Violent Night Director Reveals The Movie's Key Element: 'If You Get That Right, You Can Go As Crazy As You Want' [Exclusive]
Every year brings the annual rewatches of my holiday favorites and an occasional new one, and it's looking increasingly likely that "Violent Night" may become one of them. I'll happily bawl over the emotional catharsis of "It's a Wonderful Life," but sometimes the reason for the season calls for a horror zombie musical ("Anna and the Apocalypse") or a visit from German folklore ("Krampus"). 2022's "Violent Night" appears to fixate quite nicely in the middle, featuring "Stranger Things" star David Harbour as he doles out some bloody season's beatings in the name of Christmas. Sometimes all you need is a movie that envisions Santa Claus going all John McClane in order to protect a good kid from a group of mercenaries on Christmas Eve. The cherry on top is that this yuletide beatdown comes from director Tommy Wirkola, the filmmaker behind "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" and the "Dead Snow" series.
Wirkola's filmography shows someone who knows how to have a gory good time in the cold, in addition to turning mythical figures into brutal upholders of justice. But aside from dispatching bad guys in creative, festively-themed ways, there seems to be a latent charm in Harbour's Santa, and that sense of goodwill is exactly what Wirkola wanted to bring to this project.
'I really want it to feel like a Christmas movie'
While speaking with /Film's Bill Bria (the full interview is coming soon), Wirkola talked about how excited he was about the prospect of "Violent Night." The action-packed script got his attention, but above all else, it was the sense of Christmas wonder that he knew he wanted to focus on:
"It really had a big heart and it really felt like a Christmas movie. That was what I said to [the producers] going into it, is I really want it to feel like a Christmas movie. And that was for myself, my way in. 'Okay. How can I make something different and unique?' Well, we embrace the Christmas movie nature of it. And then if you get that right, you can go as crazy as you want on the rest."
The trailer shows Harbour wreaking havoc all over a snowy manor, but in the midst of everything, he's making time to show a frightened child that Santa won't let these goons hurt her. I love a good deranged killer in a Santa suit á la "Silent Night, Deadly Night," but Harbour's demeanor fits the bill of a St. Nick who only gets his red suit dirty when he needs to.
Some of the most heartwarming Christmas movies contain a collective emotional catharsis. In addition to getting all misty-eyed when Santa uses ASL to speak to a deaf girl ("Miracle on 34th Street), we can also cheer when the jolly man beats a mercenary with a sock full of billiard balls so a child can have a good Christmas. The holiday season truly contains multitudes.
"Violent Night" is set to hit theaters on December 2, 2022.