Violent Night (2022) 🎅🔪💥

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailer 📽️

Also, this is a universal movie, so u know what that means? Que Universal Theme!

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⚠️ Warning: This film is ultra violent — the title wasn’t lying — and it’s also kinda raunchy. Think Home Alone if Kevin McCallister had a sledgehammer and a vendetta, with a splash of Die Hard’s “Christmas chaos” energy. Not for kids unless you want to scar them for life. 🩸🎄


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Non-Spoiler Plot Rundown

It’s Christmas Eve, and the Lightstone family is gathered at their absurdly over-the-top mansion for a tense holiday. Little do they know, a group of heavily armed mercenaries — led by John Leguizamo as “Scrooge” — are about to crash the party and hold them hostage for a massive fortune.

Enter Santa Claus — yes, the real one — played by David Harbour, who just so happens to be mid-delivery when all hell breaks loose. Santa, burned out on the modern world’s greed, isn’t exactly in the mood to save anyone… but between his old Viking instincts and the pleas of young Trudy Lightstone, he decides to make this Christmas very violent for the bad guys.

The setup feels heavily inspired by Home Alone and Die Hard. There’s little here that feels new — but the joy is in watching Harbour as a beer-swilling, hammer-wielding, surprisingly battle-hardened Santa. Leguizamo’s scenery-chewing villainy keeps the energy high.


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Pros 👍

David Harbour is perfect as a gruff, done-with-your-crap Santa 🎅

John Leguizamo devours every scene as the over-the-top villain 🐍

Inventive kills and action beats (sledgehammer supremacy) 🛠️

Leans hard into its R-rated chaos


Cons 👎

Feels like a mashup of Home Alone and Die Hard without its own distinct flavor

A few pacing lulls between action bursts

Family drama subplot is just… there 🤷‍♂️



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Final Thoughts 💭

Violent Night is bloody, ridiculous, and festive in the most unholy way possible. It’s not reinventing the Christmas action wheel, but David Harbour and John Leguizamo make it worth the sleigh ride.

Also, the idea of the real Santa being fine with murdering people brutally is all sorts of wrong yet somehow adds a charm to itm

Rating: 7/10 🎯


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🚨 Spoiler Breakdown 🚨

The opening sets the tone — Santa drinking in a bar, lamenting that kids only want video games and money now. He drunkenly takes off on his sleigh, only to end up mid-heist at the Lightstone mansion. The mercenaries have locked down the house, jammed comms, and are hunting down the family for the vault stuffed with $300 million.

Santa quickly realizes his bag of toys can’t help him here — but his past as a Viking warrior (“Nicomund the Red”) sure can. Once his magic runs low, he relies on brute force. The first real “oh wow” moment? Santa killing a merc with a Christmas tree topper… shoved into his eye. 🎄👁️💥

Meanwhile, young Trudy is hidden away in the attic, making a makeshift trap-filled gauntlet that’s basically Home Alone on steroids. Nails through the chin, bowling balls to the skull, and one gnarly ladder fall later, the merc crew is very aware this isn’t going to be an easy score.

By the third act, Harbour goes full Viking mode — grabbing his signature sledgehammer (“Skullcrusher”) from the shed. We get brutal one-on-ones: smashing bones, cleaving through skulls, and even killing a man with an ice skate to the throat. ❄️🩸

The Santa vs. Scrooge final fight happens outside, where Scrooge actually kills Santa by stabbing him and leaving him to freeze. But in the ultimate Christmas miracle (and a wild tonal shift), Santa comes back thanks to the belief of the family — especially Trudy — and promptly uses his magic to yank Scrooge up a chimney at full speed, splattering him into a red-and-green pulp. 🎅🪦

The merc crew is dead, the family “learns the true meaning of Christmas” (mostly not being jerks to each other), and Santa flies off into the night, covered in blood, muttering about maybe doing this again next year.