Sommerleigh Pollonais, Horror Head Writer
Is there anything worse than not knowing the ending to a great story? I don't know about you but one of my biggest peeves is when a series or movie franchise ends abruptly, leaving you with a cliffhanger and no comfy landing in sight. The same goes for a great concept or script where one minute everyone is abuzz with excitement about the story, director and the actors involved, only for the screenplay to end up in development hell and leaving fans of the genre wondering what could've been.
So, join me in celebrating our eighth anniversary here at Robot Mango Reviews and with a monstrous SPOILER ALERT let's a look back at what might've been with our Eight Cancelled Horror Movies/Series that Could've Been Great.
#8 Plants vs. Zombies
Are those fresh brains I smell back there?
This one is a bit off the beaten path, but with a concept so fun (and still technically horror based) I'm personally disappointed we've never seen Plants vs. Zombies adapted for the big screen.
If somehow you missed it when it went viral, Plants vs. Zombies was officially released in 2009 and went on to be one of the most popular mobile games in history. A simple concept where the very silly looking undead try to invade your home and eat your brains but your only defence is an army of plants which I believe have been enhanced by aliens or something.
In the hands of an animation studio like DreamWorks or the underappreciated geniuses from Laika who gave us ParaNorman, Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, I can't help but wish Plant vs. Zombies had come to light. There just aren't enough animated horror movies out there which is a shame because so many of them have been really good and well-received. And with a concept as fun as this one I'm pretty sure it would've been a blast to see.
#7 Van Helsing Chronicles
Did you know I could kill a man five ways with a fork? Six with a spoon
There have been some truly great Dracula movies over the ages, but Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula stands out among them for a lot of reasons. It's definitely one of the more memorable ones and I've personally seen it no less than a dozen times which is why this particular cancelled sequel hurts so much.
Not only were there talks of bringing back a lot of the original cast and crew, but the sequel would've also worked as a spin-off following the eccentric (and possibly insane) Van Helsing who was played with delicious manic energy by Sir Anthony Hopkins. The vampire hunter with the kick-ass name would've spent his time battling different gothic creatures (I'm guessing the Wolfman would've been next on the list) but for whatever reasons, it never came about.
While Coppola wasn't set to direct, he was going to be a producer and was fully on board with the idea. The film would've also seen a return to the same aesthetics that made his Dracula movie the award-winning hit that it was. Yet I can't seem to find any details as to why the sequel never made it beyond development hell, other than they may not have been able to find the financial backing to get it off the ground.
#6 The Collected
I am not a number, I am a free man!
Can you call it a trilogy if we never got the third one? 2009's The Collector was one of those fun slashers that kept the twist and turns coming throughout, keeping the audience as off-kilter as its unlucky and unwilling hero Arkin (Josh Stewart) as he faced off against a serial killer with a very specific set of skills. It took a decade, but audiences got a sequel (The Collection) that, while more action-oriented, still falls squarely within the horror genre and left us with one hell of a cliffhanger.
"What comes next?" was the question on viewers' minds, but while a third movie has been announced (titled The Collected), we have yet to see any sign of it being released. It's even worse to think about when you know the movie actually did start shooting, only to be shut down eight days in with director Marcus Dunstan stating he simply stopped hearing from "anybody with the production". Props were even stolen!
We can only hope some studio (not Blumhouse! not Blumhouse!) steps up to finance Dunstan's movie in the near future, as if any horror series deserves another chance, it's this one.
#5 World War Z Part 2
Boy you got a face not even a mama could love
World War Z is one of those horror movies that grew on me the more times I viewed it. While most zombie-based stories tend to stick to a smaller scope, with a handful of protagonists usually dealing with an undead invasion in their hometown or city, World War Z was an undead plague on a global scale with the fate of mankind resting on the shoulders of the hunky UN investigator with the pornstar-sounding name, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt).
The movie ends with Lane discovering a way to save humanity by ironically "infecting" oneself with a chronic illness. It's a bit more detailed than that (I won't spoil the fun for those who still haven't seen the movie) but it does end with Lane returning to his family with a vaccine that works as a cloaking device against the zombies. Question is what happens next? Did the surviving humans just get vaccinated so they could go about their lives while hoards of the undead run amok through the world? That doesn't seem like a great plan and a sequel would've given us answers.
At one point there was one on the books with David Fincher set to direct and there was even talk of the "F" word being bandied about, F for franchise of course. But the Great Wall of China might be the main culprit here as to why it never happened and I'm not referring to the famous tourist attraction. China's box office makes up a massive amount of the profit made by big budget films, but the country has a long history of banning science fiction films, or films they deem to be "superstition". Plots that involve the undead is one of those banned things which meant World War Z would never see those big bucks. So, the studio pulled the plug leaving fans hanging with nothing but an eponymous video game to keep them company.
#4 Dark Universe's The Invisible Man (Johnny Depp version)
Oh, Dark Universe. We barely knew ye
One could probably write a dissertation on how many ways they screwed up bringing Universal's classic monsters into the modern era with the failed Dark Universe. A mix bag of films with no real continuity linking them other than the famous creatures at their centre, ironically the only truly successful movie of the bunch Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man which is a standalone film and has no direct link to any of the Dark Universe.
The massive failure of The Mummy left the studio once again threatening to hit the reboot button with only talks of one last movie (at the time), The Invisible Man starring Johnny Depp in the works. There may be light at the end of this tunnel though as with the success of Whannel's version, audiences can look forward to The Bride, this time from Warner Bros. and starring Christian Bale as Frankenstein's monster. Maybe the key to a good Universal classic monster movie is to keep Universal out of the equation; I guess we'll have to wait and see.
#3 The Thing 2
Don't worry; he doesn't bite
Back in the early 2000's the legend himself John Carpenter wanted to do a sequel to arguably his best film ever, 1982's The Thing. But as much as I love, LOVE this movie, I'm low-key glad this never happened, as it would've weakened one of the genre's most beloved and discussed endings.
The plot would've seen McCready and Windows BOTH surviving the events of the first film and I'm not for it. While a very small part of me wants to know if McCready made it out alive, if the Thing somehow survived, and what it would've been like if it had made it to a populated area, the first movie is such a perfect story of isolation, paranoia and survival that a sequel would have to knock it out of the park and nail the original's atmosphere to equal it.
I might change my mind if the right director and writer were to tackle The Thing 2, but of all the projects on this list, this one might be the only cancellation I agree with.
#2 Freddy vs Jason vs Ash
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries
In the hands of a director like Edgar Wright or Sam Raimi, this could've been a horror-comedy for the ages.
After the success of Freddy vs Jason, a movie that's on its own made more box office bucks than both of their franchises combined, the studio was really invested for a time in creating Freddy vs Jason vs Ash. This movie would've found the Evil Dead's Ash Williams up against not one but two icons of horror, while probably having some Deadites thrown in for good measure.
I keep picturing something similar in tone to The Evil Dead television show, with its memorable characters and well-balanced mix of comedy and horror; something similar to this makes me hope that at some point we do get this movie. Hell, throw Michael Myers into the mix and let's make a TRULY wild ride!
#1 Friday the 13th Prequel Series
Here's Jay Jay!
Maybe it's all in the name because one of the most beloved horror franchises seems cursed to never get the revival it most certainly deserves.
The background into how many starts and stops the Friday the 13th series has had would probably fill a novel, so I'll just stick to the most recent stumbling block its faced. In 2022, fans of the hockey mask-wearing, machete-wielding behemoth known as Jason Voorhees got word that not only was the franchise being revived, but it was also going to do so as a prequel series courtesy powerhouse studio A24. That excitement was doubly amped up as we were told none other than Bryan Fuller, the showrunner behind hit show Hannibal, was going to be writing and producing the series.
Oh, what could have been
Like a half-naked teenager who runs upstairs instead of out the door, I was stupid enough to think my favourite horror franchise wasn't just going to come back, it was going to be amazing. Alas it's recently been announced Fuller is no longer the showrunner, production hasn't started, and no one has been cast for the show. In other words, it doesn't look like we'll be spending time with the Voorhees family anytime soon.
You would think with the success of the Child's Play and the Evil Dead series this would be a no-brainer but alas, it looks like the only Friday the 13th fans will be experiencing any time soon will be the one in September this year (just the date, not a new film, sadly).
In Conclusion
For all these movies and all the other horror movies and series that have been cancelled or stuck in a drawer somewhere gathering dust, the optimist in me hopes that in our current world where Hollywood studios are more interested in going the nostalgia route, we just might see some of these lost ideas turn into reality. Otherwise, for better or worse, we'll just have to chalk these up to what could've been.
Any of these projects you wish got made? And you can check out more horror lists below:
FIVE HORROR MOVIES THAT BECAME AWESOME TV SHOWS
FIVE HORROR SEQUELS BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL
TOP 5 HORROR SERIES CANCELLED TOO SOON
FIVE HORROR MOVIE ENDINGS THAT LEFT US WONDERING 'WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!"
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge-Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I'll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes. Double Tap Baby! Read More
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