Violent Night

Well, I am not sure I would want to put this one on my Christmas Movie rotation, but I did have a good time watching Violent Night.  David Harbour plays a Santa Clause who is a little disillusioned by the greed of modern kids and their parents.  Because of this, he drinks  too much, yells at his reindeer, and throws presents around.  He visits a house where a rich matriarch (Beverly D’Angelo) has gathered her money grubbing children and grandchildren for an overly catered Christmas event.  It turns out the house has been targeted by an evil bad guy who calls himself Scrooge (John Leguizamo).  Unfortunately for Scrooge, one of the grandkids is on Santa’s nice list and he decides to come to her rescue when the family is kidnapped by Scrooge and his evil mercenaries..  Lots of very bloody mayhem ensues.  David Harbour is great as Santa.  He has a history, he’s not always on the nice list. He is tough but takes alot of punishment.  Once he finds all of Scrooge’s minions on the naughty list….he wields everything from a hammer to ice skates to Christmas lights as he dispatches one bad guy after another.  I love the little homage to the movie ‘Home Alone,’ where we see the real consequences of booby-trapping a house.  But beneath all the horrific action, this is a true holiday movie with a happy ending.  Don’t take it too seriously as this is all tongue in cheek and definitely over the top. It’s almost camp.  My biggest criticism is that there was a little too much vomit and bodily liquids for my taste.  So I recommend this one to those of you who want a new take on the holdidays, and would like to know what to do with all those left over candy canes.