Violent Night: Jaded Santa stranded

How is it that this movie is two years old, has a significant 6.7 approval rating by IMDB and yet we’ve never come across it?

I guess I need to get out more, at least my wife seems to think so — and she’s always right.

Violent Night joins Bad Santa as one of my new, bad taste Chrissy favourites and even better, it’s an action flick.

It’s not as funny as some, but does have the odd comic moment or two.

Directed by Tommy Wirkola and written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller it follows Santa Claus (David Harbour), on his night of nights when he happens to drop in on the wrong house at the wrong time.

This isn’t the Santa we have come to know and love, rather a jaded, hard-drinking, been in the job way too long Santa who doesn’t give a rats anymore.

He’s taking five and enjoying a drop of brandy in a massage armchair when he’s rudely interrupted.

The house, or mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut is that of seriously wealthy Gertrude Lightstone (Beverly D’Angelo), who we discover has $300 million in stolen Government hush money stashed a vault in her basement — not a safe but a real bank-sized vault.

Around the same time as Santa is kicking back, a bunch of mercenaries led by Mr Scrooge (John Leguizamo) take control of the house, rounding up Gertrude and her family and holding them hostage in the living room.

The baddies, a bit like those in Reservoir Dogs, have all been assigned code names, and disguised as staff make short work of Gertrude’s security detail.

The fam includes Gertrude’s son Jason and his estranged wife Linda, along with their young daughter Trudy (Leah Brady).

Also Jason’s sister Alva (Edi Patterson), her boyfriend Morgan Steel (Cam Gigandet) and teenage son Bert (Alexander Elliot).

Startled by gunfire, Santa’s reindeer take off leaving their master stranded upstairs.

But after killing one of the mercenaries, Santa takes his radio and is able to communicate with Trudy on her walkie-talkie.

He reassures her, revealing he was once a fearsome Viking warrior named “Nicomund the Red” and that he will take care of things.

When Trudy tells Mr Scrooge that she has been talking to Santa on her walkie-talkie, her father steps in, telling her that Santa isn’t real.

Distraught, Trudy escapes from the kidnappers and hides in the attic where she sets a variety of traps, Home Alone style.

You’ll have to watch the movie to discover what happens next.

Harbour is will be known to readers from the Netflix series, Stranger Things (2016). in which he plays Chief Jim Hopper.

He also appeared as CIA agent Gregg Beam in Quantum of Solace (2008), Shep Campbell in Revolutionary Road (2008), Van Hauser in End of Watch (2012) and Dexter Tolliver in Suicide Squad (2016).

Leguizamo will also be familiar, with appearances as cold-blooded killer Benny Blanco in Carlito’s Way (1993); an heroic Army Green Beret in Executive Decision (1996) and a drag queen Chi-Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995).

Beverly D’Angelo is well Beverly D’Angelo. She has appeared in many, many roles have including Patsy Cline in the acclaimed Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) and as Chevy Chase‘s wife Ellen in the comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) and its three sequels.

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As long as you don’t have big expectations, you’ll find that Violent Night is an enjoyable watch and received a generally positive reception on its release, grossing more than $76 million worldwide.

In a 2022 interview, Tommy Wirkola revealed he had been drawn inspiration for the movie from 1990’s Home Alone.

“Obviously when I was a kid I loved Home Alone, but as you get older you think, ‘Oh they would die if you did those things to them’, so that was basically the approach to the scene.

“All right, let’s just do traps very similar to Home Alone and let’s just see what it does to a human being, and I think what makes it so funny as well is that the little girl, she doesn’t realise she’s hurting them. She just thinks she’s doing like the movie, ‘Ah, this is fun and games!’

A sequel is in development with shooting set to start this year.

You can catch Violent Night on Paramount+