Violent Night (2022)

Score: 3.5 / 5

Ho ho ho, and how about that? Kicking off the holiday season always feels good with a new Christmas movie, and it's especially fun to have one that doesn't fit the genre mold. As debates will surely rage on about the canonicity of Die Hard and Gremlins and Iron Man 3 in the Yuletide season -- and others will happily watch fare like Silent Night, Deadly Night and Black Christmas, delighting in the taboo -- Violent Night will likely find a cultural niche somewhere in the middle of it all. It's a crude, violent, sardonic film, all the while delighting in its own festive flair and fun. Much like Krampus, it's got interesting and good things to say amidst the chaos and violence; you might say its heart of gold is aimed at values of family and charity, even while it simultaneously skewers the commercialization of holiday traditions.

The film begins with, as we've seen hints of from Miracle on 34th Street to Mrs. Santa Claus, a dispirited Santa, heavily drinking in a bar on Christmas Eve while delivering gifts. He bemoans the increasing materialism and selfishness of the world, relating it to his own diminishing identity and magic. David Harbour plays the character magnificently, perhaps because of his keen ability to channel world-weariness in a drily humorous manner. One of his house calls finds him at a stately mansion belonging to the obscenely wealthy Lightstone family, presided over by a cold matriarch and occupied by her dysfunctional family and numerous house staff during the Christmas holiday. Surely the film will follow some redemptive journey in which Santa and the elitist family will engage with the true meaning of Christmas and undergo their own Scrooge-like transformations.

The mansion is part of an isolated compound, complete with its own security team and caterers, so it's not exactly a cozy homecoming. The main characters we're meant to follow are Jason (Alex Hassell), son of the matriarch, his estranged wife Linda (Alexis Louder), and their admittedly cute-as-a-button daughter Trudy (Leah Brady). Jason and Linda are trying to work through their differences, perhaps, but being around the Lightstones is deeply triggering, especially for Linda. It doesn't help that Jason's alcoholic, social climber of a sister Alva (Edi Patterson) is there with her conceited, social media influencer son Bertrude (Alexander Elliot) and hot but stupid boyfriend (Cam Gigandet). They seem eager to receive whatever their matriarch is ready to give. But the matriarch, Gertrude (now the grandkids' names make a bit more sense, eh?), played by a delicious Beverly D'Angelo who I haven't seen since probably American History X and the old Vacation films, is late to her own party, and when she arrives, she's about as welcoming as a lioness on the hunt. Jason soon finds an old walkie-talkie to help Trudy entertain herself as the family bickers, telling her it's a direct line to Santa, only to then overhear that Trudy's wish is for her family to heal and come together again. Original? No. Effective? Of course it tugs at your heartstrings. It's just so effing pure.

But this isn't to be a violent night in terms of family relationships alone; the catering staff soon slaughters the household staff and holds the family at gunpoint. Each mercenary is given a delightful festive codename, and soon their leader, "Mr. Scrooge" (John Leguizamo), materializes to fulfill their plan of stealing $300 million. This plays out at the same time Santa lands on the roof to deliver presents. But this isn't The Santa Clause, and it's not for David Harbour to die yet; he fights back even as his reindeer get spooked and fly off into the night. Soon enough he hears Trudy on one of the merc's radios, and they communicate about their plan to rescue the Lightstones. Some expository flashbacks reveal Santa's origins as a Viking warrior, and of course it's ridiculous, but with Harbour in his fabulous red leather suit, we're ready to see him continue kicking ass. Wounded -- and drunk -- as he is for most of the film, he has no trouble with creatively utilizing Christmas decor and winter tools as his weapons of choice, from a snow blower to a star tree-topper. Even Trudy helps with booby traps she learned from Home Alone, including the infamous paint can on a string.

It's all fun and entertaining, and modestly heartfelt, though by the third act I was beginning to feel some battle fatigue. We can watch Santa whooping ass until the snow melts, but more than once you wonder what the film really wanted to be. Sometimes it flirts with home invasion horror/thriller material, but then it leans fully into irreverent satire before flipping into earnest (and gruesome) action. What if it chose one genre and gave itself permission to be really finessed with the action, or more insightful and invective with its comedy? I like the balance here as one of the primary ways this film will be remembered as unique, but the various elements don't always inform or support each other tonally, and that's the tricky thing about genre-benders like this. By the end, we're meant to care emotionally about each of the Lightstones, even though the film only really works that way with Jason, Linda, and Trudy. And Santa, that is, with Harbour admirably committing himself to the role and carrying the movie.