I normally don’t do reviews like this. Regardless of whether it’s a new game, anime, or album, I don’t look at something that so fresh & recent. However, this is one of the ever increasingly rare exceptions I am making towards the end of a year. In today’s example, it’s a movie I just talked about fairly recently in my newly resurrected top 5 movies of 2022 list. Further in fact, I’ll be talking about my number 1 movie of this year, and one of the first films I’ve been excited for in an incredibly long time. Take one part Die Hard, mix in some The Night The Reindeer Died from Scrooged, and just a dash of Santa’s Slay, and you have what I think is going to be a legitimate modern-day holiday classic. So, get on your Christmas themed body armor, pray you’re on his Nice List, and enjoy my review of the recent movie release Violent Night. Let’s begin!
Story
It’s Christmas Eve, and Santa is once again making the rounds to deliver presents to kids all over the world. However, Saint Nick has become rather bitter & cynical over the ages. Where once he delighted in giving gifts, it’s now become nothing but a chore to him. He’s become disillusioned by the wanton desire of kids, who keep asking for more & more, and always switching to the newest thing on a whim. This current night he’s on will be his last, but little does Santa know that things.....are gonna get interesting.
Enter the Lightstone family. Jason Lightstone, his estranged wife Linda, and their adorable 7-year old daughter Trudy are on their way to Greenwich, Connecticut to visit Jason’s hellion of a Mother, Gertrude, for a Christmas gathering. Also joining them is Jason’s awful sister Alva, her shitkicker son Bertrude, and her incredibly dorky boyfriend Morgan Steel (Who just so happens to be a wannabe action star). Not long after the family gets together for a forced Happy Holiday, a group of planted Christmas colored mercenaries led by their leader, “Mr Scrooge”, emerge from the inside of the mansion. They kill the entire staff & kidnap the family, with the ransom of being the $300 million dollars that is hidden in the mansion’s vault.....and they’re not playing around.
Meanwhile, Santa just so happens to arrive at the mansion where all of this is going down. After a mixup with one of the mercenaries, his reindeer are scared off, and said mercenary is pushed out the window, dying after getting impaled on a giant ice spike. Santa tries to get away, but ultimately decides that something needs to be done upon seeing Trudy scared, and when he hears her voice through a walkie-talkie she gets from her Dad before the massacre. So, he rolls up his sleeves, and becomes a jolly one-man killing machine, slaughtering mercenaries of all kinds in order to save Trudy (And her family be extent). There’s twists, turns, fights, and blood.......a lot of blood.....CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!
Good Aspects
Right away, the first good aspect is the story. Yes, at it’s core Violent Night is a mix of Die Hard with sprinkles of Home Alone. Sure, the idea of an average joe shoved into a situation he doesn’t want to be a part of isn’t original, but the idea of a disillusioned Santa Claus going to town on some mercenaries definitely is something new. It’s all the more hilarious when beforehand he is doing everything in his power to get out of the mansion, and just to finish up his last night of delivering presents before he cynically retires, but then it becomes neat to see him turn that part of his personality around. Speaking of which.....
Violent Night’s acting is another plus. While practically everybody puts in a great performance, this movie’s runtime is practically stolen by David Harbour, Leah Brady, and John Leguizamo. Harbour was perfect as the burntout Santa. He’s been doing his seasonal task for over a thousand years, and it’s obvious that he absolutely despises his spot in life when we first meet him. Drinking constantly, being foul-mouthed, and doing his job kinda lazily, we see his apathy at the holiday season, and can kinda understand why he wants to just stop. However, when he sees Trudy in danger, that’s when his cynicism begins to slide away, and by the end of the film he regains the Christmas Spirit he lost. Meanwhile, Trudy is just an adorable little kid. You think that she’s be incredibly annoying by her moments in the trailer, but Leah Brady ends up being a highlight whenever she shows up in the film, and takes the role of Trudy & turns it into something sweet. Finally, Leguizamo is perfect as the titular Mr. Scrooge. He’s basically what happens when you take Hans Gruber from Die Hard, and give him some more teeth. Sure, he’s got some jokes, but more often than not he’ll kill you, or torture you if he’s feeling merciful. You definitely don’t want to be in the room he’s in......especially if he’s mad.
The 3rd plus is the action, and Violent Night absolutely delivers in that regard! Much like his acting throughout the film, David Harbour works his ass off in each & every encounter he’s in. With the weight he lost before Season 4 of Stranger Things from earlier this year, he looks like he’s in the best shape of his life, and you can tell. He gets pretty physical in all of the fights, and you do wince a little whenever he gets hurt. What especially awesome is that the more bloodsoaked he gets, the more furious he becomes with each act of violence he participates in. John Leguizamo gets in on the violent action a little bit, and while it’s only for a little bit throughout the film, he does a pretty good job fighting as well. Hell, even Leah Brady participates in the carnage!.....but only a little.
Finally, the last positive of Violent Night is the shocking amount of heart & warmth it has. You’re probably wondering how it is warm & fuzzy, especially when at one point Santa stabs a horde of soldiers with a sharpened candy cane (The only spoiler you are getting), and I can understand someone’s confusing upon hearing that this film can bring out the warm & fuzzy. All of these good holiday vibes comes down to the interactions between Santa & Trudy: again, Santa is a cynical curmudgeon when we first meet him, but upon seeing Trudy for the first time a seed is planted within his bitter heart, eventually blossoming into a renewed love of Christmas & the holiday season. Trudy, on the other hand, is an absolute sweetheart of a kid. If she was my daughter, I’d make sure that she would have the absolute best Christmas ever. She sees the good in just about everyone (Outside the bad guys), and uses her good energy to cheer Santa on in his gore-filled quest to take out Mr. Scrooge & his cronies. So when the two finally physically meet, it’s actually a pretty touching moment, and it almost got me to cry (Not a spoiler, as it was in the trailer). It’s so weird at how Violent Night balances the carnage and the good vibes, but it does without fail!
Okay Aspects
The only hurdle for anyone’s enjoyment of this movie is whether they like Die Hard & Home Alone. If you loved those movies, then you’ll love Violent Night! If you merely enjoyed those two, then you’ll simply enjoy this one. If by chance you hate those two movies for some reason (And I pray for you if you do), then you will not love this holly jolly gorefest.
Bad Aspects
Violent Night on a whole is absolutely awesome! From beginning to end you’re in for a blood-filled Holiday ride, and it rarely if ever outstays it’s welcome. It’s really just a bunch of small things that keep an otherwise great movie from being a flawless one, and I’ll go through them quick. The majority of the Lightstone family are pretty awful in their own way, and you’ll wish throughout the movie’s runtime that something happens to them (That technically happens to one member, but it’s not the one that most of you wish). The villains are the stereotypical kind of action movie bad guys, but some of the henchmen do have humorous quirks (All of their code names are based off of Christmas things), and there is an interesting twist or two. Finally, the ending of Violent Night is.....weird. I won’t spoil it, but the way they decide to end the movie is odd. There’s some more that I probably saw, but I forgot what they were.
Overall Impression & Rating
Violent Night is just a treat. What Die Hard was to the late 1980s, this movie is to the early 2020s. There are some small dents in the armor, but the surprisingly original story & characters, acting, action, heart, and pretty brutal violence all make this Christmas feature pretty unique. While you might not be able to watch this movie outside of December, it’ll fill you with enough holiday spirit to last for months.....but that may be the blood & gore that got splattered all over your face. Either way, Violent Night is awesome!
Violent Night gets a 9 out of 10.
And that was my review of Violent Night. An absolute blast to watch, and one in which it surprisingly tugs at the heartstrings despite all of the blood. If you were to show this alongside Die Hard during the Holiday season, you’d have one hell of a holly jolly movie night.....and one that nobody would ever forget! So with that, 2022 closes here on the Heavy Metal Otaku blog. Things definitely improved this year, but there was still plenty of scarring to go around. Well, I’m gonna enjoy these last few days, and in just a short amount of time it’ll be 2023. See you in January!
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If you'd like to watch the trailer, then click on the link below:
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