Action auteur John Woo returns to the sort of gangland tale that made him for “Silent Night,” a holiday shoot-em-up with a pun for its title.

A month or so back, David Fincher made a hit-man thriller that was so buried in self-serious voice-over narration that it talked itself to death. Woo’s “Silent Night,” his first Hollywood release in 20 years, is the anti-“Killer.”

Nobody talks. Not our hero, a father (Joel Kinnaman) who loses his little boy in a drive-by and his voice when an equally silent killer (Harold Torres) tries to execute him. Not the hero’s wife (Catalina Sandino Moreno, excellent). Not the cop on the case (Kid Cudi).

Robert Archer Lynn’s script touches on one of the guiding principles of Woo World gangland — “No women, no kids” must be harmed. That’s the jumping off point for a father’s voiceless resolve to avenge his kid, murdered as he took a ride on his new training wheeled-bike on Christmas Day.

“Brian” (Kinnaman) gets a calendar for the next year, and on Dec. 24, scrawls “Kill them All!” with his sharpie.

The film shows us an exhaustive year of prep–physical conditioning, buying and customizing for war a weathered Mustang, taking Youtube tutorials on how to kill with a knife, visiting the firing range to master the art of pistol marksmanship.

We glimpse the beginnings of his hunt in fictional Las Palomas, New Mexico (Texas plates on some of the cars), and skip over the hard stuff like how our hero finds his quarries, his net-searching knowhow left unseen as he magically finds the “most wanted gangsters” in this metropolis while the cops never do.

Brian stops to mourn, here and there. Quietly weeping, he is the embodiment of Harlan Ellison’s famous phrase, “I have no mouth and I must scream.”

And then, let the vengeance begin.

Woo is the perfect director to remind us that film is a visual medium. We don’t need words to feel Brian’s pain, don’t need wife Saya to say “I’m leaving you over this obsession.” We can see it.

But the lack of talk is never more than a gimmick, and while the fights are epic — Kinnaman (“Robocop,” TV’s “The Killing” and “For All Mankind”) is really good in fight choerography — and rival the Big Brawls in “The Killer” and the recent French Netflix thriller “All Time High,” the “revenge” of the third act feels perfunctory, lacking pathos or punch.

Love John Woo. Love to see a few more action pics from him before he takes his well-deserved retirement. But as hymns to revenge on gangsters go, “Silent Night” hits too many of the same chords over and over, and without punchy, pithy dialogue, none of them are all that musical.

Rating: R for strong bloody violence, drug use and some (texted) profanity

Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Harold Torres, Kid Cudi

Credits: Directed by John Woo, scripted by Robert Archer Lynn. A Lionsgate release.

Running time: 1:44