Silent Night, Deadly Night is getting a remake with Malcolm McDowell

While 2006’s low-grossing Black Christmas remake seemed to suggest that audiences weren’t necessarily in the market for another rehashed holiday horror film, Inferno’s Ember Productions and the tellingly named The Genre Company are nevertheless pressing forward with Silent Night, a “loose” remake of 1984’s Santa-slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night. Malcolm McDowell is attached to star, according to Variety, playing a small-town sheriff who tracks a serial killer dressed as Santa Claus—a shift from the original film’s focus on the killer, and presumably its themes about the inevitable connections between growing up Catholic and turning into a complete freak about sex. Of course, much of the original’s success and infamy—which led to Silent Night, Deadly Night becoming a cult hit that spawned several, increasingly disconnected sequels—had to do with the mass protests from parents groups. These days they’re not likely to bother unless McDowell says the F-word.