Come the Holiday season several different elements emerge from their festive closet. For the month of Christmas, a big part of the month’s festivities involve gathering with friends, family, or simply oneself to watch Christmas movies. However, recently the tone of Christmas films have taken a shift from the norm. They no longer focus on festivity instead they focus on the spectacle on screen. The theatrically released Christmas films in recent years have focused on using the marketability of the holiday as a means of making films that are fated to fade into obscurity. The manner in which these movies use the Christmas brand to fit the genres of action or thriller is something that begs the question; Do we really need Christmas to be “Cool?”
The most recent example of these types of films as well as the reason for this article’s creation is the movie Red One which released just last month. The plot of this film revolves around Dwayne Johnson’s character, Callum Drift, and Chris Evan’s Character, Jack O’Malley, as they go on a mission to rescue Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) from Gryla, a witch who wishes to punish those who would be on the “Naughty-List”.
The film acts as an action comedy, with the story putting a spin on the traditional idea of the Christmas mythos, making the North Pole into this C.I.A., F.B.I.- esque organization, Santa Clause into a bodybuilder, and elves to be secret agents of the North Pole. The idea of the film itself is simple and a fun sounding plot for a Christmas flick and on paper something that could sprout creativity. Unfortunately, the final product of this story turned out to be yet another mediocre Hollywood film that is only able to stand on its feet thanks to its “star-power” to make up for the lack of investing plot. Since its release critics have not been kind to Red One. This seems to be the norm for most Christmas movies that take a “serious” turn.
Films like Silent Night (2021), Violent Night (2022), and funny enough another film titled Silent Night (2023) are more examples of films like Red One that have Christmas aspects be either a central or revolving part of their story. These films too are action based, receive poor reviews from critics, and are ultimately forgotten. Out of these films, the only film to be a financial success was Violent Night but it still failed to get more than mediocre reviews.
With these types of movies there’s a clear pattern of un-noteworthy movies that don’t invoke much discussion around them past their two month window of release. Not only that but from a financial standpoint it doesn’t make sense to continue to make these types of films, especially now that it’s been proven that a movie like Red One can fail even with a leading cast of A-list actors. A simple answer to these movies would be to create a more interesting story than one that uses the theme of Christmas as its foundation and a lackluster plot for the meat of the story.
At the end of the day though movies are subjective, and it’s not as if these movies don’t rake in any revenue at all. There is an audience for these types of films but there simply isn’t a wide enough one to make back a worthwhile profit. Sticking to the classic formula for Christmas movies seems the only way to make them successful. Classic films capture the hearts of viewers and remain remembered. Christmas movies that stray too far from the norm are bound to be forgotten in the public eye.
