Less than a week after announcing that 28 WEEKS LATER and I KILL GIANTS actress Imogen Poots would lead Blumhouse's planned remake of the 1974 holiday horror classic BLACK CHRISTMAS, Deadline has exclusively revealed that SAW and THE PRINCESS BRIDE alum Cary Elwes is joining the cast.
While no details have been given about the nature of Elwes' character, it's been said that he will assume a major role in the sadistic Santa-inspired project that also stars Aleyse Shannon, Brittany O’Grady, Lily Donoghue, and Caleb Eberhardt. GREEN and ALWAYS SHINE helmer Sophia Takal is directing from a script she penned with WIDOWER short scribe April Wolfe.
Here is the official synopsis for Takal's BLACK CHRISTMAS:
“Hawthorne College is quieting down for the holidays. One by one, sorority girls on campus are being killed by an unknown stalker. But the killer is about to discover that this generation’s young women aren’t willing to become hapless victims as they mount a fight to the finish."
The original BLACK CHRISTMAS, as helmed by director Bob Clark and starring Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea and Margot Kidder, was inspired by the urban legend “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs" a 1960s tale in which a stalker relentlessly calls a young babysitter prompting her to "check the children."
Takal's BLACK CHRISTMAS plans marks the second time that Clark's classic slasher flick has been given the remake treatment, after director Glen Morgan gifted horror fans with his version in 2006. The aforementioned re-imagining starred Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Lacey Chabert and Kristen Cloke. While Morgan's version only earned $21.5 million and a patridge in a pear tree at the global box office, it would appear that Blumhouse is ready to give wicked wintertime premise another stab.
Will you be putting BLACK CHRISTMAS theater tickets on your Christmas list this year? Let us know in the comments section below.
BLACK CHRISTMAS will ride a sleigh from Hell into theaters on December 13th.