My Saturday night went like this, a trip to a good Italian restaurant for some grade-A pizza, watching Violent Night, and then having some hot chocolate while walking through the Christmas market, it was freaking perfect. I thought that this would be fun, but we have a modern “adult” Christmas classic here in the same way that Bad Santa and Krampus are.
How to Download Violent Night
Since Violent Night is a Universal Pictures film, we can expect it to become available for download or streaming on Peacock TV about two months after its theatrical release which was on 2 December 2022. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the current availability there or on other channels such as Apple TV. If you are in the market for Christmas comedies, you should definitely watch Home Alone or Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
The Movie Review
Where do I even start with this movie? David Harbour plays Santa Clause, not a “fake” Santa, but the actual Santa Clause. I think that it is so awesome how David Harbour has managed to become such a badass action star after blasting into the mainstream with Stranger Things!
The movie is set in the present day and Santa is really lacking in the Christmas spirit. Santa is getting sick of all the mean-spirited people in the world and having to give kids crappy electronics that go out of date really fast. He is feeling down and then he comes to the wealthy estate of the Gertrude family led by the matriarch, Gertrude who is said to have millions of dollars in a safe.
Santa is having a great time eating cookies, using a massage chair, and doing his usual stuff. However, Santa hears gunfire and realizes that mercenaries have broken into the house and are looking to get into the safe. Santa is not happy about this and he is going to do whatever it takes to take these bad guys down, save the family and hopefully remind this family what Christmas is all about.
Violent Night is hilarious! We have a movie that is part cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie, part Home Alone and part Die Hard, and it all blends together very well. The fact that Santa is such a badass and is not scared to use anything as a weapon was something that I got a real kick out of, especially when he is in the man cave/game room.
Another aspect of this movie that I feel needs to get more love is the villain. The leader of the mercenaries is John Leguizamo and I am a huge fan of his. He hates Christmas and his codename is even Scrooge which just adds to the whole charm that this movie has! Seriously him butting heads with Santa is some of the most fun I have had in a movie theatre all year.
The violence in Violent Night is completely over the top and it made me wince more than once. However, it also has a lot of humor to it as well and I appreciate that they do try and spread a bit of a holiday message here too. Krampus is a Christmas horror movie and I would say that what we have here is the Christmas action movie equivalent.
I had so much fun with this movie, it is very cheesy, and over the top and that is exactly what I loved about it. I have a feeling that this could become a real holiday classic. If you are looking for a fun movie to go to the theatre and see in the run up to Christmas, I cannot think of a better one than this!
