What is with killer Santa movies? For almost as long as the jolly Coca-Cola-ized version of the character has existed, people have been going, “What if he had, like, and axe? Could be neat.†David Harbour joins Ian McShane, the wrestler Goldberg, John Goodman, and Detective Crashmore in the canon of Murder Santas with Violent Night. Directed by Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’ Tommy Wirkola, the film will see a violent home invasion interrupted by Kris Kringle. He’s got the mercenaries on his naughty list, and he’s gonna check them off while saying Christmas-themed, violence-based jokes like “Time for some season’s beatings†and “Santa Claus is coming to town†as a threat. Ho, ho, ho, you’re dead. The film stars John Leguizamo, Beverly D’Angelo, Cam Gigandet, and André Eriksen. Violent Night also falls into the festive-pun-title scheme of other killer Santa movies such as To All a Goodnight, Santa’s Slay, Christmas Evil, and of course, Silent Night, Deadly Night. Violent Night comes to theaters December 2.
This post has been updated throughout.