What do you get when you cross Saint Nicholas with John Wick? Well, you get Violent Night, a Christmas-themed action-comedy that stars David Harbour (Stranger Things) as Santa Claus. The film took in 1.1 million in Thursday night previews, which has it on track to become a sleeper hit of the season.
Violent Night follows a team of mercenaries who break into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve and take everyone inside hostage, but the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint. In addition to David Harbour, Violent Night also stars John Leguizamo (John Wick), Cam Gigandet (Without Remorse), Alex Hassell (Cowboy Bebop), Alexis Louder (The Tomorrow War), Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones) and Beverly D’Angelo (National Lampoon’s Vacation). Tommy Wirkola (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) directed from a script by...
Violent Night follows a team of mercenaries who break into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve and take everyone inside hostage, but the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint. In addition to David Harbour, Violent Night also stars John Leguizamo (John Wick), Cam Gigandet (Without Remorse), Alex Hassell (Cowboy Bebop), Alexis Louder (The Tomorrow War), Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones) and Beverly D’Angelo (National Lampoon’s Vacation). Tommy Wirkola (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters) directed from a script by...
- 12/2/2022
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
This article contains Ernest Saves Christmas spoilers
After hurrying his grandkids off to bed, an elderly man puts the finishing touches on his Christmas Eve presentation. He bounces around the tree, bubbling over with the Christmas spirit until a rustling outside his door causes him to pause. Could that noise be Santa Claus himself? Just as the grandfather allows himself to believe the impossible, a grotesque creature bursts through the door, leading with his extended claws. The grandfather wastes no time, training a pistol on the invader and sneering, “Die, you son of a…”
Unable to say the curse word, the actor playing the grandfather calls cut and the actors reset. It turns out, we’re not watching a horror movie at all, but Ernest Saves Christmas, a Christmas movie with its own set of oddities. The 1988 film stars milk pitchman turned unlikely children’s movie star Ernest P. Worrell,...
After hurrying his grandkids off to bed, an elderly man puts the finishing touches on his Christmas Eve presentation. He bounces around the tree, bubbling over with the Christmas spirit until a rustling outside his door causes him to pause. Could that noise be Santa Claus himself? Just as the grandfather allows himself to believe the impossible, a grotesque creature bursts through the door, leading with his extended claws. The grandfather wastes no time, training a pistol on the invader and sneering, “Die, you son of a…”
Unable to say the curse word, the actor playing the grandfather calls cut and the actors reset. It turns out, we’re not watching a horror movie at all, but Ernest Saves Christmas, a Christmas movie with its own set of oddities. The 1988 film stars milk pitchman turned unlikely children’s movie star Ernest P. Worrell,...
- 12/2/2022
- by Kirsten Howard
- Den of Geek
What if Santa Claus wasn’t the holly, jolly fellow we know from a zillion Christmas cards, seasonal TV specials and traumatic mall visits? What if he was now just a bitter old drunk, drowning his sorrows in bottomless pints and bitching about his annual delivery of presents to kids? But then one fateful Christmas eve, when our man Kringle is loitering in a swanky mansion and dipping into some expensive brandy after dropping off gifts, a gang of criminals break into the place and hold the occupants hostage. A...
- 12/1/2022
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
It’s no secret that folks love to watch Santa Claus break bad. Despite being literally called “Father Christmas” in some cultures, this often rosy-cheeked symbol of generosity from childhood eventually becomes many an adult’s favorite villain: the crazed serial killer with an ax in Silent Night, Deadly Night; or the drunkard who urinates on himself at the mall in Bad Santa.
While some of those movies are better than others (namely the first Billy Bob Thornton iteration of a Yuletide lush), all of them seem to forget that, deep down, we still want to believe that Santa and the season he represents should be depicted as a force for good. Maturity comes in recognizing the world is more complex than a handful of flurries in a snow globe, but Santa need not be. Hence the ingenuity of screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller’s million-dollar-idea: What if Santa...
While some of those movies are better than others (namely the first Billy Bob Thornton iteration of a Yuletide lush), all of them seem to forget that, deep down, we still want to believe that Santa and the season he represents should be depicted as a force for good. Maturity comes in recognizing the world is more complex than a handful of flurries in a snow globe, but Santa need not be. Hence the ingenuity of screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller’s million-dollar-idea: What if Santa...
- 12/1/2022
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
The Stranger Things star plays a foul-mouthed Santa in a gory battle with criminals but he’s let down by an unfunny script
Between Die Hard and Home Alone, fending off intruders in a single location has become a Christmas tradition on par with downing a few eggnogs and arguing about tax reform with older relatives. The new action picture Violent Night, which invokes both aforementioned films by name as well as with constant all-caps homage, fits its seasonal siege into the post-John Wick beat-em-up mold co-originated by producer David Leitch. This could and should and sometimes manages to be a felicitous pairing of genre with gimmick, a novelty of theme proving vital to prolonging any winning formula. And just as Gene Kelly or Jackie Chan continuously innovated fresh shtick by incorporating unexpected props and environments into their high-physicality routines, so too does the rough-hewn Santa Claus (David Harbour...
Between Die Hard and Home Alone, fending off intruders in a single location has become a Christmas tradition on par with downing a few eggnogs and arguing about tax reform with older relatives. The new action picture Violent Night, which invokes both aforementioned films by name as well as with constant all-caps homage, fits its seasonal siege into the post-John Wick beat-em-up mold co-originated by producer David Leitch. This could and should and sometimes manages to be a felicitous pairing of genre with gimmick, a novelty of theme proving vital to prolonging any winning formula. And just as Gene Kelly or Jackie Chan continuously innovated fresh shtick by incorporating unexpected props and environments into their high-physicality routines, so too does the rough-hewn Santa Claus (David Harbour...
- 12/1/2022
- by Charles Bramesco
- The Guardian - Film News
This article appears in the next issue of Den of Geek magazine. Subscribe here!
He sits alone at a bar, downing ale and liquor like they’re milk and cookies. For scenes of a watering hole on Christmas Eve, this isn’t an unusual sight—either for the onscreen proprietor, who’s used to disheveled mall Santas this time of year, or for audiences who know what a naughty St. Nick looks like. Yet the trick about David Harbour’s world-weary Father Christmas in the upcoming movie Violent Night is he’s not a bad Santa. He’s a good Santa who feels bad about the Christmas culture around him. And it’s a culture he might be complicit in.
“When we meet him, he is the saccharine version of the Coca-Cola Santa Claus that we all know and love, I guess,” Harbour tells Den of Geek magazine. “There are...
He sits alone at a bar, downing ale and liquor like they’re milk and cookies. For scenes of a watering hole on Christmas Eve, this isn’t an unusual sight—either for the onscreen proprietor, who’s used to disheveled mall Santas this time of year, or for audiences who know what a naughty St. Nick looks like. Yet the trick about David Harbour’s world-weary Father Christmas in the upcoming movie Violent Night is he’s not a bad Santa. He’s a good Santa who feels bad about the Christmas culture around him. And it’s a culture he might be complicit in.
“When we meet him, he is the saccharine version of the Coca-Cola Santa Claus that we all know and love, I guess,” Harbour tells Den of Geek magazine. “There are...
- 11/30/2022
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
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 holiday trifle.
The big draw of “Violent Night” is, of course, right there in the title: the violence! Wirkola has often delighted in turning basic-ish ideas into bloody good fun with the addition of head-bashing twists. You can practically hear the elevator pitches: “It’s a horror movie about Nazis…who are also zombies” or “It’s Hansel and Gretel…but also they’re witch hunters.
The big draw of “Violent Night” is, of course, right there in the title: the violence! Wirkola has often delighted in turning basic-ish ideas into bloody good fun with the addition of head-bashing twists. You can practically hear the elevator pitches: “It’s a horror movie about Nazis…who are also zombies” or “It’s Hansel and Gretel…but also they’re witch hunters.
- 11/30/2022
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Every year brings the annual rewatches of my holiday favorites and an occasional new one, and it's looking increasingly likely that "Violent Night" may become one of them. I'll happily bawl over the emotional catharsis of "It's a Wonderful Life," but sometimes the reason for the season calls for a horror zombie musical ("Anna and the Apocalypse") or a visit from German folklore ("Krampus"). 2022's "Violent Night" appears to fixate quite nicely in the middle, featuring "Stranger Things" star David Harbour as he doles out some bloody season's beatings in the name of Christmas. Sometimes all you need is a movie that envisions Santa Claus going all John McClane in order to protect a good kid from a group of mercenaries on Christmas Eve. The cherry on top is that this yuletide beatdown comes from director Tommy Wirkola, the filmmaker behind "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" and the "Dead Snow" series.
- 11/29/2022
- by Matthew Bilodeau
- Slash Film
In "Violent Night," David Harbour plays a Santa Claus who isn't afraid to knock back a beer or head-butt someone who's naughty. If that doesn't sell itself as a movie premise, I don't know what would. The "Stranger Things" star has hidden his face under red demon makeup before (see: "Hellboy"), but in "Violent Night," Harbour is donning a red stocking cap and grey beard, in service of "seasons beatings." And just because it's an action comedy doesn't mean he went into the role of Santa without doing some research.
Santa Claus as we know him has a long history dating back at least 200 years, when the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (now commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas") was published. The real Saint Nicholas and other historical antecedents like Father Christmas date back even further than that poem, by centuries. Harbour was conscious of this history when...
Santa Claus as we know him has a long history dating back at least 200 years, when the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (now commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas") was published. The real Saint Nicholas and other historical antecedents like Father Christmas date back even further than that poem, by centuries. Harbour was conscious of this history when...
- 11/28/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Break out the cookies and the candy canes — Tim Allen‘s jovial Scott Calvin is back in The Santa Clauses. The brand new Disney+ series checks in with everyone’s favorite St. Nick nearly 30 years after first taking on the job of Santa Claus, which means that in addition to Carol Calvin, a.k.a Mrs. Clause (Elizabeth Mitchell), we’ll also be seeing Scott’s grown-up children: Cal “Buddy” Calvin (Austin Kane) and Sandra Calvin (Elizabeth Allen-Dick). “It blurred a lot of weird lines,” Allen — television’s quintessential dad, who’s had no shortage of children to parent in his many TV roles — tells TV Insider of working with his real-life daughter. “It was another challenge as an actor. There’s no way you can get away with a scene and you’re looking into the eyes of your real daughter.. it is here. That means it was an easy way to be organic.
- 11/14/2022
- TV Insider
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