Isn't it fantastic when everything you love nicely comes together? Especially around Christmas! What I like to do most during the holiday period is watching at least one - preferably more - Christmas horror movies, but the two mainstream non-horror Christmas movies that I've seen the most (that everyone has seen the most, for that matter) are "Die Hard" and "Home Alone".
"Violent Night" may not be a genuine horror movie, but it's excessively violent for sure, and - moreover - it's a love letter to the two aforementioned cinematic Christmas landmarks! Tommy Wirkola, who brought us the refreshing "Dead Snow", goes mainstream with this thrill-ride of an actioner about Santa Clause - the real one - battling a small army of evil scoundrels and protecting a cute girl and her rotten wealthy family during a heist/home invasion. It's not very original, it's not particularly sophisticated, but it sure is a lot of fun.
Certain ideas and gimmicks in the script are genius, like Santa having a Viking background, the casting of Beverly D'Angelo as a loathsome hag of a matriarch, or the killing of thugs with Christmas attributes like candy canes or electric lights. Other parts are clichéd and/or sentimental (but mandatory), like the overlong "true meaning of Christmas" conversations, but that's just a minor default. The "John Wick" type of battle in the bar is déjà-vu but nonetheless exciting, especially because it's to the cheesy tones of Bryan Adams' "Christmas Time". There are other jolly great songs on the soundtrack, like from Slade and Burl Ives, and a great role for John Leguizamo as über-villain "Scrooge".
"Violent Night" may not be a genuine horror movie, but it's excessively violent for sure, and - moreover - it's a love letter to the two aforementioned cinematic Christmas landmarks! Tommy Wirkola, who brought us the refreshing "Dead Snow", goes mainstream with this thrill-ride of an actioner about Santa Clause - the real one - battling a small army of evil scoundrels and protecting a cute girl and her rotten wealthy family during a heist/home invasion. It's not very original, it's not particularly sophisticated, but it sure is a lot of fun.
Certain ideas and gimmicks in the script are genius, like Santa having a Viking background, the casting of Beverly D'Angelo as a loathsome hag of a matriarch, or the killing of thugs with Christmas attributes like candy canes or electric lights. Other parts are clichéd and/or sentimental (but mandatory), like the overlong "true meaning of Christmas" conversations, but that's just a minor default. The "John Wick" type of battle in the bar is déjà-vu but nonetheless exciting, especially because it's to the cheesy tones of Bryan Adams' "Christmas Time". There are other jolly great songs on the soundtrack, like from Slade and Burl Ives, and a great role for John Leguizamo as über-villain "Scrooge".