Horror movies are currently dominating the conversation now that we’re just a week away from Halloween, but you can guarantee that as soon as it turns midnight and we’re into November, the focus will almost immediately shift to the festive season. Every year, there are a huge number of Christmas-themed flicks released in the hopes that they’ll eventually join the pantheon of classics that get revisited on an annual basis like Home Alone, It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street and Scrooged.
A lot of them fade quickly from memory, but one of the more unconventional titles that’s looking to seize upon a gap in the market is Eshom and Ian Nelms’ Fatman. Completely ignoring the Die Hard debate that we need to hear every year, there aren’t exactly a huge number of festive action movies, which is where Mel Gibson’s Chris Cringle is hoping to step in.
The R-rated action comedy stars the Academy Award winner as a bitter, tired and foul-mouthed Santa Claus, one that’s grown completely disillusioned with his life. After a 12 year-old boy gets a lump of coal in his stocking, the youngster hires a hitman to kill Santa, leading to a face off between Gibson’s Jolly Old Saint Nick and Walton Goggins’ Skinny Man.
The first trailer promised a surprisingly gritty Christmas story, especially when the concept could easily be played for laughs, and the new clip above reinforces the notion that Fatman is going to head to darker and more emotional places than you might expect. After all, Gibson’s Santa is evidently not happy at how things have turned out, struggling to pay the bills when he’s the face of a multi-trillion dollar enterprise.
While it remains to be seen how general audiences will take to it, this looks like one of the most unique and interesting holiday movies in a long time, and could be well worth checking out when it releases on VOD next month, on November 17th.