Violent Night
Universal Pictures | Release Date: December 2, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
11
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeNov 29, 2022
Violent Night is one of the Yuletide season’s most delightful surprises, not just for what it gets right but also for the many ways the whole production could have gone very, very wrong. Read full review
83
ColliderMarco Vito OddoDec 8, 2022
While being far from perfect, Violent Night is just too fun not to revisit, which means it can become a new holiday classic in the years to come. Read full review
83
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerDec 1, 2022
While the best thing about this movie is its clarity of intent, the worst thing about it is that it uses blunt force to call out its reference points, name-checking both Die Hard and Home Alone repeatedly. Read full review
83
Original-CinThom ErnstDec 1, 2022
Ignore the nay-sleighers. Violent Night is the counter-Christmas B-movie that ditches the ho-ho-wholesomeness of the season for a damn good, bad Santa. Read full review
80
SlashfilmBen F. SilverioNov 29, 2022
The movie unexpectedly has a ton of heart that's guaranteed to refuel your Christmas spirit this year. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenDec 8, 2022
The picture is a hugely entertaining crowd-pleaser studded with laugh-out-loud moments from beginning to end. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyJoshua RothkopfDec 2, 2022
A team of screenwriters more creative than Pat Casey and Josh Miller (best known for two manic Sonic the Hedgehog movies) might have done more with the backstory, and director Tommy Wirkola's beatdowns never transcend the merely serviceable. But there's no denying the joy in a child's eyes when she sees Santa's weapon of choice, a sledgehammer hefted with brutal artistry, and squeals its name: "Skullcrusher!" Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 1, 2022
Now comes the gruesomely bloody, cheerfully tasteless, fantastically naughty and entertaining Christmas thriller Violent Night, which is basically “Die Hard” with candy canes in a mansion. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJack SmartNov 30, 2022
It’s a premise that’s just clever enough to work; although too many anachronistically cheery needle drops during gruesome fight sequences abound, there’s plenty to milk from the juxtaposition of family-friendly Christmas spirit and R-rated action and comedy. Read full review
70
CNNBrian LowryDec 2, 2022
The idea of a nasty Christmas movie is nothing new, but Violent Night still manages to deliver the goods, mixing “Die Hard” and “Rambo”-style action with a fair amount of hokey ho-ho-hokum. David Harbour makes a particularly good cranky, butt-kicking Santa, in a movie that offers the sort of shared experience that should bring theaters some much-needed cheer. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 30, 2022
To say Violent Night isn’t for everyone overstates the obvious. But if you’re looking for a bracing antidote to Hallmark Christmas movie treacle overload, it’s a holiday treat. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonNov 29, 2022
The picture is irreverent yet oddly touching, never especially great but often disreputable fun. Read full review
70
IGNMatt DonatoNov 29, 2022
Violent Night might take a hot minute to find its footing and keeps plucking low-hanging wordplay sugar plums, but at full strength, nobody's stopping Santa from making this year the reddest Christmas imaginable. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterAngie HanNov 29, 2022
For those who prefer their gingerbread soaked in booze and their tinsel splattered with gore, Violent Night might be exactly what the season calls for. Read full review
67
PolygonKatie RifeDec 2, 2022
The film has fun lobbing snarky one-liners and outrageous bloodshed at the audience, but on the whole, Violent Night’s big red bag of self-aware tricks is overstuffed. Read full review
67
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerNov 30, 2022
Violent Night isn’t a great action movie, or even a very good one, but George Costanza’s old assessment of Home Alone rings true: “The old man got to me!” Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleNov 30, 2022
When the film leans too heavily into violence, it undercuts the comedy; when the comedy takes center stage, it makes for an awkward bedfellow with the hard-R violence that defines the fight sequences. It’s a tricky line to walk for a Christmas movie – even one as unconventional as this – and Violent Night is not above the occasional stumble. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 5, 2022
Violent Night isn’t going to go down as a classic (although it may have cult classic potential) but, despite all the gore and violence and other R-rated material, it’s arguably less offensive than the kind of bilge proliferated by Netflix and Lifetime/Hallmark/etc. in the name of Holiday Cheer. There are certainly worse ways to spend a chilly December evening. Read full review
63
Washington PostPat PaduaNov 30, 2022
Behind all the gore-splattered walls and domestic rancor lies a sweet-and-sour bedtime story of good triumphing over evil. That said, please leave the kids at home. Read full review
63
The Associated PressMark KennedyNov 29, 2022
It’s easy to initially dismiss it as an “SNL” digital short that got high on its own tinsel but there is a sort of perverse glee to seeing Santa suck on the tip of a candy cane until it is a sharp shard and then plunge it into a bad guy’s neck. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellDec 5, 2022
Violent Night delivers everything that was promised, and it's destined to find long-lasting life as a cult classic, but there's barely anything of note beyond the superficial. Read full review
60
Time OutHelen O'HaraDec 1, 2022
In this fun action-thriller, David Harbour’s Santa is less Saint Nick and more John Wick. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanNov 29, 2022
The movie has no comic-book hook; it’s a trash-compactor genre buffet that smashes together a dozen things you’ve seen before. But that’s the hook. Violent Night is amusing in a few spots, wearying in more than a few others, but to complain about it in the way that I’m doing is to come off as churlish. It’s a movie that feeds the beast. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandNov 29, 2022
If you can vibe with that whiplash-inducing comedic opening — gallons of vomit mixed with some magical holiday sweetness — you just might be in the right frame of mind to receive what’s to come in this hyper-violent, occasionally funny, and often oddly charming holiday trifle. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithDec 2, 2022
There are many smart comic ideas in Violent Night, but they are scattered unevenly throughout, the villains are dull, and most of the imaginative energy goes into devising spectacularly gory murders involving the distressingly off-label use of Christmas paraphernalia. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshDec 1, 2022
The result is amusing enough, but it’s as cinematically substantive as a sugar cookie. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 30, 2022
Violent Night isn’t terrible, but it’s stuck between parodying something and trying to fit the genre it parodies. And it really should have been funnier. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 30, 2022
It’s not really a holiday action movie “escape” when you’re not really escaping the gruesome gore and inhumanity the movie is all-too-giddy about showcasing. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeDec 2, 2022
Sadly, the unfunny, unexciting Violent Night fails to deliver on its substantial promise. Read full review
40
The GuardianCharles BramescoDec 1, 2022
Not to be a Scrooge, but the occasional eye-gouge with a tree-topper star or string-light garotte only lends a frosty air of resourcefulness to a film with coal for brains. Read full review
40
EmpireJake CunninghamNov 29, 2022
Good fun in places, but dull for the most part, Violent Night is serviceable Christmas viewing. It’s a shame, because with such a fun riff on the Santa story, it should’ve been good for goodness sake! Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiDec 2, 2022
A largely tedious cinematic lump of coal that unsuccessfully tries to stretch its one-joke premise out to 101 minutes in a tonally uneven attempt to position itself as a new alternative holiday classic. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 1, 2022
I found Violent Night to be a joyless slay ride, not to mention verbally witless. There’s not much kick in seeing an R-rated version of “Home Alone,” and even that owed its home-invasion nastiness to Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs.” Read full review
38
Slant MagazineDerek SmithNov 30, 2022
Ultimately, it’s the filmmakers’ insistence on both subverting the expectations of the family Christmas film and upholding them that leaves Violent Night feeling like it wants to have its Christmas cookies and eat them too. Read full review
30
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Radheyan SimonpillaiDec 14, 2022
Not that Harbour is the reason that Violent Night lands like a lump of coal. He does what he can in a witless movie that is too easily satisfied with its own premise and often feels like it’s elbowing you in the ribs trying to get you to laugh along with it. Read full review
30
The New York TimesElisabeth VincentelliDec 1, 2022
Adding insult to bodily injury, the director, Tommy Wirkola (“The Trip,” “Dead Snow”), and the screenwriters, Pat Casey and Josh Miller, can’t even muster any decent set pieces. Instead, the movie unfurls as a tedious series of bloody deaths and witless dialogue. Read full review
10
Rolling StoneDavid FearDec 1, 2022
This is the sort of lazy, slapdash, self-impressed excuse for “edgy” entertainment that makes you enraged. It’s not even so-bad-it’s-good; this is so bad you’re tempted to kick those responsible for it right in the jingle bells. Read full review
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