Violent Night

Seasons Beatings! A beautiful film. Exactly one of those movies that highlights why I love movies. Tommy Wirkola reaffirms his status as a tough butcher off the rails and has quite possibly made one of his best films; at the very least he made a film that has the potential to become a Christmas classic and will definitely not be missing in my living room every Christmas in the future. Of course, for the introverts, weirdo entities, puritans and outcasts of society, this will be and American piece of shit without a story that is unnecessarily filthy and brutal, and I'm glad that the code of decency suffered incredibly in the process, I really enjoy torturing this bunch like this, probably like David Harbour, who played the best role of his career. Violent Night is one crazy, fun, perverse and brutal action ride that takes Christmas traditions, John Wick-like action, twisted humour and references to Home Alone and together it works incredibly well and cool. The story may be simple, but there's beauty in simplicity, and all the other filmmaking aspects and details are important; the work they have put in is very evident and I appreciate it accordingly. Apart from the excellent Harbour, for whom this was a tailor-made role (his flashback was also awesome, by the way, and I hope we will learn even more about him in the eventual sequel), the villains are also a delight, John Leguizamo plays a surprisingly decent bad guy, but his henchmen also have their bit of glory, and I looked forward to every disposal, which are brimming with original and entertaining ideas. I was sure of a decent 4 stars, but once it came to the barn scene, it was a done deal. It was such a carnage!!! Santa, with a skullcracker and skates for knives, performs the Christmas ballet of death, and for me it is without a doubt one of the best scenes I have seen this year. I'll be playing this before bed every night. This whole glorious sequence is then built up with traps like in Home Alone, and I was roaring with laughter and joy. I'm glad Wirkola put something like that, those were two top notch sequences (read orgasm) right after each other. The Christmas music was good too and of course I couldn't fail to mention the properly twisted and bawdy humour, which was perfectly fitting. The emotions worked on me at times thanks to the cute little girl and there were a few minor twists and turns, so very satisfied. A properly entertaining, crazy and brutal film like this year's Bullet Train. 9/10 (2022-12-12)

Merry fuc*ing Christmas!! David Harbour as an alcoholic Santa with a dark killer past (I commend the awesome origin story!!) flying his reindeer through the starry skies and urinating on the residents below versus a bunch of killers in a house with a family that hates each other? Fuck yeah! This is like John Wick at Christmas, and clearly the best gift I could ask for at the end of the year. The humour goes at full speed, it's properly perverse and raunchy, but most importantly it's superbly integrated into the plot and feels natural and not pushed to the limit. Even the opening sequence, when Santa walks around the houses and instead of presents he brings out all sorts of disgusting things, grounded the whole cinema in their seats and made it clear what the spirit of the rest of the film would be. The characters of the attacked family are archetypically great, from the spoiled brats, to the funny goofballs, to the good guys, and likewise the gang of killers with nicknames like Candy or Gingerbread get plenty of space and have a great time! The film takes the best of similar genre pieces, wraps it up in an excellent Christmas package and works very cleverly with the Christmas motifs, hence there is no shortage of murders using lights, decorative chains, ornaments, icicles, skates and a even nativity scene. The definite highlights are the sequences in the style of Home Alone  and the rampage with Thor's hammer, you don’t know know whether to laugh or groan at the violence. Violent Night is a literal end of the year treat, which apart from a few sentimental emotional conversations has no deaf spots, perfectly combines violence, parodic humour, Christmas atmosphere and family comedy in a hell of a style and I have to admit that I didn't expect this kind of fun. Tommy Wirkola just did it. (2022-12-08)

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. (2022-12-08)

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. (2023-11-29)

Yippee ki-yay ho-ho-ho, motherfucker! When the special unit began their demolition with a sledgehammer during Bryan Adams' "Christmas Time," I was torn between envying Tommy Wirkola's arrested adolescence or criticizing it. He once again revealed his fondness for hobby store goods, especially various tools, but with the same passion, he might want to start focusing on characters. The invocation of family values often puts the brakes on things, but I understand, it's Christmas. Although David Harbour, playing the role with a Hellboy-like approach, gave it his all, I believe Bad Santa Billy Bob Thornton would still outshine him. Of course, I mean that figuratively... (2023-01-11)