A “Violent Night” Before Christmas: When Santa Turns Action Hero
Christmas Eve. The Lightstone family gathers at the mansion of their millionaire mother (Beverly D’Angelo). The cunning son Jason (Alex Hassell) brings his ex-wife Linda (Alexis Louder) and little Trudy (Leah Brady) to the celebration. Meanwhile, the magnate’s sarcastic daughter Alva (Edi Patterson) coaches her loser boyfriend (Cam Gigandet) and slacker son Bert (Alexander Elliot) to smile obsequiously at grandma. Both heirs crave old Gertrude’s heart and money, but their devious plan spectacularly fails when armed robbers, led by Scrooge (John Leguizamo), seize the house. Luckily, in the midst of the attack, a real Santa Claus (David Harbour) unexpectedly appears on the mansion’s roof. Disillusioned with children and the world, he’s hit the bottle and is now eager to vent his pent-up rage on the hapless criminals.
David Harbour as Santa in “Violent Night”
“Violent Night” is a one-man show. The portly, bearded, and visibly inebriated Claus owes a great deal to David Harbour. Had a polished Hollywood idol been cast as Santa, all the magic would have vanished up the chimney. The “Stranger Things” star remarkably embodies two opposing archetypes: a cuddly teddy bear and a back-alley maniac. His character prefers alcohol to milk, knows how to stitch up stab wounds, and break legs with sledgehammers, and shamelessly vomits from his sleigh onto unsuspecting passersby. However, this Lapland strongman is capable of more than just beatdowns; he can also deliver gifts. Thanks to Harbour’s acting range (and the writers’ attempts to make the film unnecessarily moralistic), the movie constantly teeters on the edge of sentimentality.
David Harbour as Santa in “Violent Night”
If Taika Waititi, a master of blending cynical humor with family drama, had directed “Violent Night,” this balancing act might have worked flawlessly. But director Tommy Wirkola, known for “Dead Snow,” has spent his career dismembering limbs and splattering blood in low-budget exploitation and B-movies. Consequently, any attempts to make the Harbour-led action film a Christmas comedy fall flat, like old Christmas lights. This creates genuine frustration for the viewer: family confessions by the fireplace and recollections of difficult childhoods (it turns out robbers cry too) feel so commercialized that the entire trashy vibe is undermined in minutes.
David Harbour as Santa in “Violent Night”
Thankfully, at some point, “Violent Night” remembers why everyone gathered in front of the screens and stops pretending to be a festive film. Christmas ornaments become weapons (Santa typically shoves them straight into the eyes of his adversaries), wrapping paper becomes bandages (covering bleeding wounds), and garlands become strangulation devices. The film increasingly resembles an infernal version of “Home Alone.” It’s no coincidence that little Trudy professes her love for the Macaulay Culkin classic and fends off enemies with bowling balls dropped from the attic and nails hammered into the staircase. However, Tommy Wirkola treats Chris Columbus’s legacy in his own way: even seemingly harmless children’s traps result in as much blood as Santa’s righteous sledgehammer blows. It’s worth noting that David Leitch, known for action choreography, served as one of the producers of “Violent Night,” and the action sequences are more intriguing than the cinematography, let alone the plot.
Conclusion
“Violent Night” could have become a new anti-Christmas classic in the vein of “Gremlins,” but Harbour in a Santa suit is left to trail in Gizmo’s tiny shadow. Achieving cult status requires more than just comic book-style violence and a few toilet jokes mixed with intrusive moralizing. However, this blood-soaked film-gift, reeking of booze and dried vomit, is still worth ten refined holiday dramas. It’s better to spend the wait for Christmas with it than with yet another tiresome Dickens adaptation.