10 Cancelled Horror Movies That Could Have Been Legendary

The mastermind behind two of horror's greatest ever movies, John Carpenter has a long line of unrealised projects next to his name. One of the most well-known films he never got off the ground was Firestarter, the 1984 film based off the Stephen King novel.

The story goes that during principle filming of The Thing in 1981, Carpenter was approached by Universal Studios to direct Firestarter and began assembling a team of writers that included Bill Lancaster and Bill Phillips, as well as touting accomplished actor Richard Dreyfuss as Andy McGhee. However, The Thing's disappointing initial reception scared Universal enough to drop Carpenter and bring in Mark Lester as director and Stanley Mann as screenwriter.

Stephen King has famously panned the version of Firestarter audiences were treated to, calling it: "flavorless; it's like cafeteria mashed potatoes." Given the fact that Mann's screenplay is supposedly closer to the original source material than what Carpenter had commissioned, it's hard to say what the legendary author would have made of the film had the switch not happened. However, 'cafeteria mashed potatoes' is never a term a critic has used on one of Carpenter's films.