Best Review: This is the worst thing that could happen on Christmas! And I’m not talking about the film, but about its script, because what is played in the “Violent Night” – you will not wish on the enemy. And the film itself, shot by Tommy Virkola (the one who released two “Operation Dead Snow”, as well as “Witch Hunters”, turned out to be a very epic mix of action, thriller, black comedy and a Christmas tale. In principle, this thick mixture already suggests that something special is waiting for the viewer.
The Christmas soundtrack adds a special flavor to this, which, well, definitely does not fit the bloodbath and therefore looks somehow wild against the background of a large number of deaths. But such a critical juxtaposition, on the contrary, adds a special drive and turns the incongruous into easily assimilated by the viewer!
Santa Claus (David Harbre) is no longer the same. He is losing faith in Christmas, because people are losing faith in Christmas more and more every year. So Mr. Claus has to behave cheekily, swear, drink and urinate right out of the sleigh. The next child on his list is baby Trudy, who, together with her parents, goes to a rich despotic grandmother in a country house for Christmas. That’s just where a well-armed gang headed by Scrooge (John Leguizamo) visits, which needs money, and grandma has a lot of them. So it turns out that Santa becomes a kind of third party in a conflict of interests and is forced to give battle to those who, in theory, rely on coal. Well, that is, the bad guys.
Of course, it’s better not to watch this movie for children, so as not to traumatize them about the fact that Santa Claus is a killer. It’s still an adult movie. The amount of profanity here is kept at a high level, as well as the bar of cruelty and bloodshed is raised to a high level. In principle, “Violent Night” is not inferior to other Virkola projects in terms of the bloody mess, so if you watched, for example, “Operation Dead Snow”, you can roughly understand what awaits you in this picture.
Returning to the words that Santa is no longer the same. He’s losing faith. And it is in FAITH that the main idea of the film lies. As long as a person has FAITH, hope is not lost. This is not openly confirmed, but it is captured by various scenes. When Santa does not believe in himself, it is difficult for him to cope even with one person. When he is endowed with the FAITH of both his own and baby Trudy, he can stand up in a fight with a couple of dozen well–armed people!
FAITH gives him strength and the presence of FAITH in other people invigorates him even more (by the way, here you can recall the very beginning and the very stunted and hopeless protagonist). In the case of the “Violent Night”, faith gives hope, and hope gives a person confidence that everything will be as it should be.
The film clearly traces the logical division into good and bad. Moreover, there are much more negative characters in the film than positive ones, because part of the family gathered at the estate can not be attributed to good people for sure. Although Santa, being the main wizard of Christmas, still loses his temper a little and promises to give a piece of coal to the bad guys, but not wrapping it in a piece of paper, but stuffing it into their F…, sorry in (A) nus…
Taking into account the Christmas theme and the element of the black comedy, “Violent Night” is stuffed with references to other films on New Year’s Eve themes. The first of them is Santa’s lifestyle, which immediately reminds the viewer of Billy Bob Thornton’s character from “Bad Santa”. Further, as they say, more. Trudy repeatedly recalls about “Home Alone”, quotes some of the characters, plus there are various traps in the film, as well as incompetent criminals who seem to guess about traps, but still fall into them.
And of course “Die Hard 2” – where without him and without mentioning Bruce Willis! It is symbolic that John Leguizamo was filmed both there and there. True, in “Violent Night” he plays the role of the main antagonist, while in Die Hard 2 he was one of the terrorists who operated in a church near the airport and it was he who was shot by John McClain on a snowmobile, after which the character Leguizamo fell through the ice of the lake.
Episodes with a group of commandos rushing to the rescue, a repeat of the snowmobile chase, the main character’s decision to go in front of criminals racing on snowmobiles, the presence of other elements, such as full control over a large building, the destruction of communication systems, as well as one of the deaths with an icicle – all these are direct references to “Die Hard 2”.
In addition, the presence of a hammer in Santa’s hands and his cries during one of the murders “Naughty!” can be considered a reference to the 1984 film “Silent Night, Deadly Night”. And the hero of Cam Gigandet in one of the scenes repeats the words of Mark Wahlberg about the September 11 terrorist attacks, when Wahlberg stated that he could stop the hijackers.
The film is not without flaws, and in particular some plot gluing looks rough – the director missed some details, having already put the viewer in front of the fact. And when you see Trudy’s traps, you immediately wonder: “how the hell did she manage to do all this?”
My main complaint about the film is related to this. Otherwise, the “Violent Night” has gone. This is a killer Christmas action movie, which shines with magic, and the snow-white blanket of winter fertilizes with blood!
However, you should watch. I do not impose my opinion on anyone.
Enjoy your viewing.
