The aptly titled 'Violent Night' is big on gore, but not much more

“Violent Night” - ★ ★

If only “Violent Night” could have snagged Bruce Willis to play Santa Claus ...

No. That bit of inspired casting could only marginally improve this witless exercise in stupidity pandering to “quality kills” horror aficionados, but with its emphasis on “quantity kills.”

Accurately promoted as “Die Hard” meets “Home Alone” - but with elaborate gore effects smothering the sharp, machined dialogue of the former and the comically cruel timing of the latter - Tommy Wirkola's “Violent Night” spends most of its 101 minutes struggling to squeeze every crimson drop out of its one-joke premise: jolly old St. Nick can be one big, bad vengeful Thor, especially when he gets a sledgehammer in his hands.

At a posh Mar-a-Lago-grade “family compound” in Connecticut, the superwealthy Lightstone family members gather for their annual Christmas Eve party, lorded over by the overbearing and bossy matriarch Gertrude Lightstone (played with brutal force by Beverly D'Angelo).

Her nebbish son Jason (Alex Hassell) has come with his estranged wife, Linda (Alexis Louder), so they can be with their adorable little daughter Trudy (Leah Brady), whose only Christmas wish is that her parents reunite and become a family again. (Cue the collective “Awww ...” from the audience.)

Obsequious Alva Lightstone (Edi Patterson) has named her young son (Alexander Elliot) Bert - short for Bertrude - to curry favor with his tough grandmother.

Alva's all-ego brother Morgan (Cam Gigandet) works at being a pretentious Chuck Norris wannabe action movie actor. His idea of a present is letting Mom in on funding his latest production.

Outside of Trudy, these Lightstones don't have much good will toward men.

So, when a nasty guy calling himself Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo, struggling to keep a straight face while uttering inane dialogue) masterminds a massive home invasion and kills everyone in the compound except the family, it's difficult to care that they were spared.

But Scrooge and his minions - code-named with seasonal handles such as Gingerbread and Sugar Plum - don't realize they have inadvertently trapped the real Santa Claus (“Stranger Things” star David Harbour) in the house.

Already on his naughty list, the invaders set out to kill the stranger in the Saint Nick costume. Now, this angered Santa Claus is coming to town for real.

“Violent Night” occasionally serves up some amusing hard-R-rated variations of young Kevin's elaborate self-defense setups from “Home Alone.” The expected climactic fight between Claus and Scrooge has been cleanly foreshadowed and cleverly executed (literally so here) with plenty of goop and gore in store.

Splatter fans with lowered expectations might enjoy parts of “Violent Night,” even though the screenplay (from Pat Casey and Josh Miller of “Sonic the Hedgehog” credits) clearly abandons any attempt at real-world details. (Trudy's old-school walkie-talkie can communicate with Santa and also overhear the villains' broadcasts, but they apparently cannot hear hers.)

The inspired premise of “Violent Night” could have gone in so many different, creative and fantastic directions.

What if Santa had an elf hit-squad that shows up like the cavalry in a western?

What if after 11,000 years of presumed wedded bliss, Mrs. Claus - referred to twice in the perfunctorily bland screenplay - popped in to go full-tilt Wonder Woman and save her tubby hubby?

But no. Just more carnage and mayhem repeated so often that the shock value, the movie's raison d'ê·tre, begins to drift into tedium.

Early in the movie, Harbour sells his Santa with world-weary cynicism while at a bar, grousing about today's kids being ungrateful, petty, materialistic “little junkies.”

Like other ideas posed by the movie, this intriguing one simply drops off the radar and never returns.

But if you're someone who appreciates a genuine “quality kills” black comedy about Santa, check out the Scandinavian production of “Rare Exports” (2010).

Starring: David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Beverly D'Angelo, Alex Hassell, Leah Brady, Alexis Louder

Directed by: Tommy Wirkola

Other: A Universal Pictures release in theaters. Rated R for language, sexual references, gore and violence. 101 minutes