Violent Night

  Hell, let's call it a Christmas miracle: Tommy Wirkola, who's been doing clever, likeable but not-quite-all-there Hollywood-adjacent genre work like Dead Snow and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, has finally hit it out of the park and made a very respectable Killer Santa movie.

 Only instead of taking its queues from, say, Silent Night, Deadly Night, it's an action comedy pastiche that pulls elements from a whole lot of influences.
 Die Hard towers over everything else, as well it should. There was a period after it came out when everyone joked that the elevator pitch for every other action movie was "Die Hard in a [blank]". This is absolutely, deliberately true here: "What if Die Hard but Santa?". But you also get a bunch of elements from other Christmas and action movies of yore, a generous helping of ultraviolence, and some random pulls from other movies the team watched and liked.

 Santa (David Harbour) is having doubts about humanity deserving a holiday like Christmas lately, what with all the ungrateful, cynical fucks out there. He still does his job, but he's an alcoholic, mumbling mess and he's seriously thinking of calling it quits.
 At the same time, a precious little moppet (Leah Brady) is spending Christmas with her family in a secluded mansion, caught in the middle of various shitstorms; Her parents are separated; Her father's family is a bunch of rich sociopaths straight out of Knives Out, grovelling at the feet of their matriarch (a very funny turn from Beverly D'Angelo); And, worst of all, that same Christmas eve a group of well-coordinated criminals targets the house, kills all the security and kidnaps the family, trying to get at a shitload of money hidden away in an underground vault.

Bah humbug

 You could say that Santa's the wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong time. There's even a plot twist straight out of Die Hard 2 later on.
 Will Mr. Claus rise to the occasion and fight off the horde of criminals? Restore his Christmas spirit? Get that adorable moppet's parents back together?
 Well, yes, yes and of course. And that's this film's secret weapon: It plays its cards completely straight. It's got a lot of jokes -many of them quite good- and a lot of bloodshed, but these things never undermine what's effectively a very earnest, honest to god Christmas movie. It also carefully sets up its action so that when, say, someone tries to strangle Santa with a string of Christmas lights, you know exactly why he had his hand covering his throat. Props are carefully foreshadowed so that when Chekhov's woodchipper finally comes into play it's an extremely satisfying action beat. The script (by Pat Casey and Josh Miller, who were behind the recent Sonic movie) is very tightly constructed, and you can also see the fingerprints there of production company 87North, who have been churning out some of the best action movies of the last decade.

 So it's a bit surprising that the weak point here is the action itself - as mentioned, it's got great beats and very fun ideas, but unfortunately it isn't as fun to watch as other recent 87North joints. It's clear enough, if a bit dark, and well choreographed, but full of quick edits, slightly shaky, close-quarters shots, and non-martial artists doing the moves. I wouldn't complain that much except I had my hopes up given the distributor's pedigree.

 And yeah, David Harbour is excellent as Bad(ass) Santa. Very funny and believably scary when he's pissed off.

 Die Hard was and always will be essential viewing for the holiday season. I don't think Violent Night will ever reach that status -it's just not as good, which, well, is true of almost every other movie out there- but it's fiercely committed to being a better Christmas movie. It's got more holiday-themed killing and maiming than any three Christmas slashers put together; I think just about the only seasonal objects that weren't used as a murder weapons or factored in the action somehow were mistletoe, advent calendars and eggnog...
 Have to leave something for the sequel, I guess.