VIOLENT NIGHT

Violent Night is not your typical Santa Clause movie. Present giving, while part of the set up, is not an integral part of the plot, Jolly Old Saint Nick is more Depressed, Alcoholic Saint Nick, and blood flows more freely than mulled wine.

David Harbour is Violent Nights Santa Clause, who we meet drowning his sorrows in a Bristol bar. The first thing to note is that this is one of the worst attempts as passing of the USA for the UK. Terrible cockney accents, and clearly American bar, and a skyline that resembles New York more than Gloucestershire.

It is, however, the perfect introduction to the character. He is despondent with the state of the world, and the children he is delivering gifts to. Annoyed at the number of video games in his sack and the number of letters he has received asking for cash rather than toys.

Elsewhere Alex Hassells Jamie has taken his ex-wife Linda (Alexis Louder) and daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) to spend Christmas with his repugnant family, when their celebrations are brought to a swift, and violent stop by John Leguizamo’s Mr Scrooge and his merry band of psychopaths.

The families security are dealt with swiftly by Scrooges goons, and the Lightstone family are gathered into the living room, all while Mr Scrooge waxes lyrical about how brilliant, and well thought out his plan is.

Unfortunately for him, all the planning in the world could not account for a pissed of Father Christmas with a violent streak.

If this gimmick was all that Violent Night had, it would likely have grown old long before the final credits roll, but it isn’t. The relationship between Santa and Trudy, communicating through walkie talkies for the majority of the film, adds a layer of depth that many of these types of movies lack. This little girl, whose only Christmas wish is for her parents to stop fighting, reminds Santa why he does the job. It seems odd to talk of sweetness amongst the blood and the gore, but it is there.

Violent Night also manages to be consistently funny throughout. Action comedies often suffer from the fact that the action and the comedy are looked at as two separate entities, each existing separately and steeping out of each others way. Too often in action scenes the comedy will be sacrificed. What elevates Violent Night above this, however, is that it can seemingly blend the two together. The action scenes are funny, whether it’s the quips, and the interchanges between this involved, or the slapstick nature of the violence itself, Violent Night never sacrifices one for the other.

Dominic Lewis’ soundtrack is another aspect of the film that manages to blend the genres. Juxtapositioning the violence of the script, with a score that adds a cartoonish quality to proceedings. In a film which clearly takes influence from the Home Alone franchise, the Lewis borrows heavily from John Williams iconic score, and while, on paper, this shouldn’t work, director  Tommy Wirkola is self aware enough of what the film is to manage to make it work.

But the main reason that Violent Night works, for me at least, is that, for all Santa is a fighter, for all his is a darker version of the character we are usually presented with, he is still very much Santa Clause, and all of the tropes that ordinarily go along with him are present. He still has his naughty and nice list, which he checks regularly to keep track of how many bad guys remain, He still has a penchant for cookies, and, most importantly, he still deeply cares about the children that need him.

David Harbour is fantastic in the role, committing fully to every facet of the character. His delivery is note perfect, he has the physicality to make the character of Father Christmas believable as a genuine threat, and his chemistry with Leah Brady brings some hard to the film.

Violent Night may go down as one of 2022’s surprise packages. What could have been nothing more than a forgettable gimmick is actually something which will enter many adults regular rotation of Christmas films.