Ever watch a horror movie and think, “Wow, this is weird”?
Well, congratulations. You may have just watched the surviving version.
Behind some of horror's most beloved movies are abandoned scripts, alternate endings, completely different villains, bizarre casting choices, and studio ideas that make you wonder if someone was writing the movie while experiencing a severe fever.
Because getting a horror movie from “terrifying idea” to “actually playing in theatres” is apparently a journey involving approximately 900 wrong turns.
Here are 10 horror movies that could have been very, very different.
1. Friday the 13th — Jason Wasn't the Killer
Let's start with one of the biggest examples.
If you only know Friday the 13th from the later movies, you might assume Jason Voorhees was always destined to become the hockey-mask-wearing star of the franchise.
Nope.
In the original Friday the 13th, Jason isn't the killer.
The murderer is his mother, Pamela Voorhees, played by Betsy Palmer.
Jason is essentially the reason the whole murderous mess exists. His drowning at Camp Crystal Lake motivates Pamela's revenge against the counselors.
The filmmakers weren't necessarily thinking, “Let's create one of cinema's most recognizable slasher villains.”
They were making a relatively straightforward summer-camp slasher.
Then Jason eventually showed up.
And then he got a hockey mask.
And then things got completely out of hand.
By the time the franchise reached its later installments, Jason had gone from dead child motivating his mother's revenge to supernatural hockey enthusiast who apparently has excellent job security.
