How many times have you seen a trailer and then you get to the cinema and the movie you see seems to be a completely different film? How many times have you seen a trailer and thought you had the vibe of the film and it is a completely different feel? Worse yet, how about when the trailer gives away half the good moments in the film?

I saw the trailer for Violent Night (2022) and immediately wondered…did they put all the good stuff in the trailer? Will the movie be a comedy when the trailer comes off like an action film? Will it be corny? 

I have been a fan of the wild Santa Claus film Santa’s Slay starring Bill Goldberg and has one of the best opening scenes (see it here) ever for a horror movie. That movie, being my point of reference, is a lot of fun, but it veers solidly into camp territory. My sensibilities embrace camp, but I was hoping someone wasn’t just remaking Goldberg’s greatest celluloid offering. I was hoping we got something new.

New we got. 

Stranger Things’ police chief David Harbour is a wonderful choice for the jolly old elf. He plays a disenchanted Santa, lamenting the same concerns that Linus  Van Pelt expressed in a certain Christmas special all those years ago. The kids aren’t any good anymore and the holiday is too commercial. These are common concerns in Hollywood Christmas offerings, but this film isn’t dripping with the syrup you expect in a traditional holiday offering.

This is no traditional holiday offering. The perennial debate if Die Hard is a Christmas movie might have led to this film. Someone may have pitched this by saying “What if John McClaine was actually Santa Claus?” To add to that, someone may have thrown in there “…and what if we took Home Alone and made the violence more like a slasher film or tortureporn?” Mix those sensibilities together and you get a hard R rated action film (a rarity these days) that doesn’t skimp on the violence.

Even the expected one-liners after the dispatching of bad guys were just right. Instead of pushing them in after every kill, they are sprinkled lightly. More Sean Connery James Bond than Roger Moore era. On top of that, they have the very talented comic actor John Leguizamo as the lead villain and star of the National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Beverly D’Angelo, which concerned me that they were going to roll their eyes and ham it up…but somehow, someway they avoided that all to obvious path.

Harbour’s Santa Claus takes a lickin’ but keeps giving a butt kickin’ as Santa plows through a sea of paramilitary bad guys and girls. The naughty list, in fact, is over represented. In a great move, though, a child is added to the mix to make sure we have some character worth getting behind. Most of the characters in the movie, terrorist or victim, are just unlikeable monsters…but they are redeemed by a moral voice from Santa and the child (portrayed by young Leah Brady). Santa may be a hard drinking, violent action hero, but he knows naughty and he knows nice…and he knows who needs to get a lump…of coal or growing on a head.

Don’t go into this movie expecting a wonderful message. Don’t go in expecting complex character relationships. Or Academy Award level acting…but for once, expect exactly what the advertising promises you. If you like the trailer, you will like the film. Sit back and enjoy because Santa has a whole new bag.

Grade: A-