Cheech and Chong almost starred in a Friday the 13th film
Writer-director Tom McLoughlin only made one Friday the 13th film, 1986’s Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI. But the filmmaker did pitch franchise producer Frank Mancuso Jr. on a follow-up, as he reveals to fellow director Mick Garris on the most recent episode of the latter’s horror movie podcast, Post Mortem. The premise? That slasher icon Jason Voorhees face off against stoner comedians Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong.
“[Frank Mancuso Jr.] wanted me to do another film after we did Jason,” McLoughlin says. “And I said, ‘What are you thinking? I don’t know what it could be now.’ And he said, ‘Well, what do you think about Freddy (Krueger) and Jason?’ And I go, ‘But Freddy’s at New Line and the guys at Paramount have [Jason].’ And it’s like, ‘Well, we’re going to try and see if we can work something out.’ So, I started thinking about that, going, It doesn’t make sense. I mean he lives in one realm and — you know, I take this stuff very seriously, what realm a monster’s supposed to stay in. And he came back, he goes, ‘Eh, forget it, it’s not going to work anyway.’ And I said, ‘You know what? You guys own Cheech and Chong. What if we do Cheech and Chong-meets-Jason? They’re like camp counselors or something. It’s like, ‘Hey, man, I saw Jason out there.’ ‘No, man, that’s a myth.’ But he said, ‘You know what? No.'”
Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger would, of course, eventually face off in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason. Alas we have yet to see Cheech and Chong take a trip to Camp Crystal Lake, although fans of the series will be aware that a pair of stoner characters, named Chuck and Chili, did feature in 1982’s Friday the 13th Part 3.
You can hear Garris’ full interview with McLoughlin and House on Haunted Hill remake director William Malone at the PodcastOne website.
