Violent Night might just be the next Die Hard

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SPOILERS AHEAD!

 

Violent Night is a Christmas action horror movie that premiered in theaters on December 2, 2022. It is a fun and unique movie about an alcoholic Santa Claus (played by Stranger Things star David Harbour) who becomes trapped in a house that is being robbed. The movie begins with a ‘nice’ family Christmas for the Lightstone family, who happen to be filthy rich and have a long list of enemies. We are introduced to Santa Claus – who is more of a Grinch like figure – and soon learn that no one believes in Santa Claus anymore and the ‘spirit of Christmas’ is solely focused on receiving expensive gifts. Everyone seems to follow this narrative except for a little girl named Trudy Lightstone, who still believes in Santa Claus. Her request to Santa is for her mom and dad to get back together, and rekindle their relationship. On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus finds himself in the Lightstones’ house, but soon realizes he is in the wrong place, at the wrong time. He tries to escape, but because of the gunshots taking place during the robbery, his reindeer flee, leaving him all alone. Luckily, he can communicate to Trudy through a walkie talkie, and she helps him figure out where the robbers are and save the Lightstones’ Christmas. Throughout the movie we learn about Santa’s Viking past, as well as the Lightstones’ past of receiving blood money from the government. In the end, Santa has a last stand against the robbers, and amongst a bloody battle, Santa is fatally shot and begins to see the light; but through the power of Christmas magic and believing, he comes back to life. 

 

This movie was quite entertaining and a great movie to watch with friends. The storyline at times  was a little all over the place, but the gruesome fighting scenes made up for it. It’s a unique twist on Christmas movies, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before – classics like Home Alone and Die Hard include similar scenes and challenge a new perspective on Christmas. However, although the movie may seem like meaningless fun and laughs on the outside, on the inside there are a lot of themes we can learn from this movie. This movie portrays the greed that some American children possess, but the one major take away from this movie is that the power of the Christmas spirit is stronger than everything else – and to me, that  is really special. Overall I would rate this movie eight out of 10 stars. It is an action packed holiday movie that the whole friend group, or older family members can enjoy.