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One of the funniest jokes in " Scrooged ," the sometimes uneven but vastly underrated 1988 Bill Murray riff on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol , came right at the beginning with an artificial promotional trailer. Titled "The Night the Reindeer Died," it was a cheerfully cheesy bit of holiday carnage in which terrorists attempt to seize the North Pole until Lee Majors saves the day by gunning down the attackers while the guy in the red suit assures him he is being a good boy this year. As a distillation of the craven lengths that network television programmers go to attract viewers during the Yuletide season—in this case, by taking a made-for-TV knockoff of the typical Chuck Norris vehicle of that time and crudely slapping a thick seasonal glaze on the tip—it was admittedly a one-joke premise. But it happened to be a pretty funny joke, and since it only lasted for about two minutes, it was over before it could begin to wear out its welcome.

Now comes "Violent Night," a film that seems to have been designed by writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller and director Tommy Wirkola to answer the question of what a full-length version of "The Night the Reindeer Died" might have been like, augmented by over-the-top carnage that would have been unthinkable on television back then. The result, perhaps unsurprisingly, is a largely tedious cinematic lump of coal that unsuccessfully tries to stretch its one-joke premise out to 101 minutes in a tonally uneven attempt to position itself as a new alternative holiday classic. Instead, "Violent Night" is about as entertaining as listening to people argue about whether " Die Hard " is a Christmas movie or not (it isn't, FYI) while more or less wasting a genuinely committed performance from David Harbour as the Man in Red himself.

As the film opens, the supremely rich, powerful, and dysfunctional Lightstone family has gathered at the massive compound belonging to matriarch Gertrude ( Beverly D'Angelo ) to celebrate, to use the term promiscuously, the holidays. While her loathsome daughter Alva ( Edi Patterson ), her equally hateful son Bertrude ( Alexander Elliot )—not a typo—and her idiot actor boyfriend ( Cam Gigandet ) blatantly curry her favor and her son Jason ( Alex Hassell ) and his estranged wife Linda ( Alexis Louder ) are trying to work through their problems, only Jason's adorable moppet daughter Trudy ( Leah Brady ) still seems willing to embrace the holiday spirit. But, before long, the familial backstabbing is replaced by gunfire when a group of violent thieves led by a guy nicknamed Scrooge ( John Leguizamo ) arrive to steal $300 million they believe has been nefariously acquired by Gertrude and socked away in a theoretically impenetrable safe.

While all of this is going on, Santa—depicted here as filled with equal parts booze and self-loathing and contemplating packing in his holiday duties for good after one final run—happens to be in the house and winds up getting trapped inside when his reindeer take off during the initial mayhem. Although his first instinct is to flee, he realizes that Trudy is one of the stars of his nice list. He decides to pull himself together and rescue her, utilizing the skills for dispensing savage violence that he cultivated in his pre-Santa days, leading to several scenes in which he gruesomely dispatches the various bad guys using everything from a sledgehammer to a snow blower to a Christmas star tree topper jabbed into someone's eyeball. For her part, Trudy uses her skills of building booby traps that she developed from watching " Home Alone " to fend off the attackers in equally gruesome ways.

"Violent Night" is primarily comprised of bits and pieces borrowed from other holiday films of recent vintage. Most obviously, it intends to be some kind of hybrid of the aforementioned "Die Hard" and "Home Alone." The drunken, foul-mouthed, and cynical version of Santa depicted here, who we see projectile vomiting on a hapless victim while flying off in his sleigh during the pre-credit opening sequence, will no doubt inspire memories of Billy Bob Thornton in " Bad Santa ." The dysfunctional family gathering interrupted by criminals is straight out of " The Ref ." The presence of D'Angelo serves as a living reminder of " National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation ," though her part is a 180-degree turn from the warm and loving mother she played there. Hell, even the conceit of Santa fighting off bad guys in bloody fashion was done a couple of years ago in the weirdo project " Fatman ," in which Mel Gibson's version of Santa fights off an assassin hired by a monstrously entitled brat who objected to receiving a lump of coal. 

The problem with "Violent Night" is not its unoriginal premise but how little is done with it. Santa violently dispatching bad guys is a one-joke premise that could have been developed into something interesting, perhaps using gruesome physical violence as a way of commenting on the emotional brutality that holiday classics like " A Christmas Carol " and " It's a Wonderful Life " traffic in. Instead, Wirkola is content to stick with the same joke of Santa killing bad guys in grotesque ways (and this is an undeniably hard-R film) that quickly grow tiresome. Even that might have worked on some fundamental level as a gory black comedy, but then the film ineptly tries for sentiment towards the end by asking us to care about the fates of the most hateful family members. "Violent Night" also seems weirdly reticent to fully exploit the notion that it's Santa Claus doling out the violence—there's only one point where he fully utilizes his unique powers against one of the attackers and, perhaps inevitably, it's the only kill that sticks in the mind afterward.

The one saving grace of "Violent Night" is Harbour's performance. Like the rest of the film, his character is basically a joke, but one he commits to impressively throughout, whether knocking off the new additions to his naughty list or communicating with Trudy over walkie-talkies. Granted, he may not replace Edmund Gwenn as the ideal movie Santa anytime soon, but his work here is the one sweet plum in the middle of an otherwise rancid cinematic pudding.

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A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around  bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

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Film credits.

Violent Night (2022)

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references.

112 minutes

David Harbour as Santa Claus

Beverly D'Angelo as Gertrude Lightstone

John Leguizamo as Scrooge

Cam Gigandet as Morgan Lightstone

Edi Patterson as Alva Lightstone

Brendan Fletcher as Krampus

Alex Hassell as Jason Lightstone

Mike Dopud as Commander Thorp

Alexis Louder as Linda

• Tommy Wirkola
• Josh Miller
• Patrick Casey

Cinematographer

• Matthew Weston
• Dominic Lewis

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Violent night.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 25 Reviews
• Kids Say 31 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Gore, language in over-the-top but appealing Santa movie.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Violent Night is an over-the-top Christmas-themed action comedy about Santa Claus (David Harbour) trying to help a family being held hostage. It has tons of blood, gore, and strong language, but it's also irreverent and engaging. Violence is extreme, with fighting, guns and shooting,…

Why Age 16+?

Over-the-top violence, with guns and shooting, fighting, punching, kicking, stab

Strong, frequent language includes "f--k," "motherf----r," "c--ksucker," "s--t,"

Santa drinks and appears extremely drunk in a bar. He steals beer and other drin

Kissing. Strong sex-related dialogue.

Boxes with the Amazon logo are featured in one funny shot.

Any Positive Content?

This Santa Claus is hardly traditional. He's troubled by excessive greed in the

Santa Claus is a White male, but the rest of the cast is more diverse. A White m

Messages about believing in yourself and in the true spirit of Christmas (joy an

Violence & Scariness

Over-the-top violence, with guns and shooting, fighting, punching, kicking, stabbing, slicing, and knife-throwing. Fighting with a sledgehammer and other hand-held weapons and blunt objects. Characters are killed. Blood spurts, gurgling blood. A body is demolished, turned into a headless, bloody mess. Heads are bashed and limbs broken. Character stabbed in eye with Christmas decoration, then electrocuted; skull on fire. Characters thrown around, slammed against walls, other hard objects. Falling from window, character impaled. Character blown up by grenade. Woman, child punched in face. Women threatened by gun. Character's finger snapped in nutcracker figurine. Characters impaled by sharp objects. Characters bashed with heavy objects. Character stitching up bloody wound. Snowmobile crash. Blood-smeared weapon, dripping blood. Violent dialogue.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong, frequent language includes "f--k," "motherf----r," "c--ksucker," "s--t," "bulls--t," "t-ts," "a--hole," "bitch," "goddamn," "bastard," "ass," "whore," "d--k," "balls," "hell," "damn," "crap," "butthole," "anus," "idiot," "shut the f--k up." "Jesus Christ" as an exclamation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Santa drinks and appears extremely drunk in a bar. He steals beer and other drinks. He "shotguns" a beer. He belches and vomits. Other characters drink pints of beer in a bar. Wealthy characters at Christmas party drink martinis and wine. A woman pours half a bottle of alcohol into a glass in one scene. There are no consequences for drinking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Positive role models.

This Santa Claus is hardly traditional. He's troubled by excessive greed in the world, he drinks a lot, he's burned out and thinking of quitting. But he's still moved by people who aren't selfish and who believe in the spirit of giving, and it motivates him to continue on and continue spreading joy. Young Trudy is a delightful character, all positivity and sweetness, which is especially admirable given that she was raised wealthy and could have turned out selfish and greedy.

Diverse Representations

Santa Claus is a White male, but the rest of the cast is more diverse. A White man is married to a Black woman; their biracial daughter is the heart of the movie. The band of villains is led by a character played by Puerto Rican-Colombian actor John Leguizamo and also includes Filipino Canadian actor Stephanie Sy. Additional actors of color appear in smaller roles.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Positive Messages

Messages about believing in yourself and in the true spirit of Christmas (joy and giving), as well as some secondary messages cautioning against greed and selfishness -- but all of these are muted by the movie's embrace of extreme violence.

Parents need to know that Violent Night is an over-the-top Christmas-themed action comedy about Santa Claus ( David Harbour ) trying to help a family being held hostage. It has tons of blood, gore, and strong language, but it's also irreverent and engaging. Violence is extreme, with fighting, guns and shooting, hitting with hand-held weapons and blunt objects, stabbing, slicing, gore, blood spurts, bloody wounds, gurgling blood, heads bashed, limbs broken, eyes gouged, characters electrocuted, explosions, threats, and much more. Swearing includes uses of "f--k," "s--t," "c--ksucker," "bitch," "a--hole," "goddamn," etc. There's also some strong sex-related dialogue and kissing. Santa drinks a lot (and gets drunk), and secondary characters drink socially and during tense situations. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (25)
• Kids say (31)

Based on 25 parent reviews

very fun love it

What's the story.

In VIOLENT NIGHT, it's Christmas Eve, and Santa Claus ( David Harbour ) is feeling burned out by a world with too much greed and too little Christmas spirit. Meanwhile, Jason Lightstone (Alex Hassell) is heading to an annual holiday family gathering with his estranged wife, Linda ( Alexis Louder ), and their daughter, Trudy (Leah Brady). They'll be spending the holiday with Jason's insanely wealthy mother, Gertrude Lightstone ( Beverly D'Angelo ), his nasty sister ( Edi Patterson ), and her family. Just as Santa arrives there to deliver gifts -- and takes a break to sample some fine liquor along with his cookies -- the criminal mastermind called "Mr. Scrooge" ( John Leguizamo ) breaks in with his gang of minions, intending to steal $300 million from Gertrude's vault. But the money appears to be missing, and the Lightstones are taken hostage. However, because Trudy is a true believer, Santa musters up some long-buried strength and courage to fight those on the "Naughty" list and hopefully save the day.

Is It Any Good?

Full of blood, gore, and strong language, this is no kids' movie, but Harbour's lovable performance and a gleeful irreverence around the familiar action scenes make this a fun holiday gift. Violent Night takes cues from many other Christmas movies, from Bad Santa , Elf , and Home Alone , to Fatman and even Die Hard itself. But nothing feels copied, and nothing feels like homage. Violent Night somehow gets away with an attitude of "let's have lots of fun, and who cares what gets wrecked in the process!" Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola is known for this kind of movie, including the wild Nazi zombie movie Dead Snow (2009) and the zany Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters .

In these movies, Wirkola proves that he knows his horror movie history, that he loves horror movies that are aware they're horror movies, and that he's not afraid to climb on top of this rickety stack, reinventing every basic moment every step of the way. It's an approach that might have been exhausting, watching one brutal killing after another as they get bloodier and bloodier, if not for Harbour. He brings exactly the right tone to his Santa Claus and keeps things centered. He's weary and cynical, never too excited, and yet still full of love and hope. We can watch him take out a trained army with nothing more than a sledgehammer and still want to give him a big bear hug when it's done. (Never mind that the white trim on his red coat has turned pink from the blood spatter.)

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Violent Night 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

How is drinking depicted? Do characters overindulge? Is this glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?

What does the movie have to say about commercialism and greed? Are these things rewarded, or are they shown to be bad? How?

Do you find it entertaining to watch irreverent Christmas movies? Why, or why not? Does this movie still manage to celebrate the spirit of giving and spreading joy?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 2, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : January 24, 2023
• Cast : David Harbour , John Leguizamo , Beverly D'Angelo
• Director : Tommy Wirkola
• Inclusion Information : Latino actors, Female actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Holidays
• Run time : 101 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references
• Last updated : May 31, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

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Violent Night Reviews

Closing the film with Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody” was the perfect ending to a near-perfect film, and it’s definitely a must-see this holiday season.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 3, 2024

Did we need a shallow dive into a deeper, new lore about Santa? No. Do we need the inevitable sequel with Valkyrie Mrs. Claus? Probably not...

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 3, 2024

What elevates “Violent Night” from a mindless, holiday-themed action film was its ability to balance the violence and the heartwarming emotions.

Full Review | Jun 8, 2024

A mean-spirited film with nothing to redeem.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2023

It’s brimming with both warmth and cynicism, cementing a Santa perfectly attuned to the times and emblematic of the joy and anguish that pervades this time of year... a new Christmas classic.

Full Review | Aug 6, 2023

Violent Night is one of the biggest surprises of the year, instantly becoming a contemporary Christmas classic! David Harbour expertly embodies a shockingly brutal, savage version of Santa Claus that somehow still delivers lovely messages.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 25, 2023

Violent Night is an instant CHRISTMAS CLASSIC. A bloody, gnarly, & goofy time that brings the laughs, the action, & Especially the Christmas magic! David Harbour is the definitive most realistic Santa Claus you could put into a movie

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

No sane person will consider Violent Night a perennial classic, but Harbour inspires enough ho-ho-hos and cheeky holiday mayhem to warrant a watch.

Full Review | May 26, 2023

If there’s one thing about Harbour that has always sung, it’s the charisma he can generate with just about material and any actor on screen. He’s also a very big man, standing tall and making a dad bod seem more desirable than Zac Efron ever could.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 8, 2023

If I want a bad Santa, I’ll watch Bad Santa. That’s not to say there isn’t some measure of worthy seasonal jeer in Violent Night.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 5, 2023

It’s not a holiday classic like Die Hard, but it is a decent temporary remedy for the mandatory holiday cheer.

Full Review | Jan 27, 2023

"Violent Night" is as-advertised. It’s more vicious than one might expect from this action comedy, but it starts at a high-level of foulness when Santa upchucks on someone and just continues on from there.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 26, 2023

Fun take on Santa Claus but we have to hold Harbour up to Billy Bob standards.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 16, 2023

Excessively violent, laced with a thick vein of jet-black humor, bolstered by a formidable turn from Harbour, and packed to the rafters with hard-hitting scraps, Violent Night knows exactly what it wants to be, but doesn’t really try to be anything else.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 11, 2023

David Harbour owns the screen as the at-first grumpy but still very caring and ultimately badass Mr. Claus.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 6, 2023

“Die Hard,” and Michael Dougherty’s “Krampus,” meets “Bad Santa,” with full shot of Christmas adrenaline.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2023

An excellent Harbour leads the cast, and a terrific Legui-zamo makes for a perfect antagonist.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 28, 2022

It’s heartwarming violence, a very merry massacre, and holly jolly hammer time but it also put me in the Christmas spirit.

Full Review | Dec 28, 2022

Many movies have attempted to replicate the festive insouciant brutality of <i>Die Hard</i>. No movie has come closer to this lofty goal than this dementedly delicious nightmare before Christmas.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 24, 2022

Bad Santa as John McClane may believe it is being a kind of subversive anti-Christmas movie alternative but its best moments involve not violence but our hero rediscovering the joy that the season once provided as its own relief from the world's evils.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 22, 2022

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David Harbour’s kick-ass Santa movie Violent Night ain’t replacing Die Hard anytime soon

Sonic the Hedgehog’s writers return with a killer idea and a disappointing execution

by Katie Rife

The pitch for the killer-Santa action-comedy Violent Night was probably incredible. The latest addition to the “dark, transgressive Christmas movie” canon combines the subgenre’s greatest hits: It’s basically Die Hard meets Home Alone , combined with some of the eat-the-rich satire that’s dominating cinema at the moment with movies like Triangle of Sadness , The Menu , and Glass Onion . And then, of course, there’s the inviting angle of Stranger Things star David Harbour as a drunken Santa Claus. Throw in Viking flashbacks, exploding torsos, Beverly D’Angelo, a Bryan Adams needle-drop, and a script by the writing team behind 2020’s airy Sonic the Hedgehog , and you have what, on paper, probably seemed like the greatest R-rated Christmas movie of all time. But it’s this exact emphasis on cleverness over coherence that makes Violent Night so lukewarm.

Some of Violent Night ’s sequences do fulfill the premise’s promise. An opening sequence sets the stage for a film that’s very different from the one we actually end up with: Santa Claus (Harbour) — not a delusional pretender, but the man-myth himself — sits at a bar drinking himself horizontal. The magic is gone, he moans to the bartender. Kids these days are just as greedy and cynical as their parents. All they do is “want, crave, consume.” He chugs his beer and exits out a side door. The bartender follows him, yelling that the door goes to the roof, and patrons shouldn’t be up there. Once she reaches the top, she sees Santa taking off in his sleigh, and for a moment, her eyes widen. She believes in magic again — until she gets soaked in Santa puke.

This is the one moment where Violent Night ’s cynical and starry-eyed threads successfully merge. For most of the movie, both are deployed in lazy ways. Whenever the writers and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters director Tommy Wirkola need to get out from whatever narrative corner they’ve painted themselves into, they lather on the earnest evocations of the magic of Christmas. Between those moments, withering sarcasm establishes an unearned sense of superiority. Much of the film’s affected edginess is directed at the Lightstones, the clan of über-wealthy assholes (and one relatively normal guy, because an audience always needs a surrogate) who gather for a dysfunctional Christmas celebration shortly after the film’s boozy cold open.

Matriarch Gertrude Lightstone (D’Angelo) is some kind of billionaire power broker — the exact nature of her work and wealth remains vague, but it’s clear that she isn’t someone to be fucked with. Gertrude’s acidic parenting style has warped her kids, particularly her daughter Alva (Edi Patterson, reprising her character from The Righteous Gemstones , right down to the similar last name). Alva is desperate for validation her mom can never provide, and her wannabe-action-star boyfriend Morgan Steel (Cam Gigandet) and influencer son Bert (Alexander Elliot) are extensions of her own needy ego. By comparison, Lightstone son Jason (Alex Hassell) and his young daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) are remarkably well adjusted, but that may come down to the influence of Trudy’s mom, Linda (Alexis Louder).

On Christmas Eve, the Lightstone family is taken hostage by a gang of career criminals led by the Hans Gruber of the piece, a vicious, sharp-tongued baddie codenamed Scrooge (John Leguizamo). The crooks’ stated goal is to steal $300 million in cash from the Lightstone family vault. And if a few rich jerks die in the process? Oh well. The film doesn’t do a very good job arguing for why the audience should care whether the protagonists survive the night — it’s a mean-spirited film all around, so evoking basic human dignity is a bit of a cheat. But regardless of whether they deserve to be saved, Violent Night gives the Lightstones their own John McClane: Santa Claus, who’s also trapped in the Lightstone mansion after drunkenly falling asleep in a massage chair mid-cookie binge.

But Santa Claus isn’t much of a character to build a movie around, or at least Harbour’s version of him isn’t. Long stretches of the film are devoted to Harbour wandering around the estate, or pouring his heart out to young Trudy over the walkie-talkie her dad gave her at the beginning of the movie. (How Santa got the other radio is one of those “Uhhhh, magic ?” moments, or maybe an editing issue.) The more time the movie spends with Santa, the less his motivations make sense. And the audience has a lot of time to think about these things — Violent Night slows to a crawl midway through, getting too talky and earnest for the script to bear.

The only time Harbour really clicks in the role is when he turns Santa into a yuletide WWE character, sneaking up behind bad guys with a wicked grin on his face, growling one-liners, and performing surgery on himself with a sewing kit. Midway through, a flashback to a Northman -style sequence reveals that Santa used to be a Viking warrior named Nicomond the Red, whose propensity for skull-smashing violence is conveniently triggered by the frightening circumstances of this particular Christmas Eve. It’s an amusing idea, so it’s really too bad that the actual action in Violent Night is so weak. It’s partially a choreography problem and partially a sound-effects problem, but either way, the result is like listening to music on a stereo with one broken speaker. By comparison, the horror splatter effects are juicy and satisfying, another inconsistency in this unfocused film.

Violent Night works best when it captures the warped sensibilities of early-’90s Chris Columbus movies, particularly Home Alone . It’s been pointed out so often that it barely needs to be said that the events of that film are actually horrifically traumatizing and violent, and that Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister is a pint-size sociopath. Little Trudy Lightstone has a sadistic streak in her, too, and the film’s most demented scenes are played with an outsized sense of cheer that effectively creates a sense of giggly discomfort. The difference here is that those moments are being engineered on purpose. The film has fun lobbing snarky one-liners and outrageous bloodshed at the audience, but on the whole, Violent Night ’s big red bag of self-aware tricks is overstuffed.

Violent Night opens in theaters on Dec. 2.

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Violent night (2022) - movie review.

Death by candy cane?!  A Santa who gives lumps and bruises while battling for the safety of a child who still believes in him?  Sign me up!  Violent Night is an unexpected treasure this holiday season offering just the right amount of good feelings to help you out when your Christmas Spirit tank goes empty.

Directed by Tommy Wirkola and full of as much comedy as it is crazy action, a bit of the ultra violence, and damn good beer, Violent Night is one hell of a yuletide offering for this Christmas season and - best of all - it is streaming so you don’t even have to leave your house and be annoyed by all the people on their damn phones!

The madness begins in a bar where Santa ( David Harbour in yet another solid performance) drowns his tears.  He’s tired of being Santa.  Of course, the people at the bar believe he is only playing one at a mall or something, but NO .  Harbour plays the real SC and this Saint Nick is fed up with kids these days and their ever growing lists of wants.  When he decides that it is time to get back behind the sleigh and cruise drunkenly across the night skies, the laughter begins and it doesn’t let up until the very end of the exploits.

You see, according to writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller , Santa Claus is burnt out and rather tired of the chore of delivering gifts to kids who only want and want and want, offering nothing in return.  He is also a retired Viking warrior who settled down when he took up the hat, coat, and magic sack of toys.  It will take one little girl to reignite the passion for his seasonal job.  Well, one child and a whole lot of rather outrageous kills as he delivers gifts to her family’s compound and stumbles upon a hijacking situation in which he must take up arms and wipe these assholes off his naughty list for good.

The answer is a resounding HELL YES as he comes face to face with the dysfunctional Lightstone family - Gertrude ( Beverly D'Angelo ), Alva ( Edi Patterson ), Bertrude ( Alexander Elliot ), her boyfriend ( Cam Gigandet ), Gertrude’s son Jason ( Alex Hassell ), his estranged wife Linda ( Alexis Louder ), and their daughter Trudy ( Leah Brady ) - and the hijackers who want their money, led by Scrooge ( John Leguizamo ).

Trudy is the reason for the season in this action comedy and - as she has just seen Home Alone - cranks up the violence in her own way with movie-inspired boobytraps while she and Santa find themselves the only ones who can stop the thieves from getting their hands on the $300 million.

So, yes, if D ie Hard is a Christmas movie - which it is - then Violent Night will be right up your alley.  It is violent, outrageous, and so much fun that the sound of your own laughter will be the only thing drowning out the blast of the bullets ripping through the Christmas trees in this Christmas flick.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Pop the tab on an adult beverage and settle in for one hell of a violent romp thanks to the antics of this holiday hootenanny.  Violent Night is now in theaters and on streaming platforms.  Time to get naughty!

MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references. Runtime: 112 mins Director : Tommy Wirkola Writer: Pat Casey; Josh Miller Cast: David Harbour; John Leguizamo; Beverly D'Angelo Genre : Comedy | Horror Tagline: You Better Watch Out. Memorable Movie Quote: "Santa's gonna eat through these guys like a plate of cookies!" Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures Official Site: https://www.violentnightmovie.com/ Release Date:  December 2, 2022 DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: Synopsis : When a group of mercenaries attack the estate of a wealthy family, Santa Claus must step in to save the day (and Christmas).

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‘violent night’ review: david harbour plays a sledgehammer-wielding santa in an amusingly twisted christmas-com.

The 'Stranger Things' star plays Santa Claus, who's forced to come to the rescue when armed mercenaries invade a rich family's home on Christmas Eve, in the latest from director Tommy Wirkola.

By Angie Han

Television Critic

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Have you ever torn open the wrapping on a promising Christmas gift, only to find once you’ve taken it out and assembled its pieces that it’s not really what you’d hoped for at all? That it’s shoddily made, or not quite what it claimed to be, or simply less fun than you’d expected?

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Pat Casey and Josh Miller’s script announces its gleefully tasteless brand of humor right away. The first time we meet this version of Santa, he’s slumped over a bar in Bristol, blearily complaining about his job and decrying how materialistic kids have become these days. Still, once he finally gets off the barstool and up onto the roof, the sight of him soaring away with his reindeer makes for a magical moment for the bartender who happens to witness the whole thing … until he barfs over the slide of his sleigh, and all over her face. This is the kind of Christmas story we’re in for, and this is Violent Night letting you know you can take it or leave it.

From there, Santa goes about his rounds with something less than the bare minimum effort, stewing with resentment even as he stuffs his face with the cookies left for him by all the world’s good kids. But the night takes an unexpected turn with his stop by the Lightstone compound, home to a ruthless businesswoman (Beverly D’Angelo) whose adult children are prone to Succession -esque squabbles for her favor. (Or perhaps that should be The Righteous Gemstones -esque, given the daughter is a Judy Gemstone type played by Judy Gemstone herself, Edi Patterson; Alex Hassell plays the son.)

And so Santa, unable to turn away from Trudy’s whispered pleas for help, finds himself battling his way solo through a building crawling with baddies. Meanwhile, Trudy, who’s managed to sneak away to the attic, sets about improvising traps to protect herself. In other words, Violent Night becomes a riff on both Die Hard and Home Alone , but taken to their hard-R logical extremes under Wirkola’s over-the-top gory direction. Santa doesn’t dispatch his enemies swiftly or cleanly but smashes their faces with ornaments and chops off their heads with ice skates, in brutal fistfights choreographed by Jonathan “Jojo” Eusebio ( John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum ); Trudy takes Kevin McAllister’s already painful-looking booby traps and turns them into full-on blood-soaked affairs.

Yet so powerful is this mysterious Yuletide spirit that its spell ultimately reaches Violent Night itself. Santa may be a bitterly self-loathing man who never looks more alive than when he’s stabbing a dude’s eye with a candy cane, but Harbour also brings a touching sincerity to his interactions with Trudy. And in between the graphic violence and twisted jokes, the film actually manages to serve up all the hallmarks of a classic Christmas movie: the reminder that the day is about more than material gifts, the redemptive power of a child’s belief in Santa, the importance of family togetherness in a greedy and selfish world.

The difference is that in this movie, when a little girl’s face lights up to see one of Santa’s signature accoutrements, its not his sack of toys or his reindeer she’s delighted by, but a sledgehammer he’s affectionately named Skullcrusher. And that the line “Santa Claus is coming to town” is uttered not as a cry of celebration, but in a growl as a hilarious threat.

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Violent Night Review

02 Dec 2022

Violent Night

Here comes Santa Claus. He’s got a sleigh full of presents, a big red coat, and a war hammer covered in the blood of his victims. Ho ho ho! A combination of candy-cane sweet festivities and lashings of fatalities,  Violent Night  follows in the tracks of  Bullet Train , as the latest stunt-spectacular from David Leitch ’s 87North Productions, with Tommy Wirkola ( Dead Snow ,  Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters ) guiding the sleigh this time.

Stepping into the boots and beard, as a Nordic warrior turned immortal gift giver, is a charmingly grizzly David Harbour . His Claus has beer on his breath, vomit in his bristles and a hatred for cash presents, Amazon deliveries and apostatising children. This Santa is cynical, but when one of his drop-offs lands him in the middle of a home invasion at a wealthy matriarch’s estate, it might just bring him back to his jolly old self.

There’s a thrill in watching Harbour’s Santa tear through the invaders.

Held hostage, the volatile Lightstone family are sitting on a vault full of cash: cash that a scenery-chewing, indigestibly-trite John Leguizamo villain wants to get his hands on. When granddaughter Trudy (a charming Leah Brady) escapes their clutches, she partners with Santa to stop the baddies and perhaps spark some Christmas joy that could unite her family.

There’s a thrill in watching Harbour’s Santa tear through the invaders, utilising pool balls, darts and a star ornament to illuminatingly gruesome effect, so it’s frustrating when the story pivots to the Hallmark family reunion, which unnecessarily bulks things out. Harbour is excellent, authentically wheezing around like a man who’s had centuries of global celebration on his shoulders. He’s a gift compared to the villains: an annoying, quippy bunch who desperately want to be Hans Gruber, and think escalating edgy expletives will make up for their coal-lump charisma. It’s a pleasure to see them despatched, but for every abominable use of an ice skate blade, there’s some dull family drama to sludge through and the joyfully macabre fun melts away into unfortunate mundanity.

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Movies | 05 10 2022

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• DVD & Streaming

Violent Night

• Action/Adventure , Comedy , Thriller

Content Caution

In Theaters

• December 2, 2022
• David Harbour as Santa Claus; John Leguizamo as Scrooge; Beverly D'Angelo as Gertrude Lightstone; Alex Hassell as Jason Lightstone; Alexis Louder as Linda; Leah Brady as Trudy Lightstone; Edi Patterson as Alva Lightstone

Home Release Date

• January 20, 2023
• Tommy Wirkola

Distributor

• Universal Studios

Movie Review

If and when we think of Santa, we generally picture him as a cheery fellow with the joy of giving and love glowing in his heart.

But what if Santa is a bit more like us than we think? What if the decline of our tattered world weighs on him, too? The failing families, widespread anger and wounded innocents. And what if he’s fully aware of the lessening morals, growing greed and self-centeredness of kids around the globe?

With that sort of worrying stuff in his metaphorical gift sack, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine Santa getting a bit down. Or … a lot. And that’s exactly where old Saint Nick is when we first meet him, taking a break from his Christmas Eve duties in a local bar with a beer (or many) in hand.

“Maybe this is my last year. My last Christmas,” the sighing fellow murmurs with a slightly drunken slur. And then he adjusts his red-furred cap, staggers back to the establishment’s rooftop and spurs his reindeer into flight.

For there are still at least a few innocents in the world who deserve a gift from the real Santa. There are a few children who still believe and long for his arrival.

One such innocent is young Trudy Lightstone. She’s spending Christmas with her mom and dad at her grandma’s big and well-appointed house. But unlike some kids with wealthy family connections, Tru isn’t thinking about getting expensive Christmas gifts.

In fact, the girl’s only Christmas wish is that Santa might help bring her separated parents back together again. They might be being nice for the holiday just for Tru’s sake, but she wishes it were for better reasons. She longs to be a family again like they used to be, and she has every faith that Santa, of all people, has the power to make that happen. That would make this Christmas magically wonderful.

Of course, what Tru and Santa aren’t aware of is the fact that, along with them, there are some very bad people rushing toward Grandma’s house this year. They’re ex-military men and women, all set to kill, pillage and destroy anything or anyone necessary to steal a great sum of money that’s sealed away in the estate’s vaults.

That surprise will lead to more of them. And for some, the biggest surprise will be that Santa actually exists. Another big shock will be that Santa, while protecting one of the few remaining believers in Christmas, can get very, very angry.

That’s something that some people definitely won’t want to see. Especially if they’re on Kris Kringle’s Naughty list.

Positive Elements

For all of the negative attitudes and choices on display here, young Trudy remains loving and true to her belief in Santa and the people in her family. She even runs to readily embrace her grandmother, Gertrude, who is a foul-mouthed and generally hateful person … except when it comes to her loving granddaughter.

At first, when the shooting begins, Santa doesn’t want to get involved with the heated activities. But once he recognizes Tru’s involvement and realizes her goodness and innocence—which he dutifully looks up on a magical “Naughty and Nice” list—he determines that he must fight for her safety.

At one point, though, a badly battered Santa believes that he has lost against the overwhelming weaponry of the bad guys. And Tru reminds him of his own goodness and encourages him to stick by the things (including his feelings for Mrs. Claus) that he values and loves most.

Despite this pic’s bloody carnage, it does slow down long enough to lightly contemplate the good things in life: including family, loved ones and the spirit of giving at Christmas.

Spiritual Elements

The “magic of Christmas” is referenced several times. And though Santa himself states that he doesn’t fully understand it, we see that magical force at play several times.

Santa dematerializes and whisks up a number of chimney flues, for instance. His reindeer-drawn sled flies. And his Santa sack has the ability to store a seemingly endless number of gifts that he can magically pull out just by reaching in.

There are also some flashback moments that harken back to Santa’s human life some thousands of years before he was somehow transformed into a man who lives forever.

Ultimately, the mystical power on display even raises the dead back to life.

Sexual Content

Trudy’s mom and dad, Linda and Jason, kiss.

Violent Content

This movie is rightly named. Oh, the violence.

Violent Night revels in how much mounting violence and death-dealing it can portray in gruesome ways. People are riddled with bullets to begin with, leaving pools of blood on the floor and blood spatter on the walls.

From there, we witness numerous fights where combatants batter each other with fists and heavy objects; stab one another with knives, sharpened candy canes and, well, anything with a point; and have their necks and body parts slashed or impaled on the likes of everything from ice axes and sharp Christmas ornaments to ice skates. (One guy has a tree topper star jammed into his eye, for instance, and then his head bursts into flame when the ornament is turned on.)

Jason’s finger is painfully broken in the jaws of a small Nutcracker, and his genitals are about to be treated similarly (he’s stripped to his boxer shorts) before his tormentors are interrupted. The elderly Gertrude and a teen boy are both manhandled and punch in the face. Santa, who is pummeled painfully and consistently, stiches up a bloody gash in his side with an ornament hook and thread.

Someone’s head is cut off, men are dragged into a whirling woodchipper, a guy has a grenade jammed into his backside—all with the expected gory results. Another casualty is magically ripped in two, and we see the gruesome outcome. There are multiple explosions from gas engines, ruptured fire extinguisher tanks and high caliber weaponry.

Some of the more torturous-looking moments here are also the most low-tech. Tru, for instance, sets some Home Alone like traps for baddies after having seen that movie. In this case, the results of the fallen-on nails and hair-ripping glue is far more bloody and visceral that the original film. Bouncing bowling balls crush tender body parts and drive nails into people in deadly ways.

And, of course, throughout all of the flesh-rending mayhem described above (and quite a bit more), blood flows freely, dripping from people, weapons and scenery. Santa’s skull-crushing sledgehammer, for instance, is a goopy mess-maker.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear about 50 f-words and more than 25 s-words, along with multiple uses of the words “d–n,” “a–,” “h—” and “b–ch.”

There are also a half-dozen or so crude references made to male and female genitals. And God’s and Jesus’ names are both misused a total of six times (God being combined with “d–n” on three of those instances.)

Drug and Alcohol Content

Early on, Santa drinks quite heavily. We see him quaffing beer in a local pub, drinking cans of beer in his sleigh and downing brandy with some Christmas cookies. Jason and his adult family members—including Gertrude, Linda and his sister, Alva—all drink quite a bit too, imbibing wine, vodka and other cocktails.

Other Negative Elements

Someone vomits on another person’s upturned face. A couple different people urinate in public (without genital exposure.) Several different people steal—in one case it’s a very large amount of money taken from the U.S. government.

At one point, Santa suggests that many kids have become “selfish little junkies,” always wanting and consuming things. And Jason’s wealthy family members are quickly ready to sacrifice others when a threatening situation arises.

For years, people have debated whether or not Die Hard is actually a Christmas movie. Well, here we have a Die Hard -like pic on jingle bell steroids … with a bloodletting Santa and his gory sledgehammer.

Of course, this film is all about giving adults something oh-so-un-Christmassy to chortle and snort over during the holiday season. And it does it’s mulched-skull, bullet-riddled, blood-spattered-Nutcracker job with all the gusto it can muster.

Does it have some ho-ho-ho chuckles in its collective run? Yes, along with some amped-up tips of the bloody Santa hat to other seasonal hits such as Home Alone . Does it wax nostalgic and maybe even sweet? Yup. Actor David Harbour’s Santa is a multilayered angry sleigh-pilot, and there are a few kids-and-the-magical-spirit-of-Christmas sighs in the story mix, too.

But trust me, there’s not even a wink at the true spirit and meaning of Christmas here. And the gory gush and intense profanity of this tale will sit like lumps of coal in your moviegoing stocking.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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‘Violent Night’ Review: A Bloody and Brutal Christmas Classic Is Born

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In Violent Night , Santa Claus checks his naughty list twice and beats bad guys to a pulp with a sledgehammer on Christmas Eve. If it weren't for David Harbour attached to the main role, it would be easy to mistake Violent Night for a B-movie condemned to oblivion after Christmastime. Instead, director Tommy Wirkola makes the most of the budget to gift us a new Holiday classic that echoes the cheer of Christmas while not holding back any punches regarding over-the-top violence.

Violent Night doesn't waste time making Harbour's Santa a layered character. After more than a millennium of working to spread joy to well-behaved children, Santa got sick of seeing people become greedy and spoiled, demanding more every year and turning Christmas into a purely commercial holiday. It's no wonder that Violent Night ’s Santa is a cursing alcoholic who takes breaks from delivering presents to visit pubs. However, after being unintentionally caught in the middle of a robbery with hostages, Santa decides to use his Christmas magic to help young Trudy ( Leah Brady ), a genuinely good child that still believes that Christmas should be all about spreading love. And so Violent Night quickly turns into an action flick that holds its Die Hard inspiration close to the chest, with Santa hunting down the criminals one by one and getting rid of them with extreme prejudice.

Violent Night stands by its title by giving Harbour creative ways to dispose of criminals. There are dozens of deaths in the movie, many of them using Christmas-themed objects as weapons. And the result is so gruesome that anyone who watches the movie will think twice about what they use as decoration this holiday. It also helps to keep things fresh that Santa's magic powers are put to good use, giving him the tools he needs to fight heavily armed goons.

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The cherry on top of this blood cake is that the criminals use holiday-themed codenames, with the villainous Mr. Scrooge ( John Leguizamo ) leading the pack. And yes, Mr. Scrooge has a backstory that makes him hate Christmas. The result is a hilarious game of cat and mouse that always ends in glorious brutality. The wackiness of the entire concept is Violent Night 's greatest strength, and Wirkola knows how to explore the absurdity of each death. As a result, instead of cringing at the gore, the whole theater is constantly exploding in laughter.

It's not only Die Hard that Violent Night tries to mimic, as the movie directly connects to the Home Alone franchise. Without the restraints of a family-friendly rating, Violent Night can explore the realistic (and bloody) results of booby-trapping a home against robbers. Again, all this is masterfully executed for the audience's amusement, which results in a hilarious experience.

While Violent Night is a dark comedy at its core, it might be surprising to learn the movie also has a lot of heart. Santa gets a revamped origin story that explains how he can take down bad guys at ease, while also turning Violent Night into a sort of redemption tale. Then, there's the bond forged between Santa and Trudy, who helps the old man rediscover what Christmas is all about. Drawing from classics such as The Grinch and Miracle at the 34th Street , Violent Night does have something to say about the spirit of Christmas in the middle of all the bloodshed. And while this approach might work overall, it can also drag the movie's rhythm down while sounding shallow sometimes.

As Violent Night plainly states, Christmas values are endangered because commercial endeavors engulfed the holiday. However, Santa begins to fight criminals after a millionaire family becomes hostages in a robbery. And while the movie never refrains to paint rich people as self-absorbed pricks, at the end of the night, they are still victims who did nothing to change their ways and haven't learned anything about Christmas values. Although Mr. Scrooge has to fall down due to his greed and violence, half the hostages Santa saves deserve to be on his naughty list.

Besides that, it can sound cynical to place a sappy message about Christmas values in a movie that isn't aimed at children. In fact, given the vicious nature of Violent Night , this is not a movie to be enjoyed with the whole family. So, especially in the third act, we just want Santa to go back to fighting goons instead of hearing another time how Christmas is about love instead of gifts. But then again, what better time than Christmas to be cheesy?

Despite an uneven rhythm caused by its mix of ultraviolence and sentimental Christmas messages, Violent Night is still a solid holiday flick with the potential to spawn a new franchise. It’s easy to see Violent Night becoming part of our regular Christmas watch list as one last movie to watch after the children are put to bed to wait for Santa. That’s because the movie delves deep into Christmas mythology, and the holiday theme never feels out of place. At the same time, Violent Night delivers exceptional adult entertainment with one of the best Bad Santas created by Hollywood. While being far from perfect, Violent Night is just too fun not to revisit, which means it can become a new holiday classic in the years to come.

Violent Night comes to theaters on December 2.

Where to Watch Violent Night — Showtimes

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Violent night early reviews praise killer santa action movie.

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Violent Night early reviews name David Harbour's surprisingly lethal Santa Claus as the highlight of the David Leitch-produced action-comedy movie. The Stranger Things star portrays the iconic holiday figure in Tommy Wirkola's bloody Christmas movie. Violent Night sees a cynical Santa left to rely on his wit and skill when caught up in a Christmas Eve heist on the wealthy Lightstone family's home, forcing him to take brutal action against Mr. Scrooge's (John Leguizamo) band of mercenaries to save the lives of Trudy Lightstone (Leah Brady) and her family.

With Violent Night set to release in theaters on December 2, early reviews have been released, and critics are praising the darkly comedic film for its intense action sequences and a unique take on classic Christmas iconography. Reviews name Harbour's Santa Claus as a highlight of the film's cast, while praising the film's bloody and bizarre action and surprisingly heartfelt take on core seasonal values. Check out what critics felt about Harbour's holiday film in a selection of spoiler-free samples below:

Angie Han - THR

Tommy Wirkola’s Violent Night is, blessedly, not that gift. It’s one that delivers exactly what it promises on the box. It does not necessarily deliver much more than it promises on the box, but then it doesn’t need to. For those to whom the idea of a home-invasion comedy-thriller starring David Harbour as a sledgehammer-wielding Kris Kringle holds self-evident appeal, this one seems destined to become an alt-holiday classic.

Owen Gleiberman - Variety

David Harbour gives off of a ping of likability, and that makes him the right actor to play a down-in-the-dumps, vengeance-is-mine Santa who is really, beneath his bloody mottled gray curls, the Christmas mensch we want him to be. John Leguizamo, as always, refuses to phone anything in; as Scrooge the sociopath who hates Christmas, he makes every obscenity pop. Beverly D’Angelo, Edi Patterson, and Cam Gigandet play the rest of the Lightstone clan as walking high-camp horrors, and Alexis Louder, as Jason’s estranged wife, lends a lone note of stubborn sanity to the proceedings. “Violent Night,” with its action-thriller soundtrack built around themes from classic Christmas songs, is a movie that makes you think: What’s next, “Massacre on 34th St.”? Christmas movies, like all Hollywood pulp, build on one another, and maybe this is just one more age-of-nothing-sacred holiday mish-mash, but “Violent Night,” depending on how it performs, could open the door to a new kind of down-and-dirty Christmas/action hybrid. Just imagine hearing lines like “God bless us — every one, motherfucker!” The possibilities are endless.

Matt Donato - IGN

In Violent Night, nothing is calm and fiery explosions are bright. Director Tommy Wirkola protects sentimental holiday cheer within a David Harbour showcase that gets nuttier than peanut brittle. Wirkola doesn't hold back as Home Alone becomes a graphic traps-that-kill homage or Santa pulverizes bone under heavy steel, embracing the B-Movie extremes that more than earn its hard "R" rating. Violent Night might take a hot minute to find its footing and keeps plucking low-hanging wordplay sugar plums, but at full strength, nobody's stopping Santa from making this year the reddest Christmas imaginable.

Alonso Duralde - TheWrap

"So yes, this is “Die Hard” in a house, with Père Noël himself stepping in for John McClane, but it’s to the credit of director Tommy Wirkola (“What Happened to Monday”) that “Violent Night” finds its own brand of thrilling mayhem and holiday-themed wisecracks, enough so that it steps out of the overwhelming shadow of Bruce Willis. Screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller (the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies) keep the action moving forward, but never at the expense of the characters, particularly the via-walkie-talkie relationship between Santa and Trudy."

Ben F. Silverio - /Film

This movie is sure to make even the most curmudgeonly Grinch grow their heart at least three sizes after watching it, particularly if they enjoy nonstop action and excessive savagery that you can (or should) only get on the silver screen. Seriously, some of the stuff that happens to these home invaders is really messed up, but they are the bad guys, so they have it coming. Despite that, this joyful film still manages to capture the essence of Christmas and deserves to be added to the regular holiday movie rotation (for the older members of the family) alongside "Miracle on 34th Street," "Batman Returns," or "Die Hard." Like the chaos probably caused when Grandma got ran over by a reindeer, it's hard to turn away from the madness.

Tim Grierson - Screen Daily

Making room for both madcap gore and holiday-season sentiment, Violent Night stuffs plenty of Die Hard and Home Alone into its bag of goodies, delivering a cheeky, derivative action-comedy in which Santa Claus is a John Wick-like badass who must face off with a house full of crooks. It’s a clever idea guided by David Harbour’s appealing, tonally tricky performance as the real Kris Kringle, whose growing pessimism about the amount of good he’s doing in the world will be challenged during a harrowing Christmas Eve that would make even John McClane tremble. The picture is irreverent yet oddly touching, never especially great but often disreputable fun.

Mark Kennedy - AP News

Such is “Violent Night,” a film that clearly no one wanted but somehow nicely acts as a chaser to all the sticky sentimentality this time of year. It is billed as an “alt-Christmas action-comedy” and it may be a litmus test of who is your real tribe: If you think watching Santa try to strangle a guy with Christmas lights is funny, this is the film for you.

Kate Erbland - Indiewire

We’re scarcely five minutes into Tommy Wirkola’s naughty new Christmas tale “Violent Night” before David Harbour’s chubby, drunk, and righteously pissed off St. Nick is puking off his sleigh onto one very confused bartender and revealing himself to, yes indeed, be the jolly one himself. If you can vibe with that whiplash-inducing comedic opening — gallons of vomit mixed with some magical holiday sweetness — you just might be in the right frame of mind to receive what’s to come in this hyper-violent, occasionally funny, and often oddly charming holiday trifle.

Related: David Harbour's Santa Is Definitely On The Naughty List

What Violent Night's Reviews Tell Us About The Movie

Though much of Violent Night 's early marketing placed emphasis on Harbour's Santa Claus and the film's bloody violence, early reviews have highlighted aspects of the film the trailers only briefly alluded to. While Violent Night 's Saint Nick is a twisted take on the beloved holiday figure, Harbour's Santa is a character with depth that not only explains what turned him cynical (and gave him the necessary training to take on a team of armed mercenaries), but also gives him a sweeter side that remains faithful to the figure's core ideals. Through Trudy's belief in him and what he represents, Harbour's Santa isn't simply reduced to a gimmick, but is a shockingly fun yet recognizable take on a character many have grown up with.

Violent Night also stands as the third action film produced by filmmaker and stunt performer Leitch, following his work on 2014's John Wick , Bob Odenkirk's 2021 action thriller Nobody , and 2022's Bullet Train . Each film received praise for its brutal and creative action scenes, with John Wick sparking an ongoing franchise set to expand into television and spinoff movies through its mysterious setting. As such, many viewers may be hopeful that Violent Night 's actions may carry the same qualities that audiences have come to expect from films produced by Leitch.

Could Violent Night Ride John Wick & Nobody's Success?

While Violent Night may not spark a franchise like John Wick , its relentless action and surprising heart could see it become an unconventional holiday classic in the same vein as Die Hard , with audiences revisiting the film each year. Violent Night promises bloody seasons beatings , but it is clear from critics' responses that Wirkola's holiday heist movie is more than just a surface-level action flick. While 2022 has introduced audiences to many twisted takes on beloved classic children's figures in films, including Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and fellow seasonal slasher The Mean One , Violent Night reviews suggest it doesn't shy away from remaining faithful to the more wholesome side of the character. Between creatively cruel Christmas-themed executions and Harbour's portrayal of Saint Nick, Violent Night may shape up to be a surprise holiday hit upon its December 2 release.

More: Every Movie Coming To Theaters In December 2022

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• Violent Night

Violent Night Review: David Harbour Delivers Seasons Beatings

Even moviegoers tired of the “bad santa” genre will rejoice.

While they’re more limited in their windows of opportunity, holiday themed movies face similar challenges that you’d see posed to the sequel of a major franchise. Most takes on Santa Claus have already been done, while his iconic presence has been spun as both naughty and nice. Director Tommy Wirkola’s offering into that latter bucket of canon is the David Harbour -starring Violent Night , which provides an exciting mix of heart and hurt for anyone who encounters this red-suited hero.

Fans of Scrooged, another twisted Christmas delight done right, are probably among the more skeptical viewers approaching this movie. That’s because the fake action film from that comedy, The Night The Reindeer Died , is one of the first references that was brought up when people tried to wrap their heads around the story of Santa (David Harbour) and his long night fighting against a group of thieves led by an enigmatic leader ( John Leguizamo ). While a feature-length version of that faux blockbuster could be awesome, that’s not what you’re getting with Violent Night . 

Rather, the movie navigates three tones that glue this gingerbread house of pain together rather effectively. Writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller of Sonic The Hedgehog fame have run the table, packaging a dark comedy that also works in R-rated action brutality and heartwarming Christmas magic. Whether you can’t get enough of a surprisingly violent Santa, or you’ve lumped this concept in with fruitcake as traditions not to touch, the mixture of genres in Violent Night ties the film up with a pretty, yet gnarly, bow.

A smorgasbord of dark comedy, brutal action, and tender Santa drama make Violent Night one surprising sleigh/slay ride.

Just making a movie with an edgy Santa isn’t enough, as decades of The Santa Clause films have given way to movies like Bad Santa and Fatman that carried the torch into more adult-appropriate material. Those last two projects seem to have fused together to provide Violent Night with the kernel its Santa seems to have grown out of. However, building a fresh yet familiar take on St. Nick needs to pair with a story that isn’t just excuses to execute a new kill every couple of minutes. 

It does take a little while for the bloodshed to kick off, so don’t go into the theater thinking it’s just going to be wall-to-wall action. Rather, Violent Night lets us spend a little time with David Harbour’s Santa, as he seriously contemplates giving up on an ever-commercialized world. Layering in plots of a rich family that’s having a proper holiday meltdown, and the group of terrorists trying to steal a gigantic payday, there’s a lot more going on than just “Santa kills a bunch of people while cracking one-liners.”

Don’t get me wrong, you still get that level of enjoyment out of Violent Night , but the fun part is that it’s not a concept executed just for the sake of pumping out another grizzled Kris Kringle. Selling the movie on that violence is clever, as I was actually surprised by how funny and touching sections of this movie happened to be. The story takes a more grown up look at the spirit of giving and being grateful for family. There’s also a healthy amount of callbacks to Die Hard and Home Alone while doing so.

David Harbour’s Santa is both a jolly holiday figurehead and a snarky bloodsoaked warrior, which makes the entire movie work.

Even in the trailers that heralded Violent Night’s journey to the movies, it was clear that David Harbour was all in on playing Santa Claus. It might sound like an obvious observation, but it has to be said: if you don’t believe in your holiday movie’s Santa, it’s going to be an uphill battle to make anything work in the universe you’re trying to craft. I believed in David Harbour’s Santa Claus, both as the kindly, but world-weary man with the bag, and the killer with a sledgehammer named Skullcrusher.

Neither half of that vital equation is made to be the comic relief either. When Harbour’s Santa is delivering presents and critiquing each house’s cookie game, it feels just as at home as the moments where he’s improvising weapons in the fight for his life. Delivering lines like “Seasons beatings” is a precise exercise, provided you want it to play seriously. Violent Night wants you to buy into David Harbour’s performance, and the man commits to the bit every step of the way.

It also helps that the entire ensemble in Violent Night puts up those same level of commitment, further tying the universe together. As the members of John Leguizamo’s team, or any adult for that matter, start to question whether or not Santa Claus is actually real, the way that thread unfolds doesn’t push itself too far in any direction. 

What really brings everything home are the moments between Santa and the young Trudy Lightstone (Leah Brady). Both having their own crises of faith at the holidays, the two characters challenge each other to see the good in the Christmas season. Sometimes, the movies that are totally based on that concept alone fail to land the concept, but somehow an R-rated, bloody as hell, dark as coal comedy built in that very subplot and made it work.

Violent Night is a rare holiday treat that plays outside the box, while honoring other offbeat holiday classics.

Director Tommy Wirkola wants audiences to enjoy Violent Night in all of its gory delights, but he also wants audiences to leave believing they’ve enjoyed a Christmas movie. The man behind the very rowdy Dead Snow and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters has fulfilled that quest, as he and his cast and crew kept a close eye on where the tone is headed at any given moment. 

There are moments that both fans of Home Alone and Die Hard will get a kick out of, as Violent Night tips its hat in some creative ways. Its tribute to the former is particularly inspired, as you can now see what an R-rated version of that classic might have looked like. Raiding the toy boxes of Christmas mainstays, the intent isn’t to just turn on the nostalgia like a string of lights. Creatively mashing these themes together creates something new enough for people to really get behind, while also wanting to revisit those favorites. 

Whether or not Violent Night has legs in the long run of holiday movies is still to be determined. No matter how good your turn at bat happens to be, sometimes it just takes a moment for the public to rally around what could eventually become a yearly tradition. For the moment, those readers looking for a truly fun Santa film that busts out of the cookie cutter patterns have a new champion to watch enter the ring. 

Violent Night is a holiday action sugar rush that never forgets to be brutal, funny and heartwarming, whatever the occasion calls for. The nice will be vindicated and the naughty will tremble in fear, as David Harbour’s is coming to town with his own brand of justice and a taste for only the finest Christmas cookies.

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

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Violent Night (United States, 2022)

Violent Night , Tommy Wirkola’s contribution to the Santa Claus legend, is better than it has a right to be but not as good as it could have been. Using a similar premise to the one botched by 2020’s Fatman (with Mel Gibson as the Man in Red), Violent Night mixes comedy, gore, and action into a holiday-themed reimagining of the beloved Christmas classic Die Hard with an ode to that other beloved Christmas classic Home Alone (with a distinctly R-rated slant). There are no Rudolph or elves but there’s a sleigh, eight flying reindeer, a magical sack, a naughty/nice list, and a weapon fit to give Mjolnir hammer envy.

Santa (David Harbour) is about 1100 years old, having once been a feared Norse berserker who graduated to December 24 gift-giving as a result of the largely unexplained “magic of Christmas” (“I don’t understand it, either,” he says). Lately, though, he has become disillusioned by the rampant commercialism of the holiday and the entitled ingratitude of children. This Christmas Eve is going to be different, however, because he unwittingly becomes involved in a kidnapping/robbery and has to get in touch with the old warrior instincts in order to save a young girl, Trudy (Leah Brady), and her dysfunctional family from the clutches of uber-criminal Scrooge (John Leguizamo) and his band of Merry Men (and Women).

Comparing Violent Night with Die Hard does it a disservice because the two aren’t in the same league. Die Hard used a smart script to escalate the peril of a reluctant hero while emphasizing the intelligence of McClane and the villain. Violent Night lacks most of those qualities. Outside of the first two kills, the struggles are perfunctory, lacking ingenuity and energy. Throughout Die Hard , the filmmakers were constantly raising the stakes. But, in Violent Night , after taking out the first two invaders, things plateau. And Santa lacks a one-liner on the level of “Yippee Ki Yay, Motherfucker!”

It has been a long time since we have seen a really good Christmas movie – that’s one reason why TV stations are stuck on endless replay loops of A Christmas Story , National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation , and various iterations of A Christmas Carol . Violent Night isn’t going to go down as a classic (although it may have cult classic potential) but, despite all the gore and violence and other R-rated material, it’s arguably less offensive than the kind of bilge proliferated by Netflix and Lifetime/Hallmark/etc. in the name of Holiday Cheer. There are certainly worse ways to spend a chilly December evening.

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Review: ‘Violent Night,’ wholly night, not so calm, not so bright

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Sometimes the holiday season can just be a little too sweet. It’s why stories like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” endure, or movies like “Bad Santa” find success — not everyone wants to gulp down saccharine sentiments at Christmastime.

Enter “Violent Night,” in which David Harbour plays a murderous Santa Claus. Borrowing heavily from “Die Hard” and “Home Alone” (both of which are name-checked), and utilizing every Christmas-y saying and pun, throw in some extra bloody kills, and voila: a holiday actioner for the gore-hounds. This is a star vehicle, or rather, a sleigh, built specifically for Harbour, who gamely commits to the performance, and is probably the only actor currently working in Hollywood who could pull this off. The result is amusing enough, but it’s as cinematically substantive as a sugar cookie.

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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials .

Directed by Tommy Wirkola, who has experience shooting wintry wonderland horror ( “Dead Snow” ) and, ironically, violent fairy tale updates ( “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” ), and written by “Sonic the Hedgehog” writers Patrick Casey and Josh Miller, “Violent Night” is cobbled together from the recognizable parts of other Christmas classics. References and riffing are fun, but in “Violent Night,” we can see the mechanics of the gears cranking, like watching the math done on screen, sapping the bonkers fun that might have been had here.

During the first act setup, we get to know our boozy Santa, filled with holiday ennui and cynical about the capitalist consumption of Christmas. After a stop at a pub in Brighton, England, he ends up stranded at the Connecticut compound of the wealthy Lightstone family, a monstrous bunch of oil billionaires, with one sweet, Santa-loving kid, Trudy (Leah Brady). A group of holiday code-named criminals led by “Scrooge” (John Leguizamo) infiltrate the Lightstone Christmas Eve festivities, and proceed to hold them all hostage with the intent of making off with the $300 million in the basement, until Santa and Trudy go all John McClane and Kevin McCallister on them.

There are a few inspired moments, punchy jokes, and Wirkola keeps the camera moving, but constantly cuts away from the action, and the pace drags, which is a bit odd for such a slight, sub-two-hour action movie. You keep waiting for things to get a little more wacky and weird, but there’s a wild-card element that’s missing from this killer Santa movie, which just feels very by the numbers.

Perhaps it’s the need to preserve all the heartwarming stuff, even though it is somewhat hard to buy that a child who kills bad guys with booby traps manages to remain on the Nice List. Santa himself is given a bit of interesting backstory, but there’s just not enough of it. Harbour and Leguizamo are great together, especially when they’re arguing about the meaning, or validity, of Christmas.

Ironically enough for a story about Santa growing weary of greed, “Violent Night” wants to have it all — the blood, the foul-mouthed humor and the happy holiday ending about the true meaning of Christmas. Without committing to a tone, it all cancels out in the end. At least “Bad Santa” had the nerve to go all the way naughty. “Violent Night” tries to be both naughty and nice and as it turns out, when it comes to those lists, it’s either one or the other.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'Violent Night'

Rated: R, for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes Playing: Starts Friday in general release

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One of the Year's Best Horror Movies Finally Hits Streaming Next Month

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An acclaimed Canadian slasher movie is heading to Shudder. The streaming service has revealed that In a Violent Nature will finally be arriving on its platform next month.

In a Violent Nature , written and directed by Chris Nash, will debut on the platform as a Shudder Original Film on Sept. 13, 2024. Starring Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, and Lauren-Marie Taylor, the well-received slasher movie follows a mute killer named Johnny who is accidentally resurrected from his grave in the Ontario wilderness by a group of teenagers, whom he then begins stalking and murdering. In a unique take on the genre, the movie is largely observed from the killer's perspective.

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After premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, In a Violent Nature was released in more than 1400 theaters by IFC Films on May 31, marking the studio's widest theatrical release to date. The movie grossed $2.1 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office, enough for the second-best opening for IFC Films after another 2024 horror movie, Late Night with the Devil , starring David Dastmalchian. The 94-minute movie finished its theatrical run with roughly $4.5 million in box office receipts.

In a Violent Nature also received largely positive reviews from critics, with a 78 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. Horror author Stephen King also gave his seal of approval on the slasher, writing on X that In a Violent Nature "will do the job" for those looking for a slasher movie. "It's leisurely, almost languorous, but when the blood flows, it flows in buckets. The killer in his mask looks like the world's most terrifying Minion," King added.

In a Violent Nature Is Getting a Sequel

At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, IFC Films and Shudder jointly announced In A Violent Nature 2 . " In a Violent Nature was originally conceived as a meta-sequel within a fictional slasher series, so we were always imagining mayhem beyond the scope of the original film," producer Peter Kuplowsky shared in a statement. "That we now have the opportunity to continue following Johnny on his restless walk has us feeling incredibly grateful to our incredible partners at IFC Films / Shudder who believed in Chris [Nash's] vision from day one. We are thrilled to return for a new chapter and are excited to deploy Johnny as a conduit to further experiments in the genre."

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In a Violent Nature Creative Team Already Has Ideas for Future Sequels

If In a Violent Nature 2 is as successful as the first one, there's a good chance that IFC Films and Shudder will reunite for a third movie. While plot details remain under wraps for the forthcoming sequel, special effects lead Steven Kostanski shared in June 2024 where he would like to see Johnny go next. "I wouldn’t mind seeing him end up in suburbia at some point. Just the feeling of walking around with this character in a back alley — somewhere while people are just living their lives — is pretty spooky. I would entertain that," he said. "And then by part four, maybe he goes to space . We’ll see," he added, likely referring to how the Friday the 13th franchise took Jason to space in 2001's Jason X .

In a Violent Nature begins streaming on Shudder on Sept. 13.

Source: Shudder

In a Violent Nature

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Incoming’ on Netflix, a Throwback(ish) Teen Comedy Guaranteed to Gross You Out

Where to stream:.

• Mason Thames

Bobby Cannavale Steals Every Scene As the Out-of-Control Cool Teacher in Netflix’s ‘Incoming’

11 best new movies on netflix: august 2024’s freshest films to watch, ‘the black phone’, the horror movie of the summer, is finally streaming on peacock, stream it or skip it: ‘the black phone’ on vod, a heavy-nostalgia period horror-thriller starring ethan hawke as a serial kidnapper.

Teen raunchfest Incoming (now on Netflix) is sorta notable for a couple reasons: It’s written and directed by siblings Dave and John Chernin, creators of sitcom The Mick and longtime writers on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia . It also stars up-and-comer Mason Thames of The Black Phone fame, who seems ripe for bigger things. The question here is whether this creative conglomeration can supersede the Superbad comparisons this high school comedy seems to be begging for. (Review spoiler alert: It doesn’t!)

INCOMING : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: We meet Benj (Thames) as he practices kissing by smooshing lip on his mirror – and then his older sister Alyssa (Ali Gallo) barges in, forcing him to cover up his, y’know, protrusion . Embarrassment – and it’s only just beginning, of course. Quite the auspicious morning for Benj’s first day of high school, and he brings a bunch of baggage with him: He’s mortified by his reputation of being an angel-voiced theater kid. He nurses a hot-coal of a crush on Alyssa’s bestie, Bailey (Isabella Ferreira). And he belongs to a dweeby social circle filled out by the following: Eddie (Ramon Reed), a highly risk-averse dude mortified by the fact that his mom is dating a real sleazebaggano, Dennis (Scott MacArthur). Connor (Raphael Alejandro), who looks so prepubescent he could pass for a grade-schooler, and therefore gets nicknamed Fetus five minutes into freshman year. And Danah, aka Koosh (Bardia Seiri), a rich kid who studies rom-coms and – go figure – raunchy teen comedies for meet-cute templates that, he hopes, will help him get laid.

Inevitably, there’s a first-week-of-school celebratory party, and the only reason our core foursome are invited is, it’s thrown by Koosh’s violent sociopath of an upper-classman brother, Kayvon (Kayvan Shai). Benj sees it as his big opportunity to charm Bailey. Connor and Dennis, what with one thing and another, end up taking care of popular half-a-million-Insta-followers girl Katrina (Loren Gray) after she gets blackout blotto, eats too much Taco Bell and blasts the interior of Dennis’ Tesla with a fountain of diarrhea. Danah schemes a girl into his basement spa. You know how this shit goes.

The party chews up about two-thirds of the movie.  It’s a real rager at their mansion: Swimming, streaking, kegs, ketamine, bongs, brawls, fires, urine, peer pressure, schtupping. Even desperate schmo of an F-bomb-dropping chem teacher Mr. Studebaker (Bobby Cannavale) turns up and becomes the life of the bash. We might be rewarded with a sweet moment here or there – Benj really is a good kid – and we deserve it after the relentless stomach-churning grossness of the diarrhea bit. But is it enough? No. It’s not even a tough call.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Superbad was 17 years ago – and American Pie was 25 years ago and Revenge of the Nerds was 40 years ago and Porky’s was 43 years ago , and and and and . And it feels like we’ve worked through a bit of a PC backlash and sort of back to the blecch-iscs of grossout comedies.

Performance Worth Watching: Thames and Ferreira strike me as Real Actors who will go on to do better things than dodge projectile vomiting. 

Memorable Dialogue: Danah scores a laugh with a little self-referential comedy: “Guys are always scheming to get girls in movies. They spy on them or dress up like chicks to steal their secrets. I watched six different movies where a guy convinces a girl with amnesia that she’s his wife!”

Sex and Skin: Brief boobs and wang; an oops I walked in on some intercourse! shot.

Our Take: I have yet to mention Kaitlin Olson’s role as Benj’s mother; the veteran funnylady scores the biggest laugh here with a single line during an outraged-parent bit. It’s so inspired, you’ll be sad Olson isn’t prominently featured here (she has two, maybe three scenes?). Too bad you have to gut out the endless hellish torment of the diarrhea subplot in order to get to it – something that might inspire you to lunge at the power button on your remote like Ali to Frazier. 

Such a plentiful display of poo is more than enough to derail a recommendation. But I’ll pile on some more: Thin-stereotype characters, cringe comedy, the usual cool kids/dweebs dynamic (slightly updated for the 2020s, I guess), the big climactic scene in which the protag gives a speech in front of the whole school, etc. Like American Pie , Incoming is heavily populated with horny horny horny toads. Unlike Superbad , it doesn’t reach a level of earnest emotion that inspires us to give a damn about the characters, although hey, at least they tried? Almost? Sort of? There are a few instances of viable comedy – a clever line here, a passing bit there – but ultimately, the laugh-to-nausea ratio is way out of whack.

Our Call: Incoming ? More like The Outgoing Contents of Your Stomach . SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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'Alien' movies ranked definitively (yes, including 'Romulus')

“In space, no one can hear you scream” was the tagline for 1979’s " Alien ," though over the course of 45 years, audiences have encountered plenty of sounds, including blood-curdling yells, tearful cries and the yucky noises of creatures hugging faces and bursting from human chests.

The sci-fi horror franchise has given us a great action hero in Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley , who fought monsters in four films but hasn't been seen in an "Alien" project since the 1990s. There's also been a string of androids, from Michael Fassbender in "Prometheus" to David Jonsson in the new film  "Alien: Romulus," plus the pesky Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which seems to care more about cosmic beasts more than its employees. And of course the impressively fanged Xenomorph that’s become the iconic villain of the movie series.

That slavering, snarling extraterrestrial is unleashed yet again in "Romulus" (in theaters Friday),  which harks back to director Ridley Scott's original outing – and like other past installments is streaming on Hulu. But how does the latest film stack up to the old-school scares from decades past? Here’s the definitive ranking of all the "Alien" movies so far. (We’re not including the "Alien vs. Predator" films because they’re kind of their own franchise and honestly pretty terrible.)

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7. 'Alien: Resurrection' (1997)

The fourth installment focuses on science experiments run amok and the military's decision to clone Ripley 200 years after she sacrificed herself (see: "Alien 3") as a hybrid that gives "birth" to a new alien queen. While not big on actual plot, "Resurrection" features a bevy of creatures that a crew of mercenaries (including Ron Perlman and Winona Ryder) has to face, and a really strange humanoid monstrosity that shares a surprisingly touching moment before getting sucked out of a spaceship.

6. 'Alien 3' (1992)

Ripley gets stranded on a planet with an all-male penal colony and not much else. Unfortunately for everybody, an alien stowed away on her space vessel. Director David Fincher explores gender issues and creates really interesting visuals, plus Ripley shaves her head to fit in with the abundance of dudes. It’s a bit of a disappointment when it comes to alien escapades: There aren’t many Xenomorphs and the CGI is definitely lacking.

5. 'Alien: Covenant' (2017)

This installment mashes up the headiness of "Prometheus" with the chaotic terror of the earlier movies. A ship carrying the future of the human race makes an ill-fated stop on a paradise planet and all hell breaks loose when a couple of guys get infected with the alien parasite. The creatures are cool but Michael Fassbender is a standout in the dual android roles of David and new model Walter.

4. 'Prometheus' (2012)

The most divisive movie among fans, the prequel was a surprise "Alien" movie of sorts, gradually revealing its ties to the franchise amid a story of human archaeologists trying to map out the connection between mankind and an ancient race of Engineers. "Prometheus" leans way more thought-provoking than action-packed − though there is plenty of horror, including Noomi Rapace giving herself the gnarliest C-section of all time.

3. 'Alien: Romulus' (2024)

Director Fede Alvarez ("Don't Breathe") puts an emphasis on the human characters before placing them in the worst scenario possible . Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her friends just want a better life when they happen upon a decrepit space station that quickly turns into a house of horrors. "Romulus" mixes what worked in the first two franchise movies – action and isolation – plus adds an intriguing new element to the mythos.

2. 'Aliens' (1986)

Dripping with action-movie machismo,  James Cameron’s sequel  wakes up Ripley after 50 years of hypersleep and takes her back to LV-426, the world where her crew first encountered alien life. Now, it’s a terraforming colony where Ripley teams with space marines − including  a memorable Bill Paxton − to take on extraterrestrial antagonists. Worth it just for Ripley becoming a feminist folk hero and surrogate mother, plus taking on the alien queen for all the galactic marbles.

1. 'Alien' (1979)

Director Ridley Scott’s original is not only the best "Alien" but one of the top sci-fi films ever in the way it creates an atmosphere of non-stop dread. A team of space truckers are trying to get minerals back to Earth, answer a distress call, and have to fight for their lives while a Xenomorph hunts them down one by one. Even after decades of visual-effects spectacle, the sight of the alien  blasting out of John Hurt’s chest  is still completely terrifying, absolutely cringe-inducing and totally awesome.

Trap is another of M Night Shyamalan's big swings and it's almost a home run

By Luke Goodsell

ABC Entertainment

Topic: Arts, Culture and Entertainment

Josh Hartnett is a dad with a secret in Trap. ( Supplied: Warner Bros. )

For better and sometimes worse, no-one makes movies quite like M Night Shyamalan. Over a 30-year career, the American writer-director has delivered pop-culture hits (The Sixth Sense), fascinating oddities (Unbreakable, The Village) and a run of original genre pieces — from Split to Old — that stand apart in a Hollywood that's become ever more homogenous.

It's true that not everything works, but like Joaquin Phoenix's alien slugger in Signs, he just keeps swinging away.

Shyamalan's latest is no exception. Pitched as "The Silence of the Lambs at a Taylor Swift concert", Trap is an inventive, improbable and sometimes very funny little thriller, with enough tonal swerves to keep its audience hooked.

There is a certain playfulness — even relish — to the way the film puts its audience inside the mind of a killer.

The premise is a banger. Police and FBI agents have surrounded a stadium in downtown Philadelphia, where they believe a serial killer known as The Butcher is attending a sold-out concert by pop star Lady Raven (played by Shyamalan's daughter and real-life singer Saleka, who also performs the songs).

Saleka Shyamalan plays pop star Lady Raven in Trap. ( Supplied: Warner Bros. )

They don't have an exact make on their suspect, but they've narrowed it down to a handful of possibilities (the convoluted sting does get explained at some point, though it's best not to think about it too much). For one, they know it's a middle-aged guy. How hard could he be to identify and apprehend in a stadium full of 20,000 screaming teenagers?

It might even be Cooper (Josh Hartnett), a local firefighter who's at the show with his fangirling teenage daughter Riley (Australian actor Ariel Donoghue, giving a masterclass in "oh my gods!"). 

He's an affectionate, if slightly awkward, suburban dad: he cracks bad jokes, tries hopelessly to keep up with Riley's teen-speak, and makes sure she gets the T-shirt she wants at the merch stand. Oh, and he may have a victim locked up in an undisclosed basement; a life he can terminate with the press of a button on his phone.

Australian actor Ariel Donoghue goes full Swiftie as Lady Raven stan Riley. ( Supplied: Warner Bros. )

These aren't exactly spoilers. Within Trap's first few minutes (and indeed, during its trailer), we're led to believe that Cooper is very much the killer, a revelation that frees up Shyamalan to roam across unexpected terrain.

Because the movie adopts Cooper's perspective, at least for much of the first hour, we're perversely invested in his escape from authorities, in the deviousness of his design. Will he slip out through the trap door on the stage floor? Can he convince the tour manager that his daughter has a terminal illness, and hustle them out via a backstage meet-and-greet with the star?

As ever with Shyamalan, the dialogue and performances are pitched on a knife edge between the sincere and the ridiculous — no one ever seems to behave quite like real people, though we recognise his heightened, warped-mirror versions of reality.

Meanwhile, he and the great Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom ( Challengers , Memoria ) find imaginative ways to capture the stadium's familiar contours — there's a neat homage to Brian De Palma at one point. There's even stage a convincing pop concert in the process — not always an easy thing for a fiction film to pull off — you can tell Shyamalan has been to his share of all-ages shows with his daughters.

M Night. Shyamalan with his daughter Saleka behind the scenes of Trap. ( Supplied: Warner Bros. )

It all contributes to a distinct sense of unease that Shyamalan — at his best — does so well, scrambling tone and perspective to throw his audience off its bearings.

No small part of that is thanks to Hartnett, who proves to be an inspired choice for a cool dad who may be hiding a very dark secret. His performance here is deceptively complex, and often tonally brave — even as it runs the gamut from the awkward to the absurd, Hartnett never loses sense of his character's emotional reality, or his ability to generate empathy in the audience. It's an original.

Police are hunting down a serial killer they've traced to Lady Raven's concert in Trap. ( Supplied: Warner Bros. )

Having the former millennial heart-throb menace young women — call him Trap Fontaine — is a clever play on his teen iconography. There's also something satisfying about seeing him square off against a teen star from an entirely different era, Hayley Mills, star of the 1961 The Parent Trap – ha! She plays the head of the FBI operation with an almost maternal instinct for her prey.

It wouldn't be fair to say too much more; suffice to say that Shyamalan has plenty of twists and turns in store in the movie's enjoyably silly back half — even if the twists aren't of the expected plot variety. Let's just say that you can trust Shyamalan to put more faith in Instagram Live than the police in a moment of extreme peril, and leave it at that.

Trap is screening in cinemas now.

• Cast & crew

Saturday Night

At 11:30pm on October 11th, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. Find out what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the f... Read all At 11:30pm on October 11th, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. Find out what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. At 11:30pm on October 11th, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. Find out what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.

• Jason Reitman
• Lamorne Morris
• J.K. Simmons
• Dylan O'Brien

Top cast 72

• Garrett Morris

• Milton Berle

• Dan Aykroyd

• David Tebet

• Gilda Radner

• John Belushi

• Lorne Michaels

• Chevy Chase

• Jacqueline Carlin

• Rosie Shuster

• George Carlin

• Jim Henson …

• Jane Curtin

• Dick Ebersol

• Laraine Newman

• Polaroid Girl
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia When news of this movie first came out, the working title was originally Wolverines, the name of the first ever Saturday Night Live sketch that featured John Belushi and writer Michael O'Donahue. In the sketch, Belushi, a foreign man learning English from Michael, imitates everything he says, starting with "I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines" followed by other offbeat sentences involving wolverines. Then the teacher, after saying, "next," has a heart attack, falling on the floor, at which point Belushi does the same, imitating him like he'd been doing with the sentences. Then Chevy Chase walks out, looking like a crew member, with a head set on, and utters the famous line, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

[fromt trailer]

Chevy Chase : Am I still in the show?

[falls over a trash can]

Dan Aykroyd : Jesus Christ!

Chevy Chase : Sorry. Tripped over my penis.

• Connections Featured in Eddie Murphy, le roi noir d'Hollywood (2023)
• When will Saturday Night be released? Powered by Alexa
• October 11, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• New York City, New York, USA
• Broadway Video
• Right of Way Films
• SNL Studios
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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