The official poster for the holiday action comedy Violent Night reveals David Harbour's bloody and vicious Santa Claus. Harbour is best known for playing Sheriff Hopper in the smash hit Netflix series Stranger Things, but as that series draws to a close with its upcoming fifth season, it seems that the actor is looking to transition more firmly to blockbuster movies. Although the 2019 Hellboy reboot he starred in was a flop, he got his box office feet back under him when he appeared in the 2021 MCU Phase 4 film Black Widow. He played the Russian supersoldier Red Guardian, a role he will be reprising in the upcoming MCU antihero project Thunderbolts.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
In addition to those big budget projects, he will also be appearing in the mid-range blockbuster Violent Night, which is coming to theaters on December 2 and follows Santa Claus himself enacting bloody revenge to save Christmas from a team of mercenaries invading the home of a wealthy family. In addition to Harbour as Santa, the cast will include John Leguizamo, Beverly D'Angelo, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Edi Patterson, Cam Gigandet, and André Eriksen. The film was written by Sonic the Hedgehog's Josh Miller and Pat Casey and directed by Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola, who previously dabbled in applying violent genre filmmaking to classic children's characters with 2013's Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.
On the official Twitter account for Violent Night, they shared the official poster for the upcoming film. Doubling down on the holiday puns, the design is emblazoned with the tagline "You better watch out." The poster shows Harbour in his full Santa costume with a flaming candy cane jutting from his mouth like a cigar and a patch of drying blood in his white beard. Check out the full-size image below:
With Violent Night, Harbour will be participating in a grand cinematic tradition of killer Santas (and the even grander tradition of the puns surrounding them). However, typically those Santas are featured in horror films like the 2005 Bill Goldberg slasher-comedy Santa's Slay, the 2010 Finnish export Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, and the widely protested 1984 cult classic Silent Night, Deadly Night. It is much more unusual to present Santa Claus as a straightforward action hero rather than a psycho killer, so this new project will have a brand-new flavor to bring to the table.
Violent Night will likely be a test case to show if Harbour can now lead a movie outside the Marvel franchise. The way the box office is looking this holiday season seems primed to give it the best opportunity to succeed. It has no major wide release competition in its opening weekend, and in the following weeks, there are no other major holiday-themed offerings in theaters. It will certainly be kicked to the curb by the release of Avatar: The Way of Water on December 16, but in the meantime, it has the chance to dominate if it gets good word of mouth.