This latest holiday effigy latches on to films from Home Alone to Miracle on 34th Street with a particular visceral thrust to our current level of cinema going.
Violent Night has a cast that includes David Harbour, John Lequizamo, Leah Brady, Cam Gigandet and Beverly D’Angelo (who was Ellen Griswold) set mainly in a palatial estate so Die Hard can’t be far from one’s mind.
Brady can be cute as really wicked traps are set as a confrontation looms cutting into the ‘Ho-Ho-Hos’ with pleasure. Some will enjoy the union of sentiment and brutality, charm and cynicism, but it may leave you wishing for a better Scrooge. Harbour’s Santa can be a credible grouch, but the action with its nasty traps might just be as disposable as you’d expect.