STACK #220 February 2023

MOVIE FEATURE

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Tommy Wirkola reveals that Sam Raimi’s 1987 horror-comedy classic Evil Dead II had a profound impact on him and proved influential when making Violent Night . “It made me realise, oh, a movie can be scary, violent, and funny at the same time,” he explains. “Because there are some shocking moments in our story where we push the envelope, we wanted to see how far we could take the action, violence, and gore, but also combine it with humour. If you can get a laugh at the same time as people look away in shock, there’s no better feeling than that.”

STACK caught up with director TommyWirkola to discuss his bloody Christmas-themed action-comedy, Violent Night . Words Gill Pringle N orwegian director Tommy Wirkola – best known for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and Dead Snow – is no stranger to Christmas themes, having grown up north of STACK . “We can go as crazy as we want with the action and the humour and the gore, but it doesn’t work unless we have a heart, and I really wanted this to feel like a Christmas movie.” Moreover, the director ranks National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation amongst his top

and Kelly McCormick’s 87North Productions, Violent Night follows their tough action template established by Nobody and Bullet Train . Given how Leitch is a premier stuntman turned successful director and producer, training Harbour to become a kick-ass Santa became paramount. “At 87North, that’s one of their things. They train their actors hard just like they trained Charlize Theron before Atomic Blonde . Bob [Odenkirk] trained for a year before Nobody , but we didn’t have that amount of time with

the Arctic Circle surrounded by reindeer. He also grew up loving horror comedies, so it’s no surprise that his new movie, Violent Night , splashes around a whole lot of red and white when a Santa with special skills – played by Stranger Things ’ David Harbour – comes down the chimney to save a wealthy family under threat by a group of terrorists. When Wirkola first received the Violent Night script, it was pitched as basically ’ Die Hard without Bruce Willis’. “ Die Hard really had a lot of heart, which is what I wanted to do with this,” he tells

this,” says Wirkola. “So David came a month early to the set in Winnipeg, and they really put him through the grinder. He really wanted to dig in and train hard. “He’s a very physical guy and does all his fights, except for the very dangerous stuff. So it’s all Harbour, which is always a luxury for a director.” Following Violent Night , you won’t want Harbour coming down your chimney next Christmas Eve unless you’ve been very, very nice.

five Christmas movies and insisted on casting Beverly D’Angelo as the matriarch in Violent Night . “I know that film by heart, so it was really fun getting Beverly to be part of this. I think people will be surprised and shocked when they see what kind of role she’s playing. She’s very different from Mrs. Griswold, to be sure,” he says. David Harbour

was always his first choice to embody a Santa unlike any other seen before on the screen. “After I signed on,

• Violent Night is out on Feb 15

we began floating names, but when David’s name came up we all felt he was just perfect,” Wirkola recalls. “We sent him the script and he responded two days later. He really liked the script and had some great ideas, and from there we just built him.” Produced by David Leitch

FURTHER VIEWING

Director TommyWirkola and David Harbour on the set

28 FEBRUARY 2023

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