The holiday season means there will be classic Christmas shows on TV all the time, but that doesn’t mean fans of the genre will be out of work. Many holiday action and horror films such as Die Hard, Batman Returns, Gremlinsas well as Silent night, deadly night have been recognized as legitimate holiday classics along with traditional favorites such as White Christmas as well as It’s a wonderful life. If you’re looking for a fun new festive bloody holiday, Tommy Wirkolaoutrageous action thriller cruel night let Santa ClausDavid Harbor) reveal their cruelty.
cruel night explores an old disheveled version of Santa who has more in common with John McClain (Bruce Willis) than you think; he is annoyed by childish greed and is not on good terms with his reindeer. In the midst of his travels on Christmas Eve, Santa makes the mistake of spending too much time at the Lightstone family home. He finds himself in the middle of a brutal robbery when mercenary Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo) tries to rob the wealthy head of the family, Gertrude (Beverly D’Angelo) of their state.
While the film’s obvious appeal is to see Harbor’s grumpy action hero, Leguizamo enjoys it just as much. The film can use his supposedly tragic backstory to poke fun at how ridiculous the idea of Santa’s vanity is. While Leguizamo definitely leans towards the type of eccentric bad guys we often see in action movies, there are quite a few nods to classic Christmas villains. It fits in with the festive nature of the film and is wonderfully connected to the theme of faith.
Scrooge of all kinds
The name “Scrooge” fits because the Leguizamo character seems to really hate the holiday. He makes Christmas-themed puns and insults that might even make the Grinch cringe. Although used for playful purposes, it is an important way to tie in Santa’s regrets about the season. This is a period when the world is dominated by commercialism, and Scrooge is just another snooty kid who is angry that he didn’t get what he wanted.
In the opening scene, Santa drinks himself stupid in a bar and comments on his resentment towards this generation of kids. He mentions that once kids get what they want, they immediately decide they want something different next year. It turns out that this is literally what motivates Scrooge; after he ties up Santa, Scrooge reveals that his grudge against Santa and Christmas is because his father couldn’t give him presents after losing his job. He’s just an overgrown bully like Scoot FarkusZach Ward) in Chrismas storyand he never got over his childhood resentment.
Despite being named after a famous Christmas villain, Scrooge is no more mature than an overgrown child given a piece of coal. Leguizamo plays on the idea that he’s just an immature, selfish kid who has a great time chewing on the scenery with childish antics. Christmas villains like the Grinch don’t understand what the holiday really means, and Scrooge makes the same mistake of not appreciating what he had. However, cruel night refutes this cliché because Scrooge finds no redemption at the end.
Scrooge is a selfish criminal
It is appropriate that cruel night contains a short link to tenaciousbecause Harbor can make witticisms that John McClain would approve of. It only made sense that Leguizamo debuted his version of Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). Looks like famous tenacious bad guy, Scrooge has no more complex motives than greed. He claims to be the master culprit, but in reality, he’s just an incompetent pawn who didn’t plan his heist ahead of time. There is a particularly funny moment when Bert (Alexander Elliot) questions his plan, forcing Scrooge to spare the innocent captives.
Like Gruber, Scrooge makes the mistake of underestimating his enemy. Despite having a powerful group of mercenaries at his disposal, as well as the resources of home cameras and technology, he continues to discount that Santa is a real threat (and that he even exists). Similarly, he is willing to sacrifice his goons. While the movie is a nod to the first movie, the escape of Scrooge and his henchmen on snowmobiles is almost identical to the episode involving Colonel William Stewart (William Sadler) in Die Hard 2.
Another Christmas classic that plays a key role in cruel night is Alone at home; Trudy (Leah Brady) mentions watching a movie before Christmas and gets some lessons from Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin). She learns to use household items to set up traps when Scrooge’s minions hunt her down and his wacky thugs are as incompetent as the Wet Bandits. cruel night beret Alone at home premise and turns it into an R-rated destination.
christmas horror
Although cruel night it’s not really a horror movie, it’s gory enough to almost fit the bill. This makes sense considering that Wirkola is one of the aspiring horror directors of her generation thanks to her work on dead snow franchise. During the final confrontation between Scrooge and Santa, he actually turns into Billy from Black Christmas or Billy Chapman from Silent night, deadly night series. He has lost all sense of sanity and has essentially turned into an obsessive sociopath.
Scrooge also has bouts of general resentment at the kindness that made Mr Potter (Lionel Barrymore) so despicable in It’s a wonderful life. Scrooge considers the day to be a normal work day and doesn’t feel obligated to be kind. It’s an interesting way to express the idea of the film; Santa emerges victorious from their final battle thanks to the power of faith. Scrooge doesn’t really believe in anything.
Harbor is having a great time and it would be easy to just pit him against a series of faceless thugs. However, Leguizamo clearly got the job done and does a great job of recasting the Christmas bad boy through an action comedy lens. His total commitment to the beat helps to give cruel night a real festive atmosphere that fans of the genre will surely celebrate for years to come.
Source: Collider
