranged husband for not taking their daughter to the Mall this year to see Santa, so how can he know what presents to bring her. Jason asks for five minutes while he goes down to the games room, and rummages through a cupboard containing their old games and toys. He returns minutes later with an old walkie talkie for Trudy to talk directly to Santa, but for her to be mindful that he may be too busy to reply. They bid their daughter goodnight, and listen in at the door as Trudy asks Santa for just one wish - for the family to get back together again.

Continuing his journey to deliver Christmas gifts, a somewhat drunken Santa eventually arrives at the Lightstone estate. Parking his sleigh and reindeer on the roof of the mansion, he descends down the chimney stack and is greeted by a glass of skimmed milk and home baked cookies. He takes one sip of the milk and instantly discards it, helping himself instead to an aged whiskey from the bar in which he finds himself whilst chomping down on the cookies. The caterer's meanwhile, hired to lay on a lavish food and beverage spread for the evening, reveal themselves to be a group of highly trained and motivated mercenaries led by one Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo), who set about killing the household staff and taking the family hostage. Santa is discovered by one of the mercenaries, whose rapid gunfire through the ceiling scares away the reindeer. The pair fight until Santa knocks him out of a window to his death. Stranded, Santa decides to save Trudy and her family from Scrooge, who demands the US$300M in cash that is sitting in the mansion's vault. Santa gets into another fight and kills another henchman and takes his radio, coming across Trudy's channel, and finds the mercenaries on his magical naughty scroll. 

Trudy's walkie-talkie is later  discovered, and Jason tells their captors for fear of him being tortured that she is simply playing make-believe and declares that Santa is not real, causing her to run and hide in the attic. Santa reassures Trudy over the radio that he is indeed real, and revealing that he was once Nikamund the Red, a bloodthirsty Viking warrior, and how he now finds solace in his thousand plus years of marriage to Mrs. Claus. One of the henchman, Krampus (Brendan Fletcher), forces the family to hand out their gifts to Gertrude, who is surprised by a card from Jason, and keeps his message to herself choosing not to share his words with Alva. Wounded, Santa is captured by Scrooge, who bears a childhood grudge from when he was ten or eleven, against Christmas. Santa's knowledge of their real identities convinces two other lead mercenaries Gingerbread (Andre Eriksen) and Candy Cane (Mitra Suri) that he is real, and he uses his magic to escape up through the chimney.

Gertrude's private extraction team, also known as her own private 'kill squad', arrive, led by Commander Thorp (Mike Dopud), but they are in cahoots with Scrooge and kill Morgan as he attempted to escape. Opening up the vault, Scrooge and Thorp discover it empty. In turn Scrooge threatens Linda, and Jason confesses that he stole the money and was planning to flee with his wife and daughter, which he explained in his Christmas card to his mother. He reveals the money hidden in a nativity scene outside in the grounds. Gertrude forgives his treason as a family rite of passage. Retreating to a shed, Santa finds a sledgehammer and one by one brutally slaughters the kill squad. Trudy creates booby traps inspired by the 'Home Alone' film which she saw the previous day, which leads to Gingerbread's death, and as Candy Cane prepares to shoot Trudy, she is killed by Santa. Scrooge gives the order to kill the hostages, but Alva, Linda, and Bert manage to kill Krampus instead by beating him to death with fireside tools and stabbing him through the neck with a poker. 

Scrooge and Thorp flee into the woods on snow-mobiles with the bags containing the money and a captive Gertrude, chased down by Santa. Linda kills the last mercenary back at the nativity scene, and Trudy sees her parents reunite with a kiss. Lured by Scrooge, Santa crashes his snow-mobile into a cabin, and Scrooge finds himself on the naughty list and acknowledges Santa is real, but is determined to kill him and put an end to Christmas once and for all. They fight, and Scrooge gains the upper hand, but Santa uses his magic to drag him up the cabin's chimney stack, crushing and eviscerating Scrooge.

Santa is shot several times by Thorp, who is in turn shot through the head by Gertrude. As Santa lies dying in the snow, he remarks that he feels cold for the first time in a very long time. Jason burns a few hundred thousand dollars of the cash to keep him warm much to Alva's disgust, but Santa falls victim to his wounds. Trudy inspires her family to all declare their new found belief in Santa, and he is revived, admitting that he still does not really understand how Christmas magic works. His reindeer return, and Santa bids farewell to Trudy before flying off to finish delivering gifts, his faith in the spirit of Christmas restored.

I have to say that going into this movie my expectations were not particularly high, but I was pleasantly surprised by 'Violent Night' and the lashings of comedy, interwoven with over the top action and violence and bloodthirsty horror that make for a more than satisfying antidote to all the festive fun and frolics. David Harbour as a sledgehammer wielding Santa whose heart is firmly in the right place is perfectly cast, and John Leguizamo as Scrooge is sufficiently over the top as the villain in the piece who ultimately gets his comeuppance in the most gruesome of ways. This film doesn't add anything new to the genre that we haven't already seen in 1990's 'Home Alone' and 'Die Hard 2 : Die Harder' films, but for a bone crunching blood soaked tongue in cheek alternative Christmas offering that is a morality story at heart, you can add this to your Christmas stocking wish list and be entertained. 

'Violent Night' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-