(courtesy IMP Awards)
SNAPSHOT
If you’re nice, you get presents from the Big Guy. If you’re naughty, you get justice. In 2022’s bare-knuckle holiday sensation, Violent Night, an embittered Santa, armed with lethal combat skills, took out a team of mercenaries to rescue a girl & her family. Now, not-so-jolly Saint Nick suits up again to take on a ruthless gangster (Jared Harris) terrorizing the merchants of the Silver Bell Mall. But when Santa forgets the true meaning of Christmas, he finds himself in the heart of a lively mall community in desperate need of his help. Sapped of his magic, he’ll need another way to take on the goons threatening the mall, and time is running out. Santa has to rediscover his faith in goodness & call in some last-minute reinforcements from the one person no baddie wants to tangle with: Mrs. Claus (Kristen Bell). Violent Night 2 is again directed by Norwegian genre filmmaker Tommy Wirkola, of the movies Kill Buljo: The Movie, Dead Snow, Kurt Josef Wagle and the Legend of the Fjord Witch, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, What Happened to Monday, The Trip, Violent Night, Thrash, and animated Spermageddon. It’s also again written by Pat Casey & Josh Miller. Produced by Kelly McCormick and David Leitch. (courtesy First Showing)
I am usually a soft and warm and cuddly most wonderful time of the year celebrator of Christmas and so, when Violent Night landed in 2022, I dismissed as too dark, too violent, too horror-ish (yeah, I didn’t pay much attention to it).
I was all set to do the same to Violent Night 2 until something compelled me to watch the trailer and I discovered that here was a movie with Lethal Weapon/Die Hard vibes and body count and huge sense of fun and heart.
Colour me absolutely surprised.
So, Christmas 2026 will involve me watching the first film, then heading to the cinema to watch the second film and giving the festive season a far more redder hue than normal.
Violent Night 2 opens 3 December in Australia and 4 December in Australia.