How as a Beloved Christmas Movie, ‘Violent Night’ Isn’t ‘Die Hard,’ It’s ‘Home Alone’
Does every Christmas film have to reinforce the ‘good guy with a gun’ narrative?
There’s only one plot in American film: Good guy fends off an endless horde of bad guys with a series of innovative and gruesome murders. Sometimes there will be moments of comic relief that come in the form of the victims meekly begging for the torture to stop.
It’s the ‘good guy with a gun’ narrative. The citizens of our nation consider it the greatest story ever told. We watch this same idea play out over and over again. Even people who put “keep Christ in Christmas” signs on their lawns wouldn’t dare to suggest we need holiday films that preach a message of tolerance and compassion.
No, the image of Christ that they pray to resembles John Wick. The only costume holdover is the hair.
I’ve never been a fan of the Home Alone series. My mom didn’t like it either. I remember her watching the trailer and saying, “Just what the world needs, another film about an obnoxious little brat disrespecting adults.”
Apologists say, “It’s okay to drop bricks on a person’s head and hit him in the groin with a bowling ball because he’s a criminal.”
But why are there criminals? Might society be to blame? Do they have to break the law just to survive? Are they trying to feed their children?
In Les Miserables, Jean Valjean is sent to jail for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. Today, that story would be told from the baker’s point of view, and Jean Valjean would likely get incinerated in the oven during the climax.
Chekov’s gun states that if you show a gun in scene one, it has to be fired in scene two. Modern American films aren’t limited to guns as the murder weapon, and murder is such a fundamental element that there is no longer a need for foreshadowing. The mystery comes in seeing how “regular people” in “normal occupations” will reveal how the familiarity they’ve developed through years of labor has turned them into cold-blooded killers.
You see, that’s the ultimate American fantasy. The citizens of this country dream about the various ways they’d kill people attacking their castle.
So, a film about a garbage man ends with the bad guys getting crushed in a garbage truck.
A film about a veterinarian ends with the bad guys getting chewed up by a bunch of highly trained German Shepherds.
A film about an elementary school teacher ends with the bad guys getting murdered by some combination of a white board, a dry eraser, and a book. Actually, no, not a book because that would inadvertently spread the message that there’s some value to books. The filmmakers would probably use an expensive tech device instead because that would allow them to cash in on product placement.
Santa Claus, too, must have a preferred way of killing people.
These days, audiences are growing tired of the “working class” murderer. Films like Fatman (2020) and Violent Night (2022) reimagine Santa Claus.
Instead of a “jolly old elf” who flies around generously spreading joy, he’s a cold blooded killer, because that’s what America wants!
There’s no place in our society for seeing poor kids receive free gifts without having to work.
The only message that’s acceptable in our society is two-hours of bloody retribution and punishment for evil, evil, evil! Criminals are beyond redemption! Forgiveness no longer has any place in the Christmas narrative.
Over the weekend, my kids threw in Home Alone 2. Predictably, they giggled as the two burglars were repeatedly forced to endure a series of brutal physical assaults.
I found it a little disquieting. So, when the film was done, I threw in Violent Night. Those two films pair surprisingly well.
Violent Night stars David Harbour as a burned out, working-class version of Santa Claus. He’s fed up with how kids these days spend all their time on social media. “All they do is consume, consume, consume.”
You know, because American citizens love to criticize consumer culture for some reason.
Then Harbour’s Santa conveniently loses his powers at the estate of a wealthy family that comes under the attack of the underrated John Leguizamo and his army of mercenaries. The presence of John Leguizamo elevates this film as it does everything he’s in.
Harbour is an excellent choice to play Santa in a bizarre project like this. We learn that hundreds or thousands of years ago (it doesn’t matter), Santa was a Nordic warrior who murdered people with a hammer named Skull crusher because of course he did.
There’s a scene where Santa has to take off his shirt to stitch up a wound. The Constitution requires a scene like that to appear in every American movie. True to the Santa mythos, he’s packed on a few pounds, but he’s also terrifyingly muscular.
I once read an interview with Hugh Jackman about the process he had to go through in order to look ripped. He confessed that in most of the scenes where you see every muscle fiber rippling beneath his taut skin, he’s actually so weakened from dehydration that he can barely lift his arms. The takeaway is that if you have to choose to fight somebody who looks like Hugh Jackman in Wolverine or David Harbour in Violent Night, pick Wolverine. Those gigantic, solid guys are much harder to deal with.
In Violent Night, burned out Santa murders dozens of people and, in so doing, somehow rediscovers the meaning of Christmas because… America.
The first time I watched this film, I thought it had been born out of the idea that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. To some extent, I empathize with the need to mix up your Christmas viewing content. A whole month is a long time to spend watching sticky romances about city girls giving up on their rich boyfriends to discover a down-to-earth romantic partner in the country (talk about fantasy!).
I don’t begrudge anyone for having to throw in Die Hard around December 15th just to achieve a sense of normalcy. People have been giggling about their viewing habits regarding that film for decades. As for me, I always used to watch Conan the Barbarian on Christmas.
It fits. There are a whole bunch of “sword and sandal” holiday films. Charlton Heston spends virtually the complete run time of Ben Hur oiled up and scowling. The only other element you need for it to be a Christmas film is a crucifixion.
Conan the Barbarian has that! He gets strung up on the tree of woe by the members of the serpent cult. Boom! Throw a couple presents under there and it’s a Christmas tree.
Predictably, people always screw up their face in confusion when I give my defense of Conan as a Christmas classic. Claiming Die Hard is considered cute. Taking the additional step to Conan is a bridge too far for most.
I always end with this argument:
“Conan doesn’t just die like a wimp when he gets crucified like Jesus did! No! He pretends he’s dead to lure in a vulture. Then, after it has nibbled on his chest for a while, he rips its neck open with his teeth, drinks its blood, and gains enough nourishment until his wizard buddy can come along to bring him back from the dead.”
Christmas!
Violent Night is like Home Alone except that there are consequences for every trap that’s set. People get their heads crushed in and blood oozes out. The first time this happened, my kids winced.
“What?”
“Daddy, this isn’t as fun as Home Alone.”
“Why not?”
“Well, they’re bleeding everywhere. When the people get hit in Home Alone, it’s funny.”
“Well, maybe hitting people and torturing them to death shouldn’t be funny,” I said.
Violent Night shows the actual consequences of abusing people. Home Alone is able to subject the same two characters to torture because it’s dishonest about how they’d be killed again and again. Violent Night is more accurate because it shows Santa killing a different person each time.
Real life isn’t like Road Runner vs. Coyote.
There’s even a scene in Violent Night when a little girl sets up some horrific booby traps and cries out, “It’s just like Home Alone!”
She’s right! Except my kids didn’t think it was as funny when the henchman got a barn nail shoved up through the bottom of his mouth.
As for me, I don’t think Home Alone is funny. I don’t need to see the blood to empathize with the pain those people endure.
Is empathy part of Christmas anymore?
I think it’s dangerous to show Home Alone to kids. When I was growing up, the moment a movie was over, we’d run into the back yard and act it out. We had all kinds of fun playing Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, and Tron.
What if a bunch of kids got done watching Home Alone and then went outside to drop a gallon of paint on the youngest from the roof? These films are like how cigarette companies used to put cartoon characters on their packaging in order to entice kids into smoking. Except, with our violent holiday movies, the message is, “Hey kids, come on, let’s commit murder!”
At the end of Home Alone 2, Kevin goes to the pigeon lady who saved his life and gives her a dumb Christmas ornament. That’s the way rich people think. He didn’t even consider that maybe she’d like a sandwich or a warm drink. I was waiting for him to say, “Do you want to come have Christmas dinner with us?”
Ha! No! That’s not a message that Americans are comfortable with. The whole audience would squirm at the sight of a homeless person in a fancy hotel eating dinner with the privileged class. Our cultural belief is that it’s much better to have these groups segregated. Rich people can have things like hot water, and poor people can wash themselves with the ducks in an ice covered pond. Ah, don’t you just love Christmas in America?
The most poor people can hope for is to be considered “friends” with the rich, and that friendship will last as long as the poor are content to persist in misery and sickness in their world of hardship until they die. The fact that a poor person saved a rich person’s life doesn’t change anything. That’s their moral duty after all.
Maybe tomorrow we’ll give up on the violent Christmas flicks and watch It’s a Wonderful Life. Does anyone get shot in that? I can’t remember.
Isn’t it odd to think that there was a time when everyone knew Christmas was the season for the community to come together and fight wealth inequality? That’s the message of the Bible too, but when people put those signs out in their yard, that’s not what they mean.
I expect that ten years from now, the murderer defending the house will be none other than Jesus Christ himself. He’ll probably be wearing a suit because many states have made it illegal to show any depiction of a man in a dress.
Keanu Reeves can play him, but this time there will be nothing given away for free, and it will be the criminals that get crucified.
Come to think of it, we won’t have to wait ten years. The public has been trained to demand that film already.
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I would never even bother to watch a film titled Violent Night.
I won’t watch most movies with murder, chaos, or violence, especially Christmas films the first time I watched home alone had a family holiday gathering, I was extremely uncomfortable. It is not at the top of my list for Christmas viewing. I do, however, have a fondness for revenge murder porn, like Dexter and Justified. I binge watched Dexter after the election. It allows me a sense of vindication to see the bad guys getting their just desserts.