Exclusives
How Adam Sandler Ruined John McNaughton’s ‘Elm Street’ Prequel! (Exclusive)
John McNaughton earned a cult following and mass critical acclaim for his unflinching look into the heart of darkness, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990). With that film McNaughton garnered all kinds of controversy and single-handedly defined the serial killer genre. Henry and its follow-up, The Borrower (1991), led to McNaughton being strongly embraced by the horror community. But more than just a horror director, McNaughton is a true filmmaker through and through, and he worked outside of the genre until his “Masters of Horror” episode Haeckel’s Tale in 2006.
Now the revered filmmaker returns to the genre with The Harvest, a rural gothic tale that I really loved when I saw it at last year’s Fantastia Fest (review). It’s his first feature film in over a decade (in between he did a lot of theater and television work), but before The Harvest, McNaughton almost directed a prequel to Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street that at the time had the horror world buzzing, even if there wasn’t much information on which to speculate.
I recently had the chance to talk to McNaughton about The Harvest and during our conversation this defunct Nightmare prequel came up. What happened to it? Why did New Line back off? What dark secret caused one of the horror genre’s most beloved filmmakers from directing one of its most beloved franchises?
The answer is more disturbing than you can possibly imagine…
John McNaughton: “I started thinking about what we haven’t seen before and the idea came of well, where did Freddy [Krueger] come from before he returned in the first picture? Hell. Nothing could keep me from going to Hell and the idea of actually setting a story in Hell, that to me, I was just like a pig in shit.”
New Line had just made, what’s his name…the comedian that gets so little respect and makes so much money…”
Adam Sandler?
“Yeah and it was one of his goofy comedies…Little something or other…there was a number of scenes in Hell and it was his first comedy that didn’t do to well.”
Little Nicky?
“Right, and after that didn’t do too well, New Line didn’t want to go back to Hell. So I basically told them to go to Hell. Just the idea of being under the thumb of the studio and being called on to satisfy genre expectations, it’s not something that would make me happy. They were unwilling to go to Hell with me and it just came apart.”
Thanks a lot, Adam Sandler!!!
Check back later this week for our full interview with John McNaughton!
A hospital stay grows more nerve-frazzling when memory loss distorts reality in our exclusive clip from This Tempting Madness, inspired by a true story.
The mind-bending psychological thriller will be released in select theaters and on demand on June 12 via Vertical.
Simone Ashley (“Bridgerton”) stars as Mia, who awakens from a coma, grievously injured, her memory fractured. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions and her perception of reality.
In This Tempting Madness, “Mia awakens from a coma grievously injured, her memory fractured. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions, and her perception of reality.”
Jennifer E. Montgomery makes her feature directorial debut from a script she co-wrote with director of photography Andrew Davis, inspired by Montgomery’s first-hand experience with tragedy involving her best friend.
“Months before the incident, there were signals that her world was unraveling,” says Montgomery. “I could feel the pressure building, though I didn’t know what form it would take. I never could have known what violence would come, and I certainly never imagined making a film about it.”
Austin Stowell (“NCIS: Origins”), Suraj Sharma (Happy Death Day 2U), Mojean Aria (Reminiscence), Amol Shah (“For All Mankind”), and Zenobia Shroff (“Ms. Marvel”) round out the cast.
Smoke Jumper Films and Mango Monster Productions produce in association with Catchlight Studios (Heretic, The Blackening).
This Tempting Madness is rated R for “language, violence/bloody images, and brief sexuality.”