Almost 30 years ago, director Tom McLoughlin brought Jason Voorhees back from the brink for the appropriately titled sequel, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. But it turns out McLoughlin initially planned for a follow-up back in ’86, and let’s just say things got weird.
While appearing on the latest episode of Post Mortem (with a tip of the hat to Bloody Disgusting), Tom McLoughlin spoke to fellow horror director Mick Garris about his proposed Jason Lives sequel, and how it would’ve drafted comedy duo Cheech and Chong (!) into the equation.
As McLoughlin recalls down below, this idea came into being soon after producer Frank Mancuso Jr. discovered that New Line held the screen rights to Freddy Krueger, thereby nixing any potential crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street at the time.
Producer Frank Mancuso Jr. came to me… he wanted me to do another film after we did [Jason Lives]. He said, ‘What do you think about Freddy and Jason?’ And I go, ‘But Freddy is at New Line.’ He came back and goes, ‘Ah forget it, it’s not gonna work anyway.’ So I said, ‘Ya know what… you guys own Cheech and Chong. What if we do Cheech and Chong Meets Jason?’ But [Frank] said, ‘Ya know what… no – the comedy audience is gonna want that kind of movie, the horror audience is gonna want the other… no, we can’t.’
Of course, those tentative plans never panned out, and Tom McLoughlin wound up directing several episodes of Friday the 13th: The Series throughout the late ’80s.
Since then, and barring the recent (and forgettable) reboot, ol’ Jason Voorhees has quietly retreated to the shadows, after Paramount shelved plans for a return trip to Camp Crystal Lake. That leaves the future of Friday the 13th in a precarious state, but we imagine it won’t be too long before the masked Voorhees stages a comeback.