Violent Night

Violent Night is one of the Yuletide season’s most delightful surprises, not just for what it gets right but also for the many ways the whole production could have gone very, very wrong.

A team of screenwriters more creative than Pat Casey and Josh Miller (best known for two manic Sonic the Hedgehog movies) might have done more with the backstory, and director Tommy Wirkola's beatdowns never transcend the merely serviceable. But there's no denying the joy in a child's eyes when she sees Santa's weapon of choice, a sledgehammer hefted with brutal artistry, and squeals its name: "Skullcrusher!"

Violent Night might take a hot minute to find its footing and keeps plucking low-hanging wordplay sugar plums, but at full strength, nobody's stopping Santa from making this year the reddest Christmas imaginable.

Behind all the gore-splattered walls and domestic rancor lies a sweet-and-sour bedtime story of good triumphing over evil. That said, please leave the kids at home.

There are many smart comic ideas in Violent Night, but they are scattered unevenly throughout, the villains are dull, and most of the imaginative energy goes into devising spectacularly gory murders involving the distressingly off-label use of Christmas paraphernalia.

Good fun in places, but dull for the most part, Violent Night is serviceable Christmas viewing. It’s a shame, because with such a fun riff on the Santa story, it should’ve been good for goodness sake!

This is the sort of lazy, slapdash, self-impressed excuse for “edgy” entertainment that makes you enraged. It’s not even so-bad-it’s-good; this is so bad you’re tempted to kick those responsible for it right in the jingle bells.

Violent Night has to be one of the best Christmas movies I've seen in years. David Harbour was definitely never someone I ever thought of to play Santa but his performance was outstanding; I liked the more relatable portrayal of Santa as someone who has problems, who gets depressed, who sees how the world is realistically, and isn't just all jolly and happy but still has that jollyness and David Harbour portrayed all that perfectly. Beverly D'Angelo, Leah Brady, Edi Patterson, and Alexis Louder gave great supporting performances. The costumes especially Santa's suit was excellent. The makeup and hairstyling was superb especially on David Harbour. Definitely would love a sequel.

15+Review Trigger Warning: Characters are shot and killed. Blood spurts.A grenade explodes inside a man's armour.A man's eye is struck with a Christmas ornament. (6/10)A man is impaled through his chin with a nail.A man is stabbed with an icicle; blood is shown.A teen boy is struck in the face.A man's finger is broken with a nutcracker (offscreen) and is later shown severely bruised. A character suggests putting a man's testicles in a nutcracker.A bowling ball falls on a man's head, driving a nail into his brain.A man is killed in a snow blower, offscreen; blood sprays.People are killed with a sledgehammer. This film is very gory and disturbing but it is quite sweet at the end. Santa goes on a killing rampage because robbers are trying to hurt kids also some ifffy language like Butthole and **** ****", "shove it up your **** and anus.A ****. Defently some flaws and confusing elements but a good film that may appeal to horror fans and christmas adults that like some viloence.

I enjoyed this film. It's probably the best Christmas horror but there isn't much competition. For the record I've been to Bristol and Bristol doesn't look like how it does in the movie and most people from Bristol don't sound like that so that wasn't a good start. The characters are mostly unlikeable which actually worked well in this film. It could well be the only good film that has a Stranger Things (2016-) cast member in that isn’t Stranger Things. The fight scenes are really good. The film is entertaining and charismatic. Santa's character arc is surprisingly well rounded. The film is funny. The film lost momentum in the final act and I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending but overall an above average film and a well above average Christmas horror comedy.

Feels like it was made by AI. A mix & mash of Die Hard and Home Alone with none of the ingredients that made those films special. Tonally,it's all over the place with an awful story, poor casting decisions, dialogue that feels improvised, and action that's actually pretty darn good. Can't quite figure out who this was made for, but it wasn't me.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]