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
- rafaelcr44 - 9 January 2023
Now THIS is Christmas spirit!
I'm not a fan of Christmas movies, I think I saw only one or two in my entire life, and as I grow up, my connection with this date decreases more and more. The "Christmas magic" is something that you can naturally feel only at the childhood, and as I'm not a religious person, this other type of connection is gone as well. And watching a Christmas movie in January endorses everything I've said so far.
But, like "Klaus", there was something special in "Violent Night". All Christmas clichés are present in both films, but what fills the rest of them, the premise, is what truly called my attention. David Harbour's Santa Claus is practically Oh Dae-Su from 2003's "Oldboy", and the base of the story is something that we also already saw before, but for something be good, it does not need to be original.
Like Damien Leone's "Terrifier" trilogy, Tommy Wirkola works perfectly with violence. As it's not overused and vulgarized, it becomes exciting, electrifying, and, why not, grateful. My smile was big in every single battle scene, not only because of their timing, but also due to their creativity. They weren't repetitive, which is another thing essential to make the graphic violence work.
And not only that, the film is hilarious. Harbour, besides imposing at the action sequences, has a perfect comic timing (he comes from comedy/comedic roles, so the direction used this very well). Furthermore, it's an excellent satire. Satire about rich people, about how Christmas means to different generations, about influencers, et cetera. And unlike "Don't Look Up", the cast is not forced, they fit their roles naturally.
John Leguizamo is, surprisingly, a great villain; Leah Brady is, alongside David, the soul of the project; Alex Hassell and Alexis Louder, who do Leah Brady's character's parents, have great chemistry; I loved Alexander Elliot (a genius idea); and Beverly D'Angelo is great as the cliché of a rich matriarch.
One of my favourite critics on his review about this movie criticized the use of a walkie-talkie in a film that takes place in 2022, but I totally disagree with him. Trudy is 9 years old (too young to have a cellphone), and there are people, like security guards, who use walkie-talkies until these days. It's not an absurd to use that mean of communication.
I don't know if it's too late or too early to say "Merry Christmas", but... Merry Christmas! The movie industry should bet more in this type of production. December is a month that streamings are cluttered with Christmas productions that are all the same. This holiday is far from being empty in content, there are lots of ways to talk about it outside the bubble of family movies and rom-coms. Christmas is a time for renovation, and this is what cinema needs.
