VIOLENT NIGHT
★★
OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 112 MINS
DIRECTOR Tommy Wirkola
CAST David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder
Here comes Santa Claus. He’s got a sleigh full of presents, a big red coat, and a war hammer covered in the blood of his victims. Combining candy-cane-sweet festivities and lashings of fatalities, Violent Night sees David Harbour take up the Santa mantle with beer on his breath, as a chance arrival at a family’s estate during a home-invasion reignites his passion for presents — and punching. There’s a thrill in watching Harbour’s Santa utilise pool balls, darts and a star ornament to gruesome effect, but the central family melodrama pads things out far too much. For every abominable use of an ice-skate blade, there’s some dull argument to sludge through, and the initial macabre fun melts away into unfortunate mundanity.