Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Leah Brady, Beverly D’Angelo, Cam Gigandet
Intro:
… enough thrills and spills to rise above its derivative nature …
Thanks to John McTiernan’s unassailable action classic Die Hard, the words “Now I have a machine gun. HO-HO-HO”, are some of the most memorable in cinema history. But what if that defiant statement wasn’t coming from an embattled New York City detective taunting high-tech thieves, but instead, it was coming from Santa Claus himself? That’s the bonkers premise of director Tommy Wirkola’s comedy-horror-action hybrid Violent Night.
Violent Night finds Santa Claus (David Harbour) in crisis. He feels defeated by the commercialisation of Christmas and the materialism that has accompanied it. The not-so-jolly St Nicolas is spending more time in dive bars than on rooftops, and in his dejected state, the only holiday spirits that are being lifted are the ones going to his lips.
Santa’s boozy apathy gets tested when his latest drop-off – at the über-rich Lightstone residence – becomes a hostage situation. His first instincts are to run, but when he sees that one of the young captives, Trish (Leah Brady), is a true believer, Santa sees an opportunity to save Christmas, and maybe himself along the way.
With Violent Night, Director Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) is not really attempting to make a new film, instead, he is throwing three other classics – Bad Santa, Home Alone and Die Hard in a blender. The resulting concoction is an unholy eggnog that is one part sugar and two parts hard liquor; a combination that’s fun and nauseating in equal measure.
With its Die Hard-like setup, Violent Night has been pitched as an action-comedy, but Wirkola’s hardcore sensibility adds another hyphen to the mix: horror. Writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller wring out a few laughs from the dysfunction of both the entitled family at the centre (and their demented captors), but the film’s biggest guffaws (and winces) come from sight gags drenched in blood and viscera. The horror sensibility even creeps into the film’s action choreography, with Santa’s dispatching of bad guys having more in common with a slasher film like Halloween than an actioner like John Wick.
The functional screenplay does a decent job of putting its players in motion, but it is so indebted to the aforementioned Christmas classics that it often cruises on familiarity. What is surprising is the writers’ embracing of magic realism. The audience is quickly tipped off that this is the real, bonafide Santa, and this early disclosure allows them to weave Christmas magic into the plot and action in funny and inventive ways. Unfortunately, many of the characters retain murky motivations, and while most of them are revealed in late-stage expositional monologues, it is hard not to think that this would be a tighter, more suspenseful film if we knew what these people were fighting for from scenes set up at the outset.
All of this gore and gunfire would be unpalatable without a bit of sweetness, but the film has a secret weapon in David Harbour. Having a killer Santa in your film is an utterly gonzo premise (especially if he’s your lead), but thankfully Harbour completely understands the assignment. Santa veers between the laconic, frantic, and barbaric, but Harbour’s skill helps keep the film’s wonky tonality on course. Special mention should be made of his chemistry with young co-star Leah Brady. It’s obvious that four seasons of Netflix’s Stanger Things has taught Harbour a thing or two about connecting with child actors, and the two performers share a tender bond – Santa needs Trish as much as she needs him, and Harbour absolutely sells the dynamic.
Despite owning a huge debt to its cinematic forebearers, Violent Night has enough thrills and spills to rise above its derivative nature, and can comfortably sit alongside its inspirations, albeit as eggnog-soaked midnight movie.