"Violent Night" Snapshot Review

Release Date: December 2, 2022 Platform: In Theaters

When Santa gets discouraged by children's trading of Christmas spirit for video games and gift cards, he enjoys a hard drink to take the edge off. But as Violent Night proves, it just takes one believer to inspire Santa to do what he does best: wield a sledgehammer in very painful ways.

Written by the collaboration of Patrick Casey and Josh Miller (Sonic the Hedgehog 2) and directed by Tommy Wirkola (What Happened to Monday), this bloody commentary on Christmas greed brings laughs, kills, and an unfortunate callback to ghosts of Christmas past. The film centers around the wealthy Lightstone family, led by its ethically-questionable matriarch, who are held hostage by a group of skilled mercenaries. Santa inadvertently finds himself upon this situation while delivering presents to the home and struggles with the inclination to get involved. After making contact with young Trudy Lightstone, a true Santa beleiver, Jolly Ol' St. Nick taps into his violent pre-Santa past to stop the mercenaries and their ruthless leader, "Mr. Scrooge," who is eyeing a $300 million score.

The story has a strong opening as it establishes a more grounded and disheveled Santa whose capability of violence is apparent, but starts only as a means of survival. There is a mix of creative and unoriginal action sequences led by David Harbour's donning of the red coat, with just enough brutality to maintain interest throughout the opening acts. As the narrative expands its story to further include Trudy in pivotal roles and explain the character's motivations, the movie makes a sudden shift that abandons a mature R-rating and devolves into a cringey Christmas formula of bad one-liners and lazy writing. Themes of belief, family, and materialism become heavy-handed, which should be expected for a holiday-themed film, but allowing the movie to falter from its Santa-focused bloodbath to a Disney-inspired family reconciliation warrants quite a lump of coal for the filmmakers. There is a frustrating tonal inconsistency that is highlighted by the sudden shift in the skills and cruelty of the mercenaries as they establish a well-thought strategy before being foiled by the Home Alone-like exploits of a little girl.

This movie has some really entertaining action sets and an intriguing origin for Santa that is realized in his barbarious use of a sledgehammer. There are no performances worth highlighting and the movie's story becomes immaturely dull, but there is something satisfying about seeing Santa act in the antithesis of his popularly jolly demeanor. The best aspects of this movie are tarnished by the needless push for holiday warmth and family feel-goods. Rather than remaining on its path of becoming a violently fun staple for Christmas' to come, the movie skates too close to the edge of a Christmas stereotype. Even so, there is enough fun here to be worth a watch for those who are seeking something more visceral this holiday season and want to skip the usual Bad Santa or Black Christmas.

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RATING: 🎅 🎅 🎅 / 5

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