The first reviews for the upcoming action movie Christmas outing, Violent Night, are now in and heap praise on David Harbour’s savage Santa Claus. Due for release next month courtesy of Universal Pictures, Violent Night finds Santa called into action on Christmas Eve when a family is taken hostage by mercenaries. So, is Violent Night a modern Christmas classic? Or is the cinematic equivalent to a lump of coal?
We begin with Matt Donato of IGN, who describes Violent Night as being “nuttier than peanut brittle” that makes great use of “the B-Movie extremes that more than earn its hard "R" rating,” before concluding that “Violent Night brings the Christmas spirit to a gore-first action flick that delivers what’s advertised thanks to a top-form David Harbour.”
“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.”
TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde echoes many of these sentiments, praising Violent Night for getting everything so right when the blood-soaked holiday outing could have so easily gotten everything wrong.
“One of the Yuletide season’s most delightful surprises, not just for what it gets right but also for the many ways the whole production could have gone very, very wrong.”
Next up is David Arroyo of JoBlo who, while admitting that Violent Night is “not perfect” and “tends to drag a bit” during its third act, heaped praise on the gory action sequences and John Wick-esque fight scenes.
“The action in this film is brutal. The John Wick style of fight scenes is put on full display. The amount of gore in this film is ludicrous. I saw many of the squeamish put their hands over their eyes in my screening but most of you will enjoy the many creative and holiday themed ways to die. If you’re a fan of the Evil Dead franchise you will not be disappointed. It’s refreshing to see a film that just doesn’t give a damn about the movie industry’s rating system.”
Violent Night Could Be Exactly What You Asked for This Christmas
The Hollywood Reporter’s Angie Han meanwhile comes close to calling Violent Night “heartwarming” before declaring that the action flick could be exactly what many have asked for this Christmas.
“To call Violent Night heartwarming might be a bridge too far. This is, after all, still a film that seems to have been mostly built around the question of “How many Christmas-themed props can we turn into weapons?” (The answer: most of them, apparently! Try very hard not to think about that the next time some eggnog-drunk relative is trying your last nerve over the last slice of glazed ham.) But for those who prefer their gingerbread soaked in booze and their tinsel splattered with gore, Violent Night might be exactly what the season calls for.”
It’s not all positive, however, with Empire's Jake Cunningham saying, “Good fun in places, but dull for the most part, Violent Night is serviceable Christmas viewing. It’s a shame, because with such a fun riff on the Santa story, it should’ve been good for goodness sake!” Kate Erbland of IndieWire was also less enamored, and while they found Violent Night “often quite entertaining” they could not help but feel that “a hefty sack of subplots, personal motivations, and nefarious double-crossings bog down what could have been the season’s most bloody good time (emphasis on the bloody).”
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman though thinks that Violent Night, which is bolstered by great performances from David Harbour and John Leguizamo, could start a trend.
““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, motherf---er!” The possibilities are endless.”
Violent Night is scheduled to be released on December 2, 2022.