Violent Night

Tommy Wirkola combined the story of a Santa who lost his faith in Christmas with Die Hard. A rich family is gathered in their well-guarded mansion for the holidays when they are attacked by evil kidnappers just as Santa is eating cookies from one of the few good girls there. David Harbour is initially profiled as a pudgy drunk who wants to quit his job, but when glimpses into the past reveal his origins, he takes on an almost mythical dimension. Then, when he picks up a sledgehammer in a shed and goes to rescue the little girl, things get intense, with mashed-up heads, dismembered kidnappers and ground-up soldiers. The action is not blurred and it’s also innovative in a Christmas way. The jokes ooze with cynicism, the references to Home Alone are downright brutal. It’s just a little slow at times, you need some patience at first, but most of the time it's great fun. (12/26/2022)

David Harbour is half of the film. He was made to play the role of a kind-hearted Santa Claus with the roots of a bad-ass Viking. The mixing of motifs from Die Hard and Home Alone, which are Christmas cult classics in America, is the right way to join their ranks in different genre garb. Wirkola almost succeeded – he combines Christmas clichés with new ideas, the endangered family members are not cliches and the narrative flows nicely. It’s just a shame that Harbour doesn’t face any correspondingly interesting bad guys for whom we would have more respect. (11/29/2023)

A brutally appealing genre film in which heads burn and bodies explode in ultra-fun sequences, it's already achieving slight cult status at the moment and I'll happily include it among my classic Yuletide screenings in the future, i.e. alongside the first two Die Hard movies and Home Alone. Tommy Wirkola is a bit of a freak, but that doesn't take away from his huge dollop of talent and his remarkable flair for scenes that are extremely gory and funny at the same time. Violent Night is horribly irreverent ("Trudy? Well, that makes her sound like a whore."), brutally action-packed fun where you'll soak up the true Christmas spirit like (almost) nowhere else. [80%] (12/21/2022)

A gang of killers decide to ruin Christmas for a dysfunctional family and only Santa Claus can save them, and the chubby bearded guy is definitely not afraid of violence. Tommy Wirkola may be a little slow to get going in his actioner, and maybe he plays a little too much with genres and Christmas clichés, but he manages to shift into the mode we love him in time. David Harbour is clearly in his element here, the action sequences are full of ideas and clearly shot, the humour is pitch black and the references to Home Alone and Die Hard are a delight too. (12/08/2022)

While still thinning out the naughty list of this year’s Christmas, I tip my imaginary Santa hat to whoever said: "I have an idea to make the Christmas plot of Die Hard even more Christmassy!", before adding: "How about combining it with Home Alone?", in front of the madman who finally filmed it in a way that's not cringe-inducing but funny. Yes, at first glance, Fatman with Mel Gibson came up with something similar two years ago, but while I liked that holiday almost-action flick, it falls far short of the fun of Violent Night. David Harbour is flawless in the leading role, he enjoys Santa to the fullest and is very convincing in the action scenes, which have great choreography. The trailer doesn't give everything away, so in addition to all the imaginative shooting, punching, breaking, stabbing, screaming, drinking, eating gingerbread, bleeding and swearing, we also get a glimpse into Santa’s past or one of the climactic scenes that shows what Home Alone would look like if it were truly brutal. Of course it's not a non-stop action ride, that wouldn't work, or it wouldn't have anything new to offer soon, but even the moments of calm before the storm were rarely taken deadly seriously, and I liked them. (12/08/2022)