Movies
5 of the Craziest ‘Freddy vs. Jason’ Ideas That Never Came to Be
The mashup fight film Freddy vs Jason has once again found itself in the horror conversation, one year ahead of its big 20th anniversary. The reason? Ronny Yu’s satisfying battle between two slasher legends is now streaming on Netflix, added back to the service this week!
The journey to that movie getting made, well, it was a LONG one…
Exactly ten years prior to Freddy vs Jason making its way into theaters, Freddy Krueger made a surprise appearance at the tail of end of Jason Goes to Hell, pulling Jason’s iconic hockey mask (literally) down into Hell. Why did we have to wait so long to see the actual battle? Well, as it’s been well documented over the years, it wasn’t because New Line wasn’t trying.
The studio went through countless writers before Damian Shannon and Mark Swift cracked the code and came up with something they were happy with; some writers brought their own ideas to the table, while others were hired to rework scripts penned by previous scribes. Shannon and Swift managed to bring Freddy and Jason together in a way that both made sense and was a whole hell of a lot of fun, but before New Line settled on the simplicity of their idea, they toyed with many ideas that were almost too bonkers to even believe.
Here are five of the craziest Freddy vs Jason ideas that were pitched.
1) FREDDY KILLED JASON AS A CHILD
Lewis Abernathy was the first writer hired to merge the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises, and he got to work in the immediate wake of Jason Goes to Hell. Abernathy’s script, titled Nightmare 13: Freddy Meets Jason, introduced the idea of Jason’s origin story being woven directly into Freddy’s mythology. He proposed that Fred Krueger was the Camp Crystal Lake counselor who drowned a young Jason Voorhees, and that Jason was on a mission to seek revenge. Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris later expanded upon this idea, going one step further. In their draft, Freddy actually molested Jason as a child, and then ended up drowning the young boy so that nobody would ever know. A little too dark for a fun mash-up film, don’t you think?
In Abernathy’s script, Freddy and Jason were going to battle in a “Nightmare Arena” in Hell, inside a boxing ring with ropes made of entrails. Sitting front row? Adolf Hitler.
2) TIME TRAVEL PREVENTS BOTH FREDDY AND JASON FROM EVER EXISTING
Peter Briggs, who ended up co-writing 2004’s Hellboy, submitted his own Freddy vs. Jason pitch in the early ’90s. His crazy concept also toyed with the idea of Freddy and Jason having a shared past; in Briggs’ script, the Voorhees family used to live on Elm Street, and the Voorhees parents were part of the lynch mob that killed Freddy. This resulted in Freddy killing Jason after the Voorhees family moved to Crystal Lake; he then subsequently brought Jason back to life as an undead monster. Yes, Jason’s new origin story was to be that Freddy created him.
And that’s not even the craziest idea in Briggs’ script, which began in the 17th century and eventually pit Freddy and Jason up against one another… in Hell. Who was going to show up down there? Satan himself (named Thanos in the script), who was going to be revealed to be the master of both Freddy and Jason; they’ve just been his pawns this whole time, Briggs conceived.
The crazy ambitious film would’ve ended with Freddy and Jason killing Satan and then being banished from ever existing, due to a time travel plot device. An FBI agent goes back in time, forges a judge’s signature, and prevents Freddy from being released from prison. In other words, Freddy never became a Dream Demon, and as a result, Jason was never killed as a boy.
3) FREDDY AND JASON BECOME ONE
How strange would it have been to see Jason Voorhees plucked out of Crystal Lake and placed into a courtroom? That’s exactly what co-writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore did with their Freddy vs Jason script, which saw Jason on trial for the various murders he committed over the years. The script was written at the time the O.J. Simpson trial was the hottest thing in America, and it drew much inspiration from the widely-publicized, real-life trial. After being shot in court, Jason is taken into the hospital and put under, resulting in him having a nightmare that brings Freddy into the real world through his body. The final battle between the two horror icons was to take place inside a shopping mall, which is where things were going to get REALLY insane.
Battling inside the burning mall, Freddy knocks Jason out with nitrous oxide and attempts to use his body as a vessel to re-enter the dream world. But that plan goes south when Jason wakes up halfway through the process, binding Freddy and Jason together as a two-headed monster. The burning roof ultimately collapses, presumably killing off both Freddy and Jason.
The Braga & Moore script also had a meta twist to it: the Friday the 13th movies we’ve all seen were merely movies, while we were going to meet the real Jason for the first time.
4) THE CULT OF FREDDY
One of the most popular ideas throughout Freddy vs Jason‘s early development process was the so-called Cult of Freddy: a group of hardcore Freddy fans who wear Christmas sweaters, burn themselves, and attempt to bring Freddy Krueger into the real world by sacrificing a young virgin. The concept first popped up in Lewis Abernathy’s aforementioned script, and David J. Schow expanded upon it when he worked on a rewrite of that original script. Schow dubbed the Freddy fanatics the “Fred Heads,” led by an evil character named Dominick Cochran.
How did Jason figure into the script? A dead teenager’s heart is thrown into Crystal Lake, bringing Jason Voorhees back to life and leading to the promised battle between he and Freddy.
5) TWO DIFFERENT ENDINGS
When Mark Verheiden came on board in the late ’90s, he quickly did away with the Cult of Freddy idea, instead choosing to focus on what fans really wanted from the mash-up film: the fight itself. And he had a pretty cool idea for how to execute it. Verheiden proposed that Freddy vs Jason have two different endings, one with Freddy winning and the other with Jason winning; which one any given viewer saw would’ve depended on which theater they saw the film at. He wrote two vastly different ending sequences, but alas, the idea was soon done away with.
A version of this article was originally published on February 21, 2017.
One of the all-time foundational fixtures in horror is the vampire. That means over a century’s worth of bloodsuckers in film, in various styles and mythology, from across the globe.
As prominent as this movie monster is, with dozens of adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula alone, there’s an overwhelming selection of vampire fare that makes it easy for many worthwhile gems to fall through the cracks. This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to underseen vampire horror movies worth seeking out.
As always, here’s where you can stream them this week.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
Mr. Vampire – The Criterion Channel – Plex, the Roku Channel
This supernatural genre-bender from director Ricky Lau stands far apart from standard vampire fare thanks to its comedy, martial arts, and jiangshi. Taoist priest Master Kau (Lam Ching-ying) guards the realm of the living by maintaining control over the area’s hopping vampires, and other restless spirits. When Master Kau is hired to oversee the reburial of an affluent town elder, he and his two bumbling assistants find themselves in a supernatural battle to the death when the elder’s corpse resurrects as jiangshi. Produced by martial artist and Hong Kong cinema legend Sammo Hung, Mr. Vampire was a huge box office success in Hong Kong and launched a franchise. Still, it’s a charming, lively horror comedy that could use more love among contemporary audiences.
My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To – Plex, Prime Video, SCREAMBOX
Writer/Director Jonathan Cuartas‘s feature debut feels like a spiritual sibling to We Are What We Are in many ways. Both offer meditative, brooding depictions of isolated families far removed from the rest of the world. Both families are willing to commit unspeakable acts on behalf of their loved ones. In this case, siblings Dwight (Patrick Fugit) and Jessie (Ingrid Sophie Schram) find themselves routinely tasked with murder so their sickly younger brother Thomas (Owen Campbell, Super Dark Times) can have the fresh blood to survive. In the vein of The Transfiguration or Martin, this brooding debut feature grounds its vampirism in reality and focuses on the constricting, devastating toll of familial obligation.
The Night of the Devils – Kanopy
A disturbed man, Nicola, recounts the story of getting stranded in the woods, only to find refuge in a charming family’s house. The longer he’s there, the more he uncovers something is deeply amiss. Witches, vampires, and sordid family secrets ensue. Like Mario Bava’s anthology segment “The Wurdulak” in Black Sabbath, The Night of the Devils is also based on The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. Director Giorgio Ferroni balances the gore and sleaze with haunting Gothic atmosphere and stunning cinematography. While it’s methodical in its buildup, the craftmanship and grim ending make this underseen Italian and Spanish co-production worth the watch.
Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat – Fandango at Home (formerly Vudu), Plex, the Roku Channel
Director Anthony Hickox (Waxwork, Hellraiser III) has a blast with his high concept horror comedy that sees vampires living in the reclusive desert town Purgatory. They seek a peaceful life, with the plan to get an artificial blood factory in operation. Everything goes off without a hitch until Van Helsing’s descendant, Robert Van Helsing (Bruce Campbell), arrives in town. It’s a vampire western horror comedy that lovingly pokes fun at vampire tropes. The simple setup becomes anything but thanks to town politics, new tourists, and Van Helsing’s irresistibility to a vampire (Deborah Foreman). David Carradine presides over the vampire hijinks as Count Jozek Mardulak. For those looking for something fun and lighthearted, this pick is your best bet.
Vamp – AMC+, Plex, the Roku Channel, Shudder, Tubi
This highly entertaining horror comedy features a vampire that doesn’t get nearly enough attention; Grace Jones exudes raw power as vamp Katrina. Robert Rusler and Chris Makepeace star as two fraternity pledges that venture into the city to hire a stripper, all to impress their frat brothers. They find themselves in a shady part of town, unaware that the dive bar they’ve entered is full of vampires. Naturally, they find themselves in an all-night battle for survival. The neon haze-soaked urban setting makes for a refreshing change of pace. The bromance between the leads is as sweet as it is funny. Most of all, though, watch for Grace Jones’ riveting performance.
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