‘Silent Night’ is a successful ‘imitation’ of ‘Die Hard’ according to early critics

On Friday 2 December ‘Silent Night’ arrives in our rooms, the most violent version of Santa Claus. Tommy Wirkola’s new film (“Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters”) stars David Harbour, who plays a depressed, aggressive and rude Santa Claus. The trailer was already quite the statement: a typical Christmas story with intense doses of excessive violence and insipid humor (yes, like blood, piss and vomit).

North American critics especially emphasize the impressive mix of genres, ranging from Christmas sentimentality to the most ordinary humor, although most of them decree that it is precisely this variety that works best. “Eliminate all possible genres but it could turn out to be a winning Christmas buffet”admits Variety. Right from the start, the film clearly marks where things are going to go: “If you can stomach that comedic opening (a lot of vomit mixed with magical Christmas sweetness) you might be in the right frame of mind to welcome what’s to come in this hyper-violent, sometimes funny and often strangely charming Christmas silliness”says IndieWire. However, for others it squeaks. “It’s frustrating when the story pivots to the Hallmark-style family reunion, needlessly cluttering things up”says Empire’s Jake Cunningham, taking one of the few positions that lacks more violence. According to him, that adrenaline wears off when the time comes. “Dull family drama and gleefully macabre fun merge into unfortunate worldliness”.

It is practically impossible for journalists not to mention films like ‘Home Alone’ or ‘Die Hard’ as a strong inspiration for the film, although they do point out that it manages to differentiate itself from these Christmas classics. According to The Wrap, ‘Silent Night’ gets to patent “his brand of electrifying mayhem and holiday pranks, just enough to step out of the crushing shadow of Bruce Willis”also noting that the villain Scrooge (John Leguizamo) “sells the character’s anti-holiday rage”highlighting it “He may not be Hans Gruber (‘Die Die’), but he’s not a hapless, sizzling Wet Bandit either.” Mulviews concludes that its success lies in the fact that “It’s a gory, ridiculous imitation of ‘Die Die’ that works because it knows it’s a gory, ridiculous imitation of ‘Die Die'”.

“‘Silent Night’ captures a heartfelt holiday spirit by taking an irreverent attitude to both Christmas movies and action films”, defines United Press International. IndieWire reporter Kate Erbland says: “The bottom line: Come watch David Harbor throw the bad guys into giant Christmas trees, and stay to see him stuff them into a chipper. they dry up when blood does too”.

And the actors?

“David Harbor exudes a sense of sympathy, which makes him just the right actor to play a depressed, vengeful Santa who, beneath his bloody gray locks, is truly the Christmas man we want him to be.”, highlights Variety. For his part, he says so “John Leguizamo, as always, refuses to leave no mark, ‘blasting out every obscenity’though Screendaily disagrees, considering the actor can’t bring himself to do it “get rid of unimaginative vision” of the villain that screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller had.

The film currently has 86% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and will premiere on Spanish billboard next Friday, December 2ndto start the Christmas season with (good?) basics.