Violent Night

Violent Night

When a team of mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage, the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.

  • Released: 2022-11-30
  • Runtime: 111 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Comedy
  • Stars: David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Beverly D'Angelo, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Edi Patterson, Cam Gigandet, André Eriksen, Alexander Elliot, Mitra Suri, John B. Lowe, Sean Skene, Vance Halldorson, Thomas Lorber, Adam Hurtig, Ron Borges, Adrian Persad, Marc-André Brisebois, Dylan Rampulla, Maxime Laurin
  • Director: Tommy Wirkola
 Comments
  • andrewrye-06535 - 9 June 2024
    A hard time finding its audience
    I enjoyed this but it felt like a film aiming at different audiences.

    There was the 80s/90s Home Alone, Die Hard crowd with saccharine sweet dialogue - ''I Believe in Santa' and typical baddies with no morals and pure greed.. Then it got violent, gory and very sweary (Beverly D'Angelo got very creative on the phone) appealing to a more mature audience.

    It's hard to know who it would appeal to as everyone will like some parts and dislike other parts. Some of it would be just inappropriate for younger viewers, so hardly a Christmas go to movie like Die Hard or Home Alone.

    David Harbour did a great job as a flawed Santa and John Leguizamo was an adequate, if typical bad guy. I would have liked to have seen more dialogue from Beverly D'Angelo after her shock introduction on the phone, and let her cut loose as the rich caustic mother. The rest of the cast were weak and did nothing to enhance the story. I didn't buy the young daughter and her 'I believe in Santa' and 'I only want mum and dad to get back together' routine that was shoved down our throats. This should have been a stronger and not so gullible character.

    It's a 6 because I was kept entertained despite a rather weak and predictable ending.
  • TodaysHaul317 - 11 February 2024
    This should be on everyone's Christmas watchlist!
    Violent Night is a 2022 Christmas-themed action film directed by Tommy Wirkola (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Dead Snow, Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, and The Trip). It was written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller (Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Into the Dark, 12 Deadly Days, and Team Hot Wheels films). It was produced by David Leitch (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, John Wick, Deadpool 2, Bullet Train, and Atomic Blonde). A sequel is rumored to be development right now!!!!!

    In Greenwich, Connecticut, Jason Lightstone (played by: Alex Hassell from The Boys) with his wife Linda (played by: Alexis Louder from Watchmen), and their 7-year-old daughter Trudy (played by: Leah Brady from The Umbrella Academy) visit his mother Gertrude's (played by: Beverly D'Angelo from The Vacation franchise, Tales from the Crypt, Lansky, American History X, Eye for an Eye, and Lightning Jack) mansion to celebrate Christmas. The other guests include his sister Alva (played by: Edi Patterson from Knives Out), her boyfriend/wannabe-action star Morgan Steel (played by: Cam Gigandet from the Twilight franchise), and online streamer son Bertrude (played by: Alexander Elliot from The Hardy Boys). Trudy talks to someone claiming to be Santa an old walkie-talkie, Jason and Linda overhear her only wish: to become a family again. Drunkenly delivering gifts, Santa Claus (played by: David Harbour from Stranger Things, Hellboy, Black Widow, Suicide Squad, Black Mass, and The Equalizer) arrives at the Lightstone estate where the caterers reveal themselves to be mercenaries with Christmas-themed codenames.

    Led by "Mr. Scrooge" (played by: John Leguizamo from The Menu, Spawn, Summer of Sam, John Wick 1/2, Kick-Ass 2, Super Mario Bros, and Carlito's Way), they slaughter the staff and take the family hostage. Santa is discovered by one of the henchmen, whose gunfire scares away the reindeer. All hell breaks loose for everyone around. Blood covers this snowy environment when the chaos gets worse and worse during this dangerous situation. The mercenaries are looking for a big payout tonight. Gertrude's private "kill squad" led by Commander Thorp (played by: Mike Dopud from The Predator) shows up to save the day but it is it too late? This dysfunctional family and a bad ass Santa are trying their best to survive this violent night. Will it happen????

    Violent Night is already one of my all time favorite Christmas films only after a few viewings. It's definitely one of the best and most entertaining movies of last year also. I've been a fan of director Tommy Wirkola since his first Dead Snow feature. He always has great visuals, special fx, and production design for all his projects. Violent Night is no different, this is his best film so far. The script is lots of fun. It blends several different sub-genres here like crime, action, comedy, drama, & Christmas but it's not your typical Xmas movie.

    All of the characters have their own personalities and they stand out from each other. To be honest, most of them are not very likeable until the end. I actually enjoyed that aspect of Violent Night, you don't really care who gets killed until it gets really serious for everyone. David Harbour was amazing as the lead here. You have never seen Santa Clause like this before! I love his unique spin on the iconic Saint Nick, he was a bad ass in Violent Night. John Leguizamo had a killer comeback year with this and The Menu in 2022. Like I said before, most of the people in Violent Night are bad so he didn't come off as evil as most criminals would be in your standard heist flick. He was a different kind of baddie and it worked here. He always plays a great villain and I thought it was cool that his entire crew had Christmas names as their aliases. It's great to see Beverly D'Angelo get a bigger role after all these years, she always delivers. The supporting cast which includes Alex Hassell, Cam Gigandet, Alexis Louder, Leah Brady, Edi Patterson, Alexander Elliot, and Brendan Fletcher (Night Hunter and Freddy vs. Jason) is great here. Violent Night is action packed plus it has some solid twists. This one was way more brutal than expected. For a bigger movie, I was impressed on how far it went. This Christmas movie has high replay value and it's added to my annual Xmas feature list forever. If you haven't seen this yet, do yourself a favor and check it out on Peacock right now. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!
  • elduderino78 - 29 December 2023
    Good concept, terrible script and execution
    It's always terrible when you see a concept that has potential, but then is destroyed by the script and by the directing. This film is precisely and instance of that. Home Alone has more actual violence than this. Sure, Violent Christmas has violence and gore, but it's not truly violent, because there is nothing at stake, it's empty of thrills and its so incredibly dumbed down and bland that only a very very specific public will find this good. The gore is not shocking at all, the psychological violence is null, and the characters have lines that are trying to pay tribute to Die Hard or Home Alone, but just sound like they were written by a 5 year old. There is good stupid and bad stupid and this is clearly in the bad camp. Good concept, absolutely terrible execution. Makes you wonder if the script is actually good, but then the studio came in and completely destroyed it. This film could easily be PG-13, it doesn't offend or shock anyone more than home alone does. Pathetic waste of money and a good idea.
  • irenebr - 8 January 2023
    The worst movie I've even watched
    I watched"Violent night" yesterday at the cinema and got utterly disgusted. The film literally ridicules the values, depicting lots of cruel murders as "fun" and comical element. Abundance of violence with zero mercy.

    It twists the meaning of Christmas as a Christian holiday making it just a party-day with a drunk Santa Claus as the "main hero".

    I'm staggered this movie doesn't have age limitations and was watched by several teenagers around. There should be a restriction 18+

    The movie normalizes the violence, shows it as something cool and fun to do. I strongly don't recommend it to anyone.
  • JonyVeana - 7 January 2023
    Better than die hard
    Yes you read right, this is better than die hare 1,2,34,5 and the others, who knows how many of those things are, David Harbour is funny and excellent as Santa Claus and Leguizamo is great as The villain scrooge, not as good as the late Alan Rickman of course, but the rest is better than die hard, the action, the message and this is actually a true Christmas movie and a new classic, m watching this every Christmas, die hard is obsolete now sorry Bruce Willis fans, anyway, this is not a kids movie and is super horny and violent, Harbour is a new action start, obviously his career is not going to be bad later like Bruce Willis a very overrated actor.
  • nigelpreece-950-231484 - 4 January 2023
    Very disappointing
    Not sure if I'm being too cruel with my 5/10 rating. I was looking forward to this movie more than probably any other film this year. So not sure if my sky high expectations have clouded my judgement.

    After what seemed like an eternity from seeing the trailer and then finally watching it, I can honestly say it was one one of the biggest movie disappointments I've ever had.

    The film seemed to be caught somewhere between home alone, die hard, bad Santa and straw dogs, but with none of the comedy, action, drama or charm of any of them. I felt it just didn't quite know what it wanted to be.

    On top of that, i found it boring at times and had me checking my phone for the time.

    Nothing wrong with the performances. I thought Harbour played a good bad Santa and leguizano was good as the head baddie.

    I love Xmas and I love a good Xmas movie, but this is definitely one I'll not watch again. Gutted.
  • mkmocallaghan - 2 January 2023
    Blood Gore & Not More More
    How this movie has the rating it does staggers belief.

    Yes at first with a mix of Die Hard, Bad Santa and Home Alone this had the makings of a Christmas Cracker but alas so far off the mark.

    Directing/Casting/Scripting come on team you can do better. Did you even watch this before it was released?

    From the incredibly implausible characters and their over acting, it's predictable plot laid out through a lazy script with yes an extremely light frosting of terrible humour, please can I have both my money and time back.

    Only positive is it's special effects, so if you like gruesome bloodied deaths, with blood and bones splitting everywhere then this is for you.
  • therealjaysmoke - 1 January 2023
    Violent mess
    How do you make a Christmas movie bloody but kid friendly? That's exactly what this movie tries to do and I guess they pulled it off for every kid out there. Unfortunately am not a fan of action comedies, I can never really take anything they do seriously and most times, you know that nothing serious will happen to the main guy. But this is Santa unlike you've ever seen before, I still prefer Mel Gibson's portrayal of Santa in Fatman, but this was fun until it wasn't fun but just dumbness.

    The acting was lame except for Santa Claus. And I think it was an hour too long. The premise was ridiculous to say the least. Why is Santa helping a corrupt family that's being robbed? Just didn't add up. I was also hoping that they would expand on the flashbacks, that would have been very interesting, but I guess the director thought showing that 5 seconds flashback was more than enough.

    Anyways if you want a great Santa movie, watch Fatman but if you want to watch senseless entertainment then you can watch this one.
  • brianmlucas - 31 December 2022
    Best Christmas Movie Ever
    It is not just as the trailers showed us, Santa with a sledgehammer. It hits all its' Christmas movie tropes with a sledge hammer. Cute kid, belief in Santa, naughty or nice, family staying together, sibling drama, greed, all the big names are named from Scrooge to Gingerbread, to 8 not so tiny reindeer, in a I am surprised it's only R not NC 17 level violence. The cast is stellar. Best role for John Leguizamo since Spawn, David Harbour is back rocking the Hopper dad bod, and Beverly D'Angelo delivers bravado and brass as she does. All of them, ALL OF THEM, get their scenes stolen by Leah Brady. She is the heart of the Christmas movie here and she fills the role at every opportunity.
  • TypicalHunk - 30 December 2022
    Santa meets Home Alone
    What a fun movie! I didn't expect to like it this much given the trailers made it seem a little corny.

    David Harbour as a badass Santa was just perfect. He starts off the movie as a drunk, complaining about how he's taking a break on Christmas to grab a beer at the bar. This was a great opening scene and sets the tone of who this Santa is.

    I love he goes back to his roots of the REAL Santa and that's what turns him into the killer Santa.

    The action scenes were awesome. Really enjoyed his majority of the weapons were all Christmas themed (candy canes, ornaments, Christmas tree, and Santa's bag).

    Highly recommend this if you want a good action flick around the holidays!