At The Movies: When a bad Santa runs into a few bad men, expect a Violent Night

Violent Night (M18)

112 minutes, opens on Thursday

2 stars

The story: Santa Claus (David Harbour) is doing his job one Christmas Eve when his schedule is interrupted by crime. A gang, led by a man codenamed Mr Scrooge (John Leguizamo), has invaded a home and is holding the family hostage. Santa is trapped in the mansion and faces a choice: Should he escape, or stay and help the family?

This is an unabashedly gimmicky movie, but we give credit where it is due: In these play-it-safe times, it takes guts to test new concepts.

The first gimmick is based on an Internet argument about whether Die Hard (1988) is a Christmas movie, so the producers thought it would be a smashing idea to make a Die Hard that features Father Christmas himself.

As if one layer of self-reference were not enough, there is another that quotes the other Yuletide favourite, Home Alone (1990).

That is about it as far as the plot goes. If the concept had been executed well, seen through with enough panache and audacity, this might have been a cheeky romp, an intentionally cheesy mash-up that would work as the Christmas flick for people who find Christmas flicks nauseating.

Too bad, then, that the enterprise is let down by a paucity of imagination and uneven pacing. In the torrent of knowing movie references that serve as storytelling, the producers opted to give this thing a heart. In a movie about Santa on a righteous killing spree, as he decks the halls with brains and blood, they thought what this needed was sincerity. The heart that this story exhibits, however, feels made of plastic.

If anyone could helm a clever exploitation flick, it would be Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola, the man behind genre-benders such as Dead Snow (2009, about zombie Nazis versus skiers) and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013, about the fairy-tale characters as witch exterminators).

Wirkola’s touch for comic violence is blunted by the half-cooked screenplay. One example: The normally excellent Harbour (Stranger Things, 2016 to present; Black Widow, 2021) is cast as the disillusioned Santa, and if there is one thing he can do, it is playing a middle-aged man whose best days are behind him. But that casting advantage is wasted on a story that reveals that this is a man who has lost his mojo in the most timid, tired way possible. If Santa has fallen, it is a tiny fall which sets up a hasty and cheaply earned redemption.

Hot take: So they made a Christmas movie for people who do not like Christmas movies, but the storytelling fumbles make this a ho-ho-hot mess.