While we await more news on his supposedly upcoming An American Werewolf in London remake, Max Landis has been busy pitching all kinds of dream projects. Having excited the internet recently by pitching his idea for a found footage Gremlins sequel directly to Joe Dante, he’s now outlined his idea to bring together a bunch of slasher cinema’s most beloved killers in one film.
Talking to Nerdist’s The Writers’ Panel podcast, Landis reeled off a lengthy synopsis for the film, which he says he’s been trying to get moving for six years. It begins with what he described as a “John Boyega from Attack the Block” type kid who gets placed with a new foster family on Elm Street, his new parents those of Johnny Depp’s Glen from A Nightmare on Elm Street. On his first night there, he is poisoned by his new foster parents and while unconscious, dreams of Freddy Krueger.
“Freddy stalks the kid… pops out… claws to the face… dead instantly,” Landis went on. “Except he’s not. Freddy can’t get his claws out of the kid’s face. All of a sudden, chains, like the movie Hellraiser, go all around Freddy… pull him up and lock him… he’s like a scarecrow.”
Landis then explained how the story we all know of Fred Krueger’s death is not, in his vision, the whole truth.
“The parents of Elm Street were like a cult,” he continued. “And they sacrificed an innocent man, Fred Krueger, to summon the demon, Freddy Krueger, and then have been sacrificing their children for 30 years to this demon to become incredibly famous and powerful and wealthy. Now, they have finally gotten to the point where they are going to sacrifice the demon itself [to Pinhead].”
Continuing on like some insane genius, Landis described how Freddy and the teenager then assemble their team to battle Pinhead and the Cenobites. Dream-travelling to Crystal Lake, they enlist Jason Voorhees: a deformed little boy who can “Hulk up” into the unstoppable killer from Friday the 13th’s sequels. The three then head to a Good Guy doll factory to pick up the doll possessed by Charles Lee Ray. Freddy, Jason, Chucky and the teenager then travel to Hell, where they confront Pinhead and the Cenobites for a final showdown. Meanwhile, back on Elm Street, the other kids from the foster home try to save our unconscious main character from the murderous Elm Street parents’ cult.
“Those are the guys we came to see,” Landis exclaimed of Freddy, Jason et al. “Why not just let them be heroes? They’re the characters you love… in a new context.”
Will Landis’ crazy idea ever reach fruition? Who knows, probably not, although there’ll be a lot of us gunning for it.
Words: Kevan Farrow (@KevanX)
