I’m not going to lie. After being tortured by A Christmas…Present, I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch any more Christmas movies this season. I’ve watched 71 movies. That is a pretty respectable place to end, right? But I knew Violent Night was coming out in theaters and it looked like a good time. If this was bad, it would prove to me that it was time to give up.
Santa Claus (David Harbour) has become jaded over the years. Kids nowadays take one look at their Christmas presents and rush off to the next thing. As he is delivering presents to the Lightstone house, a group of mercenaries attacks the extremely wealthy family. Santa goes on the attack to protect little Trudy (Leah Brady), who is firmly on his Good List.
Violent Night is a difficult movie to describe. It’s an action comedy with a lot of blood and gore. Almost like Die Hard mixed with a little Home Alone turned up to 12. But that still feels like it doesn’t do it justice. Harbour does an amazing job as an emotionally exhausted Santa, who has a very dark history but does his best to try to make the good kids smile on Christmas. And the writers did an amazing job giving this version of Santa a mostly-developed backstory, even we don’t get the exact reasoning he became THE Santa Claus.
My favorite parts, however, were the interactions between Santa and Trudy. Despite her family being absolute trash people, Trudy still manages to be a sweet little girl. Don’t get me wrong, she knows the curse words and can build a mean booby trap but she is still sugar underneath. On the other hand, Santa obviously doesn’t want to do his job anymore when we first meet him. Instead of drinking the milk at the houses he visits, he steals the alcohol. But when he starts talking with Trudy, his whole view changes. She is exactly what he needed when he needed her.
But please keep in mind that this isn’t some idyllic girl-meets-Santa movie. The bad guys, led by John Leguizamo, have a very very high kill rate. Come to think of it, so does Santa. And those kills are not off-camera kills. Violent Night has a higher body count than the three most recent Halloween movies combined. It is rated R for a reason.
My husband and I both loved this movie. It may sound weird but it actually reinvigorated my interest in watching more of the (mostly boring) Christmas movies. I guess it was something like a palate cleanser for me and I’ll happily add it to my annual Must See movie list. So, if you are a weirdo like us and enjoy dark comedies, this should be right up your alley. Too bad the Seasons Beatings line didn’t make it into the movie. It’s a great line.