10 Amazing Horror Movies That Almost Never Got Made
Can you imagine a world without The Exorcist?
There are some horror movies so iconic, so incredible, so synonymous with the genre that it's hard to imagine a time when they weren't talked about. The bloody escapades of Jason in the Friday the 13th series, the domestic horror of The Shining, the uncanny tension of Rosemary's Baby; who even knows what horror would feel like without them?
Still, the movie industry is nothing but turbulent, and just because an idea is amazing doesn't mean it will happen.
There have been many promising movies that failed to get off the ground, such as Guillermo Del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness or George A. Romero's Resident Evil. The thought of all the great films that never materialised is as heart-breaking as it is tantalising. However, a much scarier thought is imagining a world where some of your favourites never actually happened.
Horror cinema has seen plenty of amazing, classic movies come dangerously close to not being filmed. The following ten are some of the most shocking, as the thought of never getting to see them is scarier than the freakiest of jump scares.
Prepare to be surprised by these horror films that nearly didn't happen.
10. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
That's right, this list is bringing out the big guns right from the get-go with one of horror's most beloved and infamous franchises.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of those horror juggernauts that feels immortal at this point. As a titan of the slasher genre, it's hard to picture a world where this iconic IP was rejected. But rejected it certainly was, as this movie was turned down over and over. Wes Craven even famously framed and displayed one of the rejection letters in his office (as per Vulture).
According to Craven himself, "Every studio rejected it," with Universal Pictures, in particular, disliking the script and Paramount Pictures claiming it was too similar to 1984's Dreamscape. Weirdly, the only company that showed interest was Disney (covered here by Screen Rant), offering to produce the film under the condition that it be toned down to a PG-13, family-friendly flick, which Craven stoutly refused to do.
The movie only got moving after the far smaller New Line Cinema got involved. Although the production was far from smooth, it ultimately brought this incredible nightmare of a movie to life.