Christmas is the time for reds on whites: cardinal fabric on the arctic fur of the jolly fellow’s coat, scarlet stripes on the pearly caned candy hanging on the tree, and crimson blood on the cadaverous snow outside. I’ve said it once before and I’ll say it again, when it comes to violent films there are two things I look for: brutal violence and comical violence. Violent Night delivered on both.
The deaths and injuries in this film could only be described as a pairing of slapstick comedy and bloody gore, all executed with my personal favourite weapons: improvised household decorations. Even the child got some kill points, which is not often the case. Leah Brady, who plays the little girl, got to act out on everyone’s childhood fantasy of making better traps than Macaulay Culkin ever could. The exchanges between her and David Harbour were surprisingly wholesome. For every bit of violent vengeful spirit he gave her, she made him believe in Christmas again.
The dialogue and banter were respectable enough, and I’m willing to overlook the cheesy Christmas puns, because, let’s be honest here, it’s still a Christmas movie. In fact, I think it has become one of my top five Christmas movies, but I’ll have to watch it again next year to be sure. It has the potential to be that Christmas film that scars children who watch from the staircase as their mommy and daddy put it on after sending them to bed.
The only downfall for me was the plot. To me, the violence and comedy made up for it, but it does use some tropes that were just unsurprising and mundane. For example, the main villain was overly hateful of the holiday when really their motivation was a simple robbery, although John Leguizamo seemed to be having fun with all the bad Christmas puns, code names, and disturbing torture via Christmas decorations.
Another trope played was the tired “Santa who feels the Christmas spirit has been lost in today’s youth,” which has been done over and over again, (although I must say that the role of a curmudgeon who does bad things to be good is a role David Harbour seems born to play). The divorced parents who are trying to work things out is another familiar holiday trope, but this one was made better as they worked over their issues at gunpoint. Even the sweet kid, who makes everyone believe by the end, is a cliche that can tire, but thankfully Leah Brady did a splendid job as she kept the balance between the sweet and the bloody.
Violent Night is a wholesome film, it’s a funny film, and, as the title suggests, it’s a violent film. From candy cane shivs to reindeer-pulled sleigh, from nut cracking nutcrackers to a present-filled sack, and from a bullet adorned tree to a smashing gingerbread house, the only thing missing was Rudolph himself. All in all, it was a great holiday film and included many holiday favourites that I thoroughly enjoyed. The story gave our lovable fat man a backstory, but it differs from most as it never got too deep into it, leaving room for questions and of course, Christmas magic. Without spoiling too much, I would conclude its description with this: picture John Wick meets Miracle on 34th Street.
