Violent Night

By: Jamie Steinberg

Those looking for a holiday-centric film that mixes humor and horror look no further than Violent Night. Star David Harbour may not be your favorite interpretation of Santa, but here he excels at putting those on “The Naughty List” in their place. However, viewers expecting for there to be a strong mix of heart and ass-kicking will find themselves heading home to watch a classic rather than heading to the movies.

When the film opens, we meet the wealthy and powerful yet dysfunctional family the Lightstones. They are gathered at the home of matriarch Gertrude (Beverly D’Angelo) to celebrate the holidays. She is joined by her children Alva (Edi Patterson), Bertrude (yeah, that’s his name) and Jason (Alex Hassell) and by Gertrude’s boy toy (Cam Gigandet) where they are attempting to work out their differences. It is not long into this lovefest that the room erupts in gunfire as thieves led by a man named Scrooge (John Leguizamo) are there to steal $300 million that they believe Gertrude has hidden away in her home.

Meanwhile, Santa (David Harbour reminiscent of Billy Bob Thornton’s Bad Santa portrayal) is packing up for one final run of the night and it just so happens to be for the Lightstones. Unfortunately, he winds up being trapped amongst the chaos and mayhem as his reindeers depart in the hubbub. Eager to make his way out, Santa changes his mind until he realizes that Jason’s daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) is on the “Nice List.” All bets are off as he now attempts to save himself and Trudy from the melee using the “special set of skills” he learned during his pre-Santa days. Think of Home Alone meets Taken.

The problem with Violent Night is that it can’t decide if it wasn’t to be a comedy based on a Norse legend or if it wants to be an action-drama. Harbour does a good job of bringing the humor and the violence, but the movie just doesn’t seamlessly combine the two in the way that Home Alone does – beating up bad guys in a more palatable way while still being about the goodness of the holiday. Writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller could have toned down the gruesome a bit and made more of a modern black comedy that a larger audience would have enjoyed. Instead, director Tommy Wirkola is more focused on Santa taking out the bad guys in as many twisted ways as possible.

The title Violent Night is very aptly descriptive of what to expect from this new film. The movie has Santa on a mission to save the day; however, he goes to the extreme in order to make that happen. Yes, there is heart and humor to the movie, but viewers will be watching the movie more peeking out from the safety of their hands rather than cheering on our holiday hero.