Violent Night, one of the Christmas season’s most gruesome films, is now available for streaming on Peacock. The film, starring Stranger Things star David Harbour and directed by Tommy Wirkola, was released to U.S. theaters on December 2nd, 2021.
Described as a “genre-bending romp”, Violent Night stars David Harbour as Santa Claus, who’s become fed-up with serving the masses and delivering gifts down everyone’s chimneys on Christmas Eve. With his magic fading as a result of his own non-belief, Santa becomes Nikamund the Red, his badly-behaved original Viking persona, in order to save 7-year-old Trudy Lightstone (Leah Brady), her mother Linda (Alexis Louder), and her father Jason Lightstone (Alex Hassell) from a home invasion at a family reunion by brutally murdering the intruders, led by Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo).
Well-Reviewed ‘Violent Night’ film Comes to Peacock
In a review by Variety, Owen Gleiberman described David Harbour’s Santa as “a weapon-wielding badass” who’s “like a member of the Expendables, dispatching enemies with old-school brutality. When he grabs a sledgehammer, he becomes a death-wish version of Thor.” Defending Harbour’s casting, Gleiberman later states, “David Harbour gives off of a ping of likability, and that makes him the right actor to play a down-in-the-dumps, vengeance-is-mine Santa who is really, beneath his bloody mottled gray curls, the Christmas mensch we want him to be.”
Nearly six-and-a-half weeks after debuting in theaters, Violent Night with David Harbour is now available on Peacock alongside other titles like Yellowstone, Nope, and Real Housewives of Miami. The Christmas thriller making its streaming debut should give it a nice boost in box office earnings, according to Variety, since Violent Night reportedly debuted in the middle of its box office projections, coming off its opening weekend with 11.8 million dollars. Violent Night, along with all of the platform’s other titles, will only be available to customers with a paid Peacock subscription.
