Violent Night
Came out; 2022
Time; 1 hours 52 minutes
Watched: Amazon
Rating; R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references
IMDB Rating; 6.8/10
Caution; Spoiler Alert
Staring.
David Harbour as Santa
John Leguizamo as Scrooge
Beverly D'Angelo as Gertrude
Alex Hassell as Jason
Alexis Louder as Linda
Edi Patterson as Alva
Cam Gigandet as Morgan Steel
Leah Brady as Trudy
Andre Eriksen as Gingerbread
Brendan Fletcher as Krampus
Mike Dopud as Commander Throp
Alexander Elliot as Bert
Story Line.
A team of elite mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage. But the team isn't prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus is on the grounds, and he's about to show why this Nick is no saint
Thoughts.
This movie peeked my interest from the preview, these movies tend to be a fun spin on classic Christmas movies and this one didn't disappoint.
I like David Harbour as an actor, he has a range that can go from serious, to silly to mad all within one character with ease.
I wasn't 100% sure what to expect, movie previews can be deceiving, but this movie gives you an expectation of what type of Santa you're dealing with from the opening scene. From here we see glimpses of Santa's night, but we also see the starting of the main plot. Of course, it's rich people, but Beverly D'Angelo gives this a spin that's hilarious.
All in all, the plot wasn't totally what I expected but it was really good. It was a great bad guy/good guy spin on Santa.
From perfectly executed Home Alone bobby traps and references to drunk tattooed Santa, it's a delight to watch!
CAUTION; Major Spoiler Alert
On
Christmas Eve, Santa Claus drinks at a pub in Bristol where he
laments to a mall Santa how the kids have begun to lose their
Christmas spirit and have become increasingly materialistic. He
leaves on his sleigh pulled by his reindeer, shocking and delighting
the pub's bartender, before accidentally vomiting on her from his
sleigh.
Jason Lightstone, his estranged wife Linda, and their
daughter Trudy travel to the countryside mansion of Jason's wealthy
and crude mother Gertrude to celebrate Christmas at her lavish estate
that has been funded by the profitable family business. They are
joined by Jason's alcoholic sister Alva, her new boyfriend and
wannabe-action star Morgan Steele, and Alva's son Bertrude. After
realizing he didn't take Trudy to the mall to see Santa, Jason
implores Linda to make up with him with Jason promising to quit his
job working for Gertrude and leave it all behind. He finds an old
walkie talkie which he gives to Trudy to "talk to Santa."
Santa
arrives at the Lightstone estate to deliver gifts, when the catering
staff and some servants reveal themselves to be part of a group of
mercenaries, led by a man known as "Mr. Scrooge" where they
all use Christmas code-names, and take the family hostage. Santa gets
into a fight with one of the henchmen whose gunfire scares away the
reindeer. Santa inadvertently kills the henchman when a string of
Christmas lights pulls him out of the window and is impaled on an
icicle decoration outside. Santa later kills another henchman,
stabbing him in the eye with a tree topper, before plugging it in and
electrocuting him. Taking the henchman's walkie talkie, Santa
accidentally finds Trudy's channel and, seeing that she is on his
nice list, decides to help save her while also finding that all the
mercenaries are on his naughty list.
Over the course of the
night, it is revealed that Mr. Scrooge is after $300 million given to
the Lightstone company to funnel oil into the Middle East, but was
stolen by Gertrude and kept in the mansion's vault. When Trudy's
walkie talkie is discovered, Jason and Linda attempt to convince the
mercenaries that Trudy is simply playing make-believe. When she
refuses to go along, Jason tells her that Santa isn't real causing
her to run and hide in the attic. Over the walkie, Santa reveals that
before he was Santa, he was a Viking warrior, giving context to his
barbaric nature. He confirms to her that he is real by telling her
about the letters she wrote to him. Santa is taken hostage by
Scrooge, who wants to ruin Christmas because his father was laid off
in his childhood, so he never had a good Christmas. He snuck into a
house to steal gifts and inadvertently caused the death of an elderly
man. Scrooge and his henchmen Gingerbread and Candy Cane are stunned
when Santa reveals his knowledge of their identities before Santa
escapes through the chimney.
Gertrude's "kill squad"
arrives to the mansion, but they are on Scrooge's payroll, killing
Morgan in the process. The squad's commander Thorpe opens the vault
which contains nothing. With a gun to Linda's head, Jason confesses
that he stole the money and was planning to escape with Linda and
Trudy, which shocks everyone but Gertrude, who learned of this from
Jason's gift that she was forced to open by Scrooge's lead henchman
Krampus but acknowledged as part of a Lightstone rite of
passage.
Santa retreats to a shed where he discovers a hammer.
Inspired, he brutally slaughters the kill squad before rushing to
save Trudy. Upstairs, Trudy creates traps inspired by Home Alone.
This leads to Gingerbread being killed by a bowling ball driving a
nail into his head. Candy Cane escapes her traps and prepares to kill
Trudy, but she is rescued by Santa who kills Candy Cane.
The
family is taken outside by Scrooge and Commander Thorpe. Jason
surrenders the money, but Scrooge intends to kill the family anyway.
Santa arrives, forcing Scrooge, Commander Thorpe and the remaining
soldiers to flee. Santa crashes into an old cabin in the woods where
Scrooge, finding the list, acknowledges Santa is real, but wants to
kill him to end Christmas. Scrooge gains the upper hand, but Santa
flies up the cabin's chimney, eviscerating Scrooge's body. Commander
Thorpe shoots Santa, but he is quickly killed by Gertrude. Santa
succumbs to his wounds.
Trudy is able to get her family to
believe in Santa, and burn $500,000 in paper money to keep Santa's
body warm. Eventually, Santa is revived, stunning the family and
Santa himself. The reindeer return and Santa bids goodbye to Trudy
before flying off to finish delivering gifts with his inspiration and
love for Christmas renewed.