My Review of "Violent Night"

Violent Night came out back during the Christmas holiday season of 2022. I don't know why it took me so long to watch this movie but I did. It's weird too because this movie seems like it would be right up my alley. Not everyone is going to have fun with this movie but if you're in the right headspace this movie can be quite entertaining.

The movie starts out with Santa in a bar. Sounds exactly how a joke would start. He's drinking his woes away during the holiday season. Everyone assumes that he's just a mall Santa but he's the actual Santa Claus. He mopes around about the state of humanity and how it's affected his enthusiasm for the holidays.

Before you know it has to leave but he's very drunk as well. I guess this is to paint the picture of a Santa that we're not accustomed to. They did a good job in this department but what happens next was really unexpected.

We then fall into a family drama. The whole movie is supposed to be based on their family drama. We have Trudy and her mother Linda picking up her father Jason. They're all going to Jason's family's mansion to celebrate Christmas. It's already apparent that Linda and Jason are recently separated. Linda seems to be doing Jason a huge favor by spending the holidays with the rest of Jason's family.

The whole drama behind the family is that there is word that the matriarch of the family is supposed to be deciding the heir to the family business. They're supposed to be multi-millionaires and greed is running rampant in the house. Already this was pretty unexpected for a Santa movie and then we have terrorists that invade the family property.

These terrorists are holding the family as hostage so that they can steal the family fortune. While all of this is happening Santa so happens to be in the house delivering presents.

Through some unexplained reason, Santa can't really escape and leave the place. Instead he gets pulled into the whole situation. This is wildly absurd but it's basically a way to kick start a wild and crazy ride that you're kind of expecting. That's why I thought it was like a video game. A lot of the story doesn't really make sense you're just here for the action.

This is where the movie really excels. It is extremely violent and pretty fun with these gory scenarios. At each instance we have a bumbling Santa slowly gaining confidence in his abilities. He does a fine job in carrying the movie, as he should be.

There are a few laughs in this movie as well. The family is insane but still play upon the ultra rich idiot stereotypes that we've come to know. There's nothing really unexpected about any of this. The movie is quite predictable as well. There's a lot of homages to previous holiday movies that you'll recognize.

Though this movie isn't meant to be fine art. You know what you're getting yourself into with this movie and for the most part it delivers. Some of the special effects can look quite bad so you can kind of tell how low budget this movie was. Still they did a good job in choreographing some of the action scenes.

Overall, I still had a fun time with this movie. You definitely have to shut off your brain for the full run time to truly enjoy this movie but there is charm to this movie. That's what is most important especially with a holiday film. I wouldn't consider it a classic but it is a good diversion for those that want to get into the spirit of Christmas. I have to give this movie a 6 out of 10. I'm not sure if I'd do repeat viewings of this movie but I could tell people it's okay enough to watch through once.