You know Violent Night is a Christmas movie because all the seasonal signifiers are in place: the snow, the tree, the fat man in the sleigh. Pretty quickly, though, as stabbings and shootings pile up, and some nasty throat-kicks and leg-crackings are mixed in, it becomes clear that this is definitely not your parents' kind of Christmas movie. It's brutal and bloody, and—there's no denying this—very funny, too. The Norwegian director, Tommy Wirkola, numbers among his past works a pair of wonderfully goofy Nazi-zombie horror comedies (Dead Snow 1 and 2). And the new film's production company, 87North, is operated by master stunt choreographer David Leitch, who among other things has worked on all three John Wick movies—which are also brutal and bloody, as you know, and kind of funny, too.
It's hard to imagine this picture working without David Harbour, who plays Santa Claus with a disheveled, world-weary sweetness. His character isn't just some cheesy shopping-mall Santa: He's the real deal, the man with all the toys. He's grown a little cynical over the centuries, and he's currently on the outs with his wife, Mrs. Claus (to whom he's been married for 1100 years). He's also developed a befuddling whiskey habit. But he's still on the job, still trying to believe—in himself and in the billions of kids around the world who clamor for his presents every year. (One recent pint-size petitioner asked only for cold, hard cash.)
