• Violent Night is an action-comedy Christmas flick starring David Harbour.
• The R-rated film takes the word “violence” quite seriously.
•  The writers first came up with the idea for Violent Night in high school detention.

Violent Night, starring David Harbour, is a new holiday film to keep an eye out for. Tommy Wirkola’s action-comedy Christmas flick has Santa battling an elite team of mercenaries who steal into the home of a wealthy family on Christmas Eve.

As amusing as the idea sounds, the R-rated film takes the word “violence” quite seriously and emphasizes that “this Nick is no saint.”

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller discussed how they came up with the idea, while Harbour explained the film’s theme.

Casey and Miller became friends in high school detention and have remained so ever since. They said that they developed the fundamental notion for Violent Night while attending high school together in Bloomington in the 1990s.

Miller claimed that they used to do a lot of Die Hard parodies for their town’s public access channels. “Like a lot of towns back in the ’90s, our town had public access channels, and we got our own show,” he explains.

Adding, “It was like a high school version of Saturday Night Live. It was almost like joining a football team. It was a group of nerds who wanted to create a television programme.”

He went on to say that the early version of their concept was “Just the thought of Santa running into some crooks. That Santa was much more of a funny moron.”

Following the popularity of Sonic the Hedgehog, the duo submitted the idea to executives under the working title ‘Die Hard Santa,’ and received an immediate yes.

Given the film’s premise, Harbour’s casting is ideal; he can be imposing, cruel, and compassionate all at the same time.

The premise, according to the actress, is “sort of like a Knives Out house, where there’s a matriarch (Beverly D’Angelo) and all these individuals competing for power.”

He goes on to say that when the mercenaries arrive to plunder the house and trap everyone, “Santa at first doesn’t want anything to do with it, but there’s a little girl who has a bond to him, and he wants to save her.”

He also alludes to Santa’s “history that was a little less than pleasant.” “It’s John Wick meets Miracle on 34th Street,” he elaborates. You’ll believe in Santa Claus once more, and you’ll believe he’s a vicious mother—-er.”

Violent Night will be released on December 2, and you can see the trailer below:

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