Violent Night - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Violent Night



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Well, Universal continues to release 4K UHD releases of new release Blu-rays almost a year later. We’ve seen this with M3gan, Black Phone and now Violent Night. I was a big fan of the quirky and super violent Christmas actioneer, and right in time for holiday festivals we get a nice upgrade over the decent Blu-ray release we got back in January. A 4K encode for the video, a boost up to Atmos for the audio, and we got what should have been released back at the beginning of the year along with the 1080p disc (grumble, whine). But, better late than never, and Universal’s 4K UHD certainly does deliver the goods.

“Oh Holy Niiiiiiight! I think I blew my foooooot ooff!” (If you don’t know where that’s from, shame on you). Violent horror/action themed Christmas movies has been a thing for many years (Silent Night, Deadly Night etc), but it seems to have made a resurgence in the last few years. Mel Gibson’s Fat Man was certainly commendable, albeit a flawed application of the genre. However, Violent Night tends to avoid most of the veering pitfalls that Fat Man fell into, and instead dances just along the edge with tons of gore and violence to keep the fans grinning, and juuuuuuust enough humor and self aware winking at the camera to keep the audience from killing themselves by rolling their eyes into the back of their heads.

It’s Christmas Eve, and the wealthy Lightstone family is having their annual family Christmas party as usual. The snobby family is full of back stabbing, wannabes, and general sucking up the Matriarch Gertrude (played by an aging Beverly D’Angelo of Chevy Chase Vacation fame), and of course hating her at the same time. Jason (Alex Hassell) and his wife Linda (Alexis Louder) are having a bit of a hard time this year. The two has split up and are sharing custody of their daughter Trudy (Leah Brady) and trying to make due in a family that both family members hate being a part of. However, their “happy” little Christmas takes a sharp right turn when a group of mercenaries led by a man code named “Scrooge” (John Leguizamo) who wants the $300 million in cash hidden in the Lightstone vault.

What no one accounted for was the inclusion of a drunk Santa Clause (David Harbour), who just so happens to come down the chimney to drop off some presents, only to find himself stuck in the giant mansion with a bunch of psychotic mercenaries. Turns out Santa isn’t as jolly and nice as people imagine him as. Once a Viking raider cursed to become Santa to make up for his past crimes (intimated heavily throughout the movie), good old Mr. Clause finds a buuuuuuuuuunch of mercs on his naughty list, and he’s not about to leave without delivering them their lumps (of coal).

Violent Night is a hilarious lark that pretty much winks and nods at the camera the entire way till the credits. Director Tommy Wirkola makes no bones that this isn’t to be taken seriously, and if you keep that in mind this is a hilariously gory good time. Santa chops, stabs, impales, and makes jokes while making mined meat of the baddies. John Leguizamo isn’t AS over the top as he normally is (I’ve noticed that over the years he seems to be calming down from his normal high strung performances), but is deliciously fun as the evil Mr. Scrooge (and has one of the most satisfying and hilarious deaths of the movie). Alex Hassell is a bit more goofy and over the top from his normal serious rolls, and Beverly D’Angelo just has fun as the arrogant matriarch in her limited role (and boy howdy, does she sound like she’s smoke 3 packs a day for 30 years and had too much botox and face lifts).

The film itself is utterly ridiculous, but works as a sort of gory, insane, over the top lark where no one is actually taking anything seriously. It’s got elements of Norse mythology, David Harbour being David Harbour, and even some Home Alone thrown in for the 3rd act? It’s a bizarre movie, and objectively it’s a bad film. Yet at the end of the day I can’t help but just laugh myself silly and go along for the ride. It misses the weird pitfalls that Mel Gibson’s Fat Man fell into (mainly that abysmal center act), and instead just keeps amping up the insanity till the final act is quite literally almost pure comedy with some gore thrown in.




Rating:

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references.





4K Video: Video:

I liked the Blu-ray of Violent Night when it came out 10 months ago. It was a solid performer with a very VERY dark color scheme. The film is simply bathed in darkness most of the time, with the only lit sequences being the inside of the mansion, with heavy yellowed lighting and an almost hazy look to it. The fine details are excellent this go around, with what I would consider a fine tuning of the original 1080p disc. Textures are cleaner and clearer, with better details in up close shots, and much better rendering of the darkness. Gone is the mild banding that we saw, and that “haze” that I noticed is less prevalent in the 4K UHD disc. It’s as if the disc’s bandwidth allows it to render the stylized look a bit better, and not look as soft or diffused. There’s still some mild softness to the picture that seems intentional (or at least an artifact of the aesthetics), but overall this is a great looking disc that is a solid upgrade over its 1080p counterpart.








Audio:

I enjoyed the 7.1 DTS-HD MA track on the Blu-ray, but I had noticed it required a very large DB boost on the receiver dial to get to reference volume. The new Atmos track that Universal has imbued to the 4K disc is very similar, but not AS aggressive a boost is needed. I had to put the dial to -21 on my receiver, while most Atmos tracks hover around -28 (still better than the -16 I had to utilize on the Blu-ray). But at reference level it sounds VERY similar to the good 7.1 mix. Vocals are clear and clean, with a strong amount of surround presence during the tons of action sequences. My only “complaint” is that I felt that the bass was a bit softer than I would have liked for an insane action track like this. It’s very nice, but just doesn’t excel and “wow” you like, say, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. I’d say that this is a slight tweaking and changing of the 7.1 mix, sounding nearly identical in every way except for some moderate overhead usage (such as the reindeer’s landing on the roof, or gunfire blasting into the ceiling) more than reinventing the entire mix.












Extras:

• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Family Arrives at the Mansion
• Jason and Linda in Bedroom
• Krampus Sees Trudy's Radio
• Santa on the Roof
• Walk to the Manger
• Family Resolution
• Bad Dad
• Cast Call Back
• Extended Scenes
• Quarrelin' Kringle - Cast and crew relay why David Harbour is the perfect brawler for this combative rendition of Santa.
• Santa's Helpers: The Making Of VIOLENT NIGHT - Tommy Wirkola and David Leitch have reunited for another madcap, violent fairytale with heart in VIOLENT NIGHT. This making-of will celebrate their spirited reunion as well as the other little helpers.
• Deck the Halls with Brawls - Go behind the action as we go blow for blow with the new villains of Christmas.
• Feature Commentary with Director Tommy Wirkola, Producer Guy Danella, Writer Pat Casey and Writer Josh Miller

Final Score: ​

Violent Night is a total blast, and probably my favorite guilty pleasure of the years so far (as short as this year has been to date). It’s profane, nasty, heart warming, and purely popcorn fun at its core. Don’t take it too seriously and you’ll be entertained. Try to analyze or enjoy this as a serious film and you’ll run into too much stupidity to overcome. The 4K UHD is a healthy upgrade over the very nice Blu-ray, with great video, and a mild boost over the DTS-HD MA 7.1 track with a full blown Atmos track (although, it still needs a DB boost on the receivier, just like the DTS-HD MA track). With news that a sequel is on the way, I kind of hope they up the ante a bit, with more violence and even crazier hijinks. That being said, this 4K UHD is what I wish we had seen in January, and defintiely worth checking out if you're a fan.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Beverly D'Angelo, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Mike Dopud
Directed by: Tommy Wirkola
Written by: Pat Casey, Josh Miller
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), German Dolby Digital Atmos, French, Italian, Spanish DTS-HD HR 7.1, French (Canadian), Japanese DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Czech, Mandarin
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: R
Runtime: 112 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: November 7th, 2023

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I have not seen this so will check it out.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Great flick! This landed in 4K on Kscape last year... agree with all of your assessments, Mike.