If you’ve seen Richard Donner’s horror-tinged Christmas comedy, Scrooged (1988), then you might recall an opening scene wherein the film’s stand-in for Ebenezer Scrooge, TV exec Frank Cross (Bill Murray) watches the trailer for an upcoming film which will soon air as part of his network’s block of holiday-themed programming.
That faux movie-within-a-movie is called The Night the Reindeer Died, and appears to be a Die Hard-style siege movie wherein Santa’s workshop comes under attack by a group of very well-armed assassins. Lee Majors shows up (naturally), and we are to understand that things will be getting very explosive in and around that workshop until no bad guys are left standing.
That’s not quite what’s going on in the first trailer for Tommy Wirkola’s Violent Night, starring genre fave David Harbour and headed to theaters this December, but the vibes are very much the same. The biggest difference? Harbour’s Santa is the one kicking an unholy amount of ass here, not Lee Majors.
Well that looks like a lot of fun! Again, not exactly the same thing as The Night the Reindeer Died, but we imagine they’d make for a perfectly-aligned double feature. Whew. I’ll tell ya, between this and the just-dated Christmas Bloody Christmas, this holiday season is shaping up to be very bloody, indeed!
Here’s an official plot synopsis for Violent Night, should that trailer have been unclear in any way:
“A team of elite mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage. But the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus (Harbour) is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.”
Wirkola’s film, which also stars John “Johnny Legs” Leguizamo, the great Beverly D’Angelo, and the always-hilarious Edi Paterson, hits theaters on December 2nd. While the film clearly isn’t strictly a horror affair, we’re excited to see how much blood Wirkola (whose previous films include Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and the excellent Dead Snow) splashes across the screen in the name of tidings of comfort and joy. Stay tuned for more on this one as further updates become available.
