Violent Night--My take on the movie with spoilers!

 Plot: When Trudy's family is attacked during a Christmas get together, she must rely on Santa Claus to save the day.

Year in and year out, we happily make Christmas lists, ask for gifts, and look forward to receiving them during the festive season.

As adults, we now know that Santa does not exist. But imagine if he did and had to go through making all the deliveries in one night. Imagine how exhausted he must be. Reading letters, making gifts, then delivering them.

And then realizing that next year, people will want something else, and not care about what they had asked in the previous year.

Will Santa still be in a jolly mood?

Or would he be wracked with apathy and disdain?

VIOLENT NIGHT shows Santa Claus in a new avatar. He is no longer a jolly fellow who holds his belly as he laughs. This Santa Claus is ready to smack down bad guys, especially if they are in the naughty list. Krampus can take a break when this Santa is in town.

VIOLENT NIGHT Plot

In England, Santa Claus is at a pub, drinking away his miseries. A mall Santa is sitting next to him, completely sympathetic to Santa's bad mood.

Santa talks about the greed, and how kids keep asking for gifts without ever being grateful to receive them. Next year, the kids forget the toys they had asked for in the previous year and ask for new ones.

Mall Santa offers to pay his bill as Santa gets up to leave. Before he does, he removes a present for the bartenders grandson. The bartender wonders how Santa knew the name. Also, why is Santa headed to the rooftop?

She follows him up, ready to give him a piece of her mind when she looks up to see a sleigh being driven by reindeer. She is filled with wonder when she realizes she has just encountered the real Santa. And that is when, Santa, who is hungover, vomits all over the bartender.

That's the opening of this movie.

Elsewhere, Jason comes to see his wife Linda, and daughter Trudy. Jason and Linda are clearly estranged but being polite in front of Trudy. The family heads to Jason's family home to celebrate Christmas.

It is a mansion and Linda is preparing herself to witness a lot of brown nosing by both Jason and his sister Alva who are trying to get on their mother Gertrude's good side.

To her surprise, Jason doesn't step forward to greet his mother. Alva, on the other hand, is joined by her boyfriend Morgan who is an actor, and goes out of her way to flatter her mother.

Gertrude is a busy woman and on the phone when she makes her entry. After her call, she demands to know why everyone is standing so far away.

Alva is suspicious of Jason who is making no attempt to flatter his mother. She too stands back which is why Gertrude is suspicious.

They greet Gertrude who is happily greeted by Trudy. Alva sends her son Bert ahead so that he is noticed too.

Meanwhile, Santa is not having a jolly good time delivering presents. He drowns himself in other people's alcohol while distributing presents.

He lands up at the mansion and enjoys the massage chair.

Trudy is allowed to open one of her presents early and it is a pair of walkie-talkies. Apparently it is supposed to get her to talk to Santa.

She uses the walkie-talkie to talk about her parents and how she wished they were together again.

Linda and Jason are eavesdropping outside her door and feel bad that their daughter misses them all being a family.

Unknown to them, the servers are not servers at all. Turns out there's a reason they are so inept at their job. They are a group of mercenaries who are after the money in the vault. $300 million to be exact.

Soon enough the whole family is held at gunpoint.

Santa is attacked by a mercenary but he is quickly disposed off.

Fingers are pointed at family members for hiding the money that is no longer in the vault. So what happened to the money?

Trudy hides and speaks on the walkie-talkie. Santa is there on the other end and hears her plea for help. He decides that Trudy is one of the nice ones on his list and therefore deserves his help.

More people come after Santa and he only has his magical sack of gifts to help him. Of course kids don't ask for weapons and Santa has a hard time going through the gifts to help him take down the mercenaries. Eventually he uses Christmas ornaments to dispose off the enemies in a violent way.

It is a violent night after all.

Santa then informs the mercenaries that he is here to help and will take them all down. The boss sends off his men to search for Santa.

More family drama occurs where Trudy is told that Santa doesn't exist.

The rest of the family is allowed to open presents and each one of them is to brown-nose Gertrude. She picks Jason's gift last and he is super reluctant to have her read the card he wrote for her.

Gertrude reads it and her face falls. Clearly, Jason has written something unsavory. When Alva asks what the notes says, Gertrude tells her it is none of her business.

The men come after Trudy too who decides to hide in the attic. She lets Santa know this and he promises her that she will be fine.

Lucky for Trudy, Home Alone is one of the holiday movies she has seen, and inspired by it, she sets up traps for the mercenaries who come after her.

Santa has a hard time dealing with the mercenaries and gets beaten up a lot. Eventually he gets the men to believe he is the real deal when he uses his magic to go up a chimney.

He notices that all of the men are on his naughty list and when the leader confronts him, Santa let's him know some details of his childhood that stuns him. The leader reveals that he hated Christmas and didn't believe in Santa because he and his family were poor and couldn't afford a nice celebration.

Santa escapes through the chimney when Trudy manages to create a distraction. The mercenaries who went after Trudy are taken down by the Home Alone traps.

Downstairs, it is revealed that Jason was the one who emptied the vault because he wanted to distance himself from Gertrude and have a nice life with Linda and Trudy. While Linda is touched, Gertrude is miffed because the note had said that very thing. She was supposed to receive that note after Jason had already fled with the money.

VIOLENT NIGHT Ending Explained

Eventually, Gertrude's extraction team arrives. There's no way the mercenaries can survive now.

Morgan is the first one to flee out the window. He is met with the commander who wants to know the situation inside. Morgan happily gives it to him only to find guns pointed at him. He is barely given time to register surprise before he is shot dead. The extraction team is in cahoots with the mercenaries.

Santa is shocked but then sees the names of all the men in the extraction team, on his naughty list.

Alva barely sheds tears. She was tired of her dumb boyfriend anyway.

In the meantime, Santa needs some encouragement and Trudy is there for him. He reveals his past as a Viking and how the one thing he would wish for was to get Mrs Claus back.

He then notices a sledge hammer. Did Mrs Claus send it to him via magic?

It's a Christmas miracle!

Santa goes after the mercenaries with renewed vigor while Jason is taken out to be tortured.

Another mercenary is tasked with doing away with Alva, Bert and Linda. The three argue about who should be shot first.

Alva, who has been drinking heavily, uses her glass to pour alcohol into the fireplace. The fire causes the mercenary to get distracted. He is poked with the fire poker several times until he is dead.

Santa brings Trudy to Linda who has some suspicions about him being the real Santa. But who cares? He saved her daughter.

Santa goes off to save Gertrude and Jason. Linda picks up a gun and goes to save Jason although she isn't a very good shot.

After she gets help from Santa, Jason and Linda reconcile and Trudy is happy to see her parents together.

Jason too has some doubts regarding the authenticity of this Santa but again, who cares? He is saving the family.

Santa goes through the villains and even gives chase in a snowmobile. Eventually only the leader is left who manages to injure Santa.

Santa uses what little magic he has to grab the leader and push him through a chimney with him. The poor guy is crushed. Not everyone can squeeze through a chimney.

As Santa lays there dying, Jason believes he isn't going to make it. He tries to keep him warm by burning the money he stole but it is too late. Trudy cries over Santa as he takes his last breath. She tells him she believes in him.

Everyone present takes cue and pretty much scream out that they believe in Santa.

Just like you have to clap hands and say you believe in fairies, this magic works on Santa too.

He comes alive.

His reindeers come to get him and he sees his magic sack is ready. He has a long night ahead of him. But he also sees a note from Mrs Claus and believes he has a chance to make things right with her.

Santa goes off on his sleigh while the family get together to experience Christmas magic.

The movie ends.

VIOLENT NIGHT may have some violent sequences but it doesn't forget that it is a Christmas movie and gives a healthy dose of Christmas spirit in the story.

SCARE SCALE: 3/5

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