You can’t spell shite without hit…

Imagine you are a film producer and someone comes to you with the following pitch: Santa Claus is old and bitter, he gives a young kid coal for Christmas, that kid hires a hitman, the hitman and Santa battle it out. It sounds like a joke, right? Or at least a comedy? No, the trailer for Fatman looks like it’s going down that full action route, with Mel Gibson as Saint Nick ready to dish out some pain to those on his naughty list.

On paper, it looks like it’s going down that so-stupid-it’s-kinda-funny-Sharknado trail, yet Gibson is delivering lines with the nuanced conviction of an actor stepping into the prime of his twilight years, which is confusing, to say the least. Not to mention a hardened Walton Goggins, who you probably know best as the cocky sheriff in The Hateful Eight), playing the assassin ready to take the once-jolly fat man down at any cost.

The trailer also incorporates that classic horror trope of re-working a happy sounding tune into something dark and moody. In this instance, it’s ‘Jingle Bells’ that sounds like it was sung by the twins from The Shining and produced by Marilyn Manson. Safe to say we won’t be listening to that one the same way this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjBjUF4Tb_k

Fatman hits cinemas November 13th…