Violent Night 4K 2022 2160p WEB-DL

A group of mercenaries takes over the estate of a rich family. An actor invited to play the role of Santa Claus has to save the situation and Christmas.

Violent Night 4K Review
Christmas Eve. The Lightstone family gathers at the home of their millionaire mother (Beverly D'Angelo). Savvy son Jason (Alex Hassell) drags ex-wife Linda (Alexis Lauder) and baby Trudy (Leah Brady) to the party. And the tycoon's sarcastic daughter Alva (Edie Patterson) is already teaching the loser boyfriend (Cam Gigandet) and the loutish offspring Bert (Alexander Elliot) to smile obligingly at his grandmother. Both heirs covet old Gertrude's heart and money, but their cunning plan fails miserably: the house is invaded by armed robbers led by Scrooge (John Leguizamo). Luckily, in the heat of the attack the real Santa Claus (David Harbour) suddenly appears on the roof of the mansion: he is disappointed with children and the world around him, has gone on a binge and now is glad to take out all his pent-up rage on the criminals.

"Cruel Night" is a one-actor movie. The chubby, bearded and visibly inebriated character of Klaus owes a lot to David Harbour: Had a Hollywood idol with a polished appearance appeared in his place, all the magic would have gone out the chimney. The star of "Very Strange Things" amazingly combines two directly opposite types - a smiling teddy bear and an alley maniac. His character prefers alcohol to milk, can stitch up stab wounds with a needle and break legs with a sledgehammer, and unashamedly vomits from a Christmas harness on the heads of harmless passers-by. However, from this Lappish big guy you can expect not only blows, but also gifts. Thanks to Harbour's acting range (as well as the filmmakers' attempts to make the movie unnecessarily moralizing), the film itself constantly slopes into sentimentality.

If "Cruel Night" had been directed by Taika Waititi, a great master of combining cynical humor with family drama, the trick would have worked flawlessly. But "Operation Dead Snow" director Timo Wirkola, unfortunately or fortunately, has spent his entire career tearing limbs off and splattering blood in low-budget exploitation and B-movies. So any attempt by an action movie with Harbour to be not only a black comedy but also a Christmas comedy burns up like used Christmas lights. And cause genuine irritation to the viewer: the fireside family confessions and memories of a difficult childhood (turns out the burglars cry, too) sound so commercialized that all the thrashing is devalued in a matter of minutes.

Thankfully, at some point, "Cruel Night" remembers what everyone has gathered around the screens for and stops pretending to be a holiday movie. There are Christmas toys (Santa usually shoves them right in the eyes of his detractors), wrapping paper (which he uses to cover his bleeding wounds), and garland halters. The film begins to look more and more like an infernal version of "Home Alone": there's a reason little Trudy confesses her love of the classics with Macaulay Culkin and fights off her enemies with bowling balls dropped from the attic and nails hammered into the stairs. In truth, Timo Wirkola treats the legacy of Chris Columbus in his own way: the seemingly harmless traps for children shed as much blood as the righteous blows with Santa's sledgehammer. Not for nothing did David Litch co-produce Cruel Night - the action choreography here intrigues more than the filming, much less the story.

"Cruel Night" could have been the new anti-Christmas classic in the vein of "Gremlins," but Harbour in a Santa Claus costume is left to cower dutifully in Gizmo's tiny shadow. It takes more than comic-movie violence and a couple of toilet jokes mixed with annoying moralizing to get people's love. But a bloody gift movie, reeking of overdose and dried-up vomit, is still worth ten refined holiday dramas - better to spend your Christmas waiting with it than with another pesky Dickens adaptation.