Violent Night Review (2022 Movie) - Mama's Geeky (2024)

Violent Night is a classic Christmas movie with a twist. Packed with brutal violence and hilarious moments, this isn’t a family holiday movie.

Violent Night Movie Review

Every holiday season we cuddle up on the couch with popcorn, family, and a classic Christmas movie. From Home Alone to Elf, there are a lot of great ones, but nothing recently has had the potential to go down in history as an all time classic, until now. Violent Night is brutal and inappropriate, and is exactly what viewers will expect from the trailer.

Produced by David Leitch, who also worked on all of the John Wick movies, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, and most recently Bullet Train, Violent Night was pretty much guaranteed to be a good time — and it does not disappoint.

This movie sees Santa Claus coming to the rescue after mercenaries break into a rich family’s home on Christmas. David Harbour plays Saint Nick and trust us when we say you do not want to be on his naughty list.

How Much Do They Push The Violence Envelope?

With violent being in the title, we all knew it was going to deliver some epic violence, and it does. It is top notch and feels very much like John Wick combined with Home Alone. There are some massive set pieces in this movie, with the ones toward the end really standing out. They are brutal and fun, exactly what the audience will be looking for when going to see a movie like Violent Night.

We watched this movie at the first ever audience screening, at New York Comic Con 2022, and seeing it in a packed room of three thousand super fans is the way to do it. Sure, it probably made the experience quite a bit more enjoyable, but since it is coming to theaters everywhere, we recommend seeing it that way, versus waiting to watch it at home. There are many jaw dropping and laugh out loud moments — exactly what you want in a movie like this — that will make seeing it with an audience that much more fun.

One concern that some viewers might have is that the violence will be too over the top. Violent Night has an absurd moment, don’t get us wrong, but it never feels like it is gory just for the sake of being gory. It is relatively tame overall, which allows it to focus more on the story when necessary.

Not Just An Action Movie, It’s Funny Too

The humor and comedic timing from David Harbour is what makes this film more than just action packed and brutal. There are some truly hilarious moments from Santa Claus, as Harbour is the one carrying Violent Night. It is easily the funniest movie of the year so far, as he fully embraces this character and the pure ridiculousness of the situation.

The dynamics between characters are perfectly executed. The story itself feels like many other Christmas movies, but with an R rating. It is so inappropriate, which could be the only thing to hurt its chances on becoming a true Christmas classic. Adults and older teenagers though, will be watching this every holiday season!

Since it is a regular Christmas movie that also means it doesn’t go that deep. The story is very average. There are no real twists and turns, and audiences are given the same holiday messages and themes. Still, there really was not need to make this a deep movie. The fact that the filmmakers don’t overcomplicate this movie with deeper meaning and unfitting messages is what makes it so enjoyable to watch.

At the end of the day, Violent Night is an absolute blast. It is one of the funniest movies of the year. Packed with brutal action that will have you squealing and laughing, Violent Night is a must watch.

Rating: 8 out of 10

NEXT: Nobody Movie Review: An Action Packed Complete Blast

About Violent Night

To hell with “all is calm.”

From 87North, the bare-knuckle producers of Nobody, John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Bullet Train and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw comes a coal-dark holiday action-comedy that says you should always bet on red.

When a team of mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage, the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus (David Harbour, Black Widow, Stranger Things series) is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.

Violent Night comes out in theaters on December 2nd, 2022.