Admit it: you’re sick and tired of watching cheerful holiday movies. We’re three weeks into the holiday season, and you’ve heard enough Christmas carols, and been forced to watch too many Hallmark movies, to give a damn about mistletoe or gingerbread houses. You may need an escape from all the holiday cheer and a reprieve from candy canes and shopping for gifts.
I wanted to make a movie that’s from a point of view of dirtbag metalheads who don’t have any family because I’ve been in that position for a decade. I bring my own kind of sense into [the genre]. And also, we haven’t had a killer robot Santa movie in decades unless you count the Silent Night, Deadly Night sequel.
I wrote the screenplay with the intention of trying to up the ante when I was doing the kills because the Santa robot has an ax and I didn’t want him to randomly pick up a chainsaw just to have some variety in the deaths. Everything had to stay pretty close to him just having the ax and using the elements around him. And so, I got to be a part of the coolest kill in the movie.
But there’s always going to be the element of pulling from a greater cinematic language. I love Touch of Evil and I love Abel Ferrara and Gaspar Noé, but now I’m just taking cinematic things that I like and leaving other things I’ve seen and absorbed behind. I make horror movies, but I try to do something different each time. I don’t want to repeat myself.