Violent Night (2022)
The action-comedy Violent Night plays like a perfect mix of Die Hard and Home Alone, making it one of the funniest (and most brutal) Christmas movies of recent years.
David Harbor (Stranger Things) plays Santa Claus. Not a fake Santa, like Billy Bob Thornton in the equally unforgettable Bad Santa, but the real one.
The twist being that he once had a violent past. However, these days he is not happy with his life anymore. He drinks and smokes too much. Kids just want video games. People believe in him less and less, which also lessens his magical powers.
And that while he will soon be facing the most Violent Night of his life.
Thing is, the wealthy family of one of the sweetest kids on his list, Trudy (star-of-tomorrow Leah Brady), is being held hostage by a master criminal named Scrooge (John Leguizamo) and his gang at the mansion of the unscrupulous mater familias (Beverly D'Angelo, excellent).
All this with the intention of… well, it’s a wealthy family, you’ll get the idea.
Director Tommy Wirkola, working from a script by Pat Casey and Josh Miller, takes the time to calmly build up the story, and then goes wild with brutal violence.
All the main characters, and there are quite a few, get their emotional beats and Scrooge's hatred of the Christmas spirit is also well motivated.
In the end, though, it's the Santa and Trudy movie. When they join forces, the Bad Guys can just forget about it, in a gory, messy way that sets a new standard for mainstream Christmas movies.
If you see only one Christmas movie this year, make it this one!