The Kevin Smith-directed horror movie Tusk is set to release later this year, and the experience making that movie went so well that he’s decided to hang on to his cast for his next project, titled Anti-Claus.

According to reports out of the Cannes Film Festival, Tusk stars Justin Long, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodriguez, and Michael Parks will all continue hanging out with Smith for Anti-Claus, a Christmas horror movie following the mythical Krampus.

Many folks might not be familiar with the legend of Krampus, especially here in the States where the holiday season is all warm and fuzzy happy time. In the folklore of some Alpine countries, while Saint Nicholas rewards good children—similarly to Santa Claus here—Krampus punishes the bad children. Described as a creature or demon, he is said to kidnap the naughty kids and take them back to his lair. A little more terrifying than some coal in your sock, eh?

There’s even a tradition in many of the countries familiar with this legend where young men will dress as Krampus on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day and will walk the streets scaring kids with their costume and chains or bells. A quick visit to Google Images will show that many of these costumes are quite unsettling (the above image being just one example, and not nearly the freakiest I saw) and pure nightmare fuel for the kiddies. You can read much more about the Krampus legend right here.

Speaking of the project and his inspiration for it, Smith said:

Anti-Claus is produced by Jordan Monsanto, Andy McElfresh, and Jennifer Schwalbach for Smith’s SModcast Pictures, and Jason Mewes will be executive producing.

The plan is to begin filming sometime in September.

[Source: THR]