Violent Night Director Fought For The Movie's Home Alone Homage To Be 'A Lot Bigger' [Exclusive]

Every family has their stable of Christmas movies that have to be watched during the month of December. New additions like "Spirited" starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell attempt to find a way into that annual rotation by updating "A Christmas Carol" and other holiday mainstays, which is a mild form of cheating as far as I'm concerned. Tried and true classics like "White Christmas" and "It's a Wonderful Life" may seem a little outdated, so take no shame in updating the Christmas movie list with "Love Actually" and "Die Hard" (yes, it's a Christmas movie), or even scarier entries like "Rare Exports" and "Krampus."

The big question for the new holiday action comedy "Violent Night" is whether or not an R-rated, butt-kicking Santa Claus (David Harbour) will end up being worthy of a re-watch each year. In any case, director Tommy Wirkola hopes that his version of a Christmas classic can deliver some crowd-pleasing moments that may stand the test of father time. Wirkola is betting that having a reference to "Home Alone," one of the greatest Christmas movies ever made, will help cement "Violent Night" as a new go-to for the holiday season for years to come. 

In fact, the traps and Rube Goldberg-inspired gadgets in "Violent Night" apparently go even bigger than "Home Alone" and cause some serious injuries. If the sequence in "Violent Night" is truly that intense, it may even have a shot at topping the punishment that the wet bandits somehow live through at the end of "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York." 

Wirkola and his team wanted to visualize what would really happen if an ingenious kid like Kevin McCallister planted all those life-threatening traps throughout a house. Once they started to expand on the idea, the scene just got bigger and badder. /Film's own Bill Bria recently spoke to the filmmaker about turning what started as a quick homage into a fully fleshed-out action set piece. "I really want to make the 'Home Alone' scene a lot bigger because I think it can be a showstopper in the film," Wirkola realized.

He also wanted to show what it is like to go back as an adult to watch the damage Kevin inflicts in "Home Alone" as opposed to a kid who doesn't really understand just how menacing and murderous those traps really were. Wirkola decided: 

"Hey, let's just show what really had happened if we put some people through those traps. I think also why it's so funny is because Trudy [Leah Brady], the little girl, she doesn't realize she's hurting people. She just thinks it's fun and games."

Trudy Lightstone, the little girl who does so much damage in "Violent Night" during the "Home Alone" homage, is genuinely having a blast causing so much mayhem. It's so hilariously violent that everyone involved had to remember that they were still making a Christmas movie when confronted with the very real possibility that the scene had gone too far. "If you do it with that wink in the eye, if you do it with that Christmas spirit, it will still feel funny," understood Wirkola. "That's why we got away with so much as we did."

The original "Home Alone" also got away with taking a little too much inspiration from another Christmas movie that has since found a larger cult following. The French horror thriller "Deadly Games" aka "Dial Code Santa Claus" follows a resourceful kid who protects his house and his grandfather from intruders by any means necessary. Sound familiar? "Deadly Games" director René Manzor thought so, too. According to the New York Times, Manzor contacted Fox in 1992 in hopes of reaching a settlement. Fox denied that they had any prior knowledge of Manzor's film (which came out a year before "Home Alone"), leaving Manzor's attempt to benefit from the film's massive success out in the cold. 

With the right lens, "Home Alone" can be looked at as the definitive holiday home invasion movie. It's a classic example of the victim turning the tables on the offenders, a trend seen again and again in survivalist horror and home invasion horror like "You're Next" and "Intruders." Still, watch "Deadly Games" and "Home Alone" back-to-back and marvel at just how similar the two movies are, even though they exist in two totally separate genres. 

"Violent Night" is intentionally lampooning the innocent inventions that Kevin McCallister somehow concocted before the existence of YouTube tutorials, so it should avoid any legal trouble. Just remember, the outcome won't be nearly as family-friendly, so prepare for a real battle when "Violent Night" hits theaters on December 2, 2022. 

Here's the official synopsis for "Violent Night."

When a team of mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage, the team isn't prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus (David Harbour, Black Widow, Stranger Things series) is on the grounds, and he's about to show why this Nick is no saint.