Filmtracks: Violent Night (Dominic Lewis)

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Written 12/30/22

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Buy it... if you adore great parody scores, Dominic Lewis winning the holiday season with one of the most uniquely smart and funny Christmas film scores ever.

Avoid it... if you cannot fathom hearing Michael Kamen's Die Hard, John Williams' Home Alone, and a slew of popular Christmas carols brutally adapted into this shamelessly wild romp.

Lewis

Violent Night: (Dominic Lewis) Ever since the opening scene of the 1988 film Scrooged, there has lingered an unfulfilled desire to see Santa Clause battle an army of assassins with machine guns on a snowy Christmas night. The 2022 comedy action caper Violent Night strives to scratch that itch while also providing a surprisingly wholesome family story on the side. In an obvious parody combination of Die Hard and Home Alone, the movie telling of a heavily armed gang of mercenaries that takes over the estate of a wealthy family, seeking to plunder hundreds of millions of dollars in the mansion's vault. Unfortunately for them, the real-life magical and drunken Santa Claus is delivering presents to that home during the assault and gets caught up in the fight after his reindeer on the roof are scared off by a spray of gunfire. He spends the rest of the picture killing bad guys as expected but also restoring faith in his own Christmas traditions and healing the bond of the family targeted. The movie struggles to balance its yearning for a Hallmark ending with the brutal and gory killings along the way, but audiences and critics found it amusing enough to praise. Its premise promises to make Violent Night something of a cult guilty pleasure for future Christmas viewings, and part of its appeal is definitely owed to its extremely effective soundtrack. A wide variety of pop and classically-oriented Christmas carols are employed throughout the film, often as source-like background music. Incorporating some of these selections into his original work for the film is composer Dominic Lewis, and while the filmmakers had originally contemplated a more hard-edged approach to the score, they eventually settled upon a very traditional orchestral sound that serves a parody purpose in context. The movie's insistence upon supplying a tender, family-friendly conclusion also required Lewis to crank up the sappiness factor, yielding music more substantial than but largely similar in tone and instrumentation to his concurrent score for Spirited. The blend of favorite Yuletide carols with his own thematic material is very adept in Violent Night, combining the parody chops of Theodore Shapiro with the shamelessly overflowing heart of Mark McKenzie for an outstanding holiday romp, easily one of the most unique holiday scores of all time.

For Lewis, Violent Night comes at a time when he had already intrigued with his breadth of exploration in The King's Man and Bullet Train, the composer taking his experience as an associate of Henry Jackman and parlaying that into a series of impressively varied scores that themselves utilize a team of arrangers reporting to Lewis. Of the arrangers for Violent Night, Daniel Futcher is credited with the most influence on the score via six cues. With his 2022 efforts, Lewis has graduated to new level of production, with Violent Night as the pinnacle of those efforts. This score is not only refreshing from a creativity standpoint, it's well executed in its spotting, development, and blend of moderately sized orchestral and choir. Electronic accompaniment is minimal. The application of metallic percussion for the Christmas spirit is pervasive, sleigh bells, tambourines, and handbell sounds all lending credibility to the atmosphere. The ensemble isn't particularly resounding (it surely needed more reverb for a Lesbian Vampire Killers kind of effect), but it does shine when paired with the choral layers that are dominated by male voices across the spectrum. Santa is often represented by brass while the villains are treated to woodwinds, especially bassoons. Militaristic percussion provides light but adequate muscularity to action cues. Celeste and strings join softer choral shades for the story's family. In this usage, Lewis manages to ape the basic sounds of Michael Kamen's Die Hard (most notably in "Al Gets Scrooged," "Baah Humbug Motherf**ker," and "Snow Way Out," with some straight temp-track emulation of the Kamen score's assault material pretty obvious), Alan Silvestri's more brutal vintage action edge ("Empty Stocking" and "Baah Humbug Motherf**ker"), John Williams' Home Alone action ("Fight Lights"), and even a touch of Anne-Kathrin Dern's trio of The Claus Family scores ("Spewtiful"). Some of the more conservatively pretty sequences remind of Mark McKenzie and John Debney proficiency in pleasant familial tones. The infusion of carols within the confines of the score includes "Silent Night," "Deck the Halls," "The Twelve Days of Christmas," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "Ding Dong Merrily on High," and "Jingle Bells," and Lewis' handling of these melodies is remarkably keen. Cues like "Spewtiful," "Jingle Bells," "Cookies & Brandy," "Baah Humbug Motherf**ker," and "Feliz Navi-Dead" make obvious use of these traditional pieces, but they're sprinkled in fragments everywhere.

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For casual viewers of the film, the carols applied within the score may not seem too strategically removed from the song versions of those melodies heard several times in Violent Night. The "Deck the Halls" score performance in "Spewtiful," for instance, follows the depiction of Santa Claus vomiting outside a tavern as the main title is shown, and it's clearly there for laughs. In "Feliz Navi-Dead," Lewis utilizes "Ding Dong Merrily on High" vocals mixed in a muted source-like background position during part of the cue before bringing its mix in line with the rest of the score. One carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," is actually applied as a motif specific to one group of characters; otherwise, the carols are spotted in the score to punctuate particular ironies or other elements in the story. Along with these favorites is a set of themes provided by Lewis for Violent Night, though only one idea really takes hold in the score. The composer revisits his main theme for Santa Claus and the film so many times that the work may sound somewhat monothematic to some listeners. It's a hopeful and redemptive identity, highlighted by repeated, ascending three-note phrases, and Lewis works wonders with the malleability of the idea. Heard immediately on piano and acoustic guitar in "Spewtiful," the theme expands fully on choir at 1:15 with vibrant metallic percussion. It dances at 0:25 into "Secret Santa" on woodwinds and later solo horn with restrained optimism, shifting back to a comedically cheery and drunk personality at 1:38 into "Cookies & Brandy." The main theme shows its versatility in "Baah Humbug Motherf**ker," interrupting the villain material on tuba at 1:37 and 2:34 and turning heroic on horns and choir at 2:04 and 3:00 before becoming cutely suspenseful amongst the carols at 2:54. It goes into full action mode at 0:25 into "Fight Lights" with good cheer, is fragmented early in "Santa, Are You There?" but gains resolve as the cue goes on, adopts a menacing posture on low woodwinds at 0:30 into "Frostbite," and opens "Nice List" with tender hope. The theme counters the villains' rhythm at 1:05 into "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and intriguingly goes darkly liturgical for choir and banging metallic accents in the origins cue of "Nicumond the Red" before shifting to a Williams-like celeste and flute performance at 2:48 into that cue. It occupies much of "Christmas Magic" in lighter tones, supplies suspenseful allusions at the outset and conclusion of "Snow Way Out," and turns completely around with flowery and ethereal tones to start "For Goodness Flake" and moves to a light comedy mode later.

The main theme of Violent Night receives even wilder swings in emotional purpose in the final third of the film, setting it up to be the wholesome hero identity by the end. After a stoic horn at 0:44 into "Season's Beatings," it provides upbeat bursts with choir at 1:42 and 2:14. This chipper attitude continues at 2:49 into "Filthy Animals," expanding on big choral performances at 3:16 and closing the cue with lovely spirit from those singers. The theme opens "Feliz Navi-Dead" with an extension of the previous cue's charming tone but segues into action mode in several fragments mixed with carols, finally triumphing in full hero bravado at 3:33 as it mixes heavily with the "Ding Dong Merrily on High" carol. It occupies 0:13 into "Kissmas Wish" in ensemble fantasy mode and barely informs the action late in "Naughty List," but expect to be impressed by Lewis' culmination of the theme in "Winter's Night." In that highlight cue, the composer presents the main theme in hugely resolute and religious form at 0:13 on brass over forceful chanting, several lyrical choral performances by various male tones ensuing thereafter. The flowing rendition at 1:38 into "Winter's Night" with anticipatory harmonies underneath is magnificent. The solo horn version of the theme recurs early in "Violent Night" before handing the melody to the woodwinds, mingling with "Silent Night" redemption at the midpoint before a lovely send-off. Lewis continues its lighter performances in "HO HO HO," building to a notable choral and celeste performance before more of "Silent Night" is reprised. He concludes the score with a boisterous and gorgeous ensemble performance of the theme for lofty closure. This main theme does have an interlude phrase that recurs many times in Violent Night, its descending progressions pretty and wholesome. Introduced by bassoon at 0:21 into "Spewtiful," this interlude recurs at 0:57 into "Nice List" on strings, 1:14 into "Season's Beatings" on oboe and flute, and franticly at 2:56 into "Feliz Navi-Dead." After a very brief reference at 0:27 into "Winter's Night," it takes a bow in lightly dramatic tones at 0:43 into "Violent Night," where it borrows some magic from Alan Menken's Beauty and the Beast. Interestingly, Lewis seems to have opted not to score the family or the little girl at its heart with any memorable theme. He does start to softly explore a possible avenue for the girl at the outset of "Secret Santa" on piano, but that idea is never explicitly developed later. Rather, it is the main theme for Santa Claus (and, notably, its interlude) that is provided for some placements where a family theme may have been equally appropriate.

The handling of the villains in Violent Night is satisfying though not always melodically tight. The bassoons often carry evil intent for all characters, and slapping militaristic percussion provides the machine gun-wielding bastards their necessary credentials. A rolling rhythmic motif develops at 0:11 into "Seven Snipers Sniping" for these baddies, but the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" comes to define the mercenaries at 0:07 into "Al Gets Scrooged" and beyond. The rhythms continue at 0:35 into "Baah Humbug Motherf**ker," becoming aggressive and domineering while a descending motif on top begins to consolidate. The melody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" returns at 2:12 in sinister shades, shifting briefly to "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" a few times at the end of the cue for good humor. The villains' general tone haunts the first half of "Santa, Are You There?" and is slowed and deconstructed in "Frostbite" and early in "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." As action takes the forefront, the rhythm marches in the first half of "Snow Way Out" and stomps early in "Empty Stocking," "The Twelve Days of Christmas" returning again in the latter half. Lewis' original material opens "Filthy Animals" but yields once more to extensive "The Twelve Days of Christmas" variants, additional fragments of the carol sprinkled throughout "Feliz Navi-Dead" while the rhythm struggles against the main theme. The rhythm bursts for a few moments in "Kissmas Wish" and is twisted into a comically prancing sequence early in "HO HO HO." A silly henchmen motif is a high woodwind figure heard throughout "Frostbite," and it recurs at 0:27 into "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," 0:42 into "Snow Way Out," and in faint hints early in "Season's Beatings" before becoming a massive stinger at 0:45 into "Naughty List." But it's the main theme that dominates Violent Night, and Lewis masterfully weaves it in and out of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" for the villains and the other carols elsewhere. There is no weak cue in the score, Lewis maintaining the charming parody spirit even when the villains' militaristic rhythms prevail. The album containing Lewis' score does not feature the licensed songs but offers his original supplements with funny lyrics, some of which entertaining in their retro demeanor. Hearing the main theme adapted into a 1950's jingle in "Ting a Ling Dong Ding" isn't as endearing as the 1960's rock parody in "Santa Claus Has Had Enough of Christmas." The entire package is not only impressively palatable but engagingly bright. Kamen enthusiasts may not appreciate hearing Die Hard music pilfered with such zeal, but the mere fact that Lewis went there is a tremendous positive. The carol adaptations and grand tonal fantasy for the main theme are the icing on this ridiculously fun parody cake. ***** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

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