10 Horror Movies That Were Never Made

1. Battle Royale (American remake)

After the success of the Japanese cult film Battle Royale, an American remake was in the works by New Line Cinema in 2006. Ain’t It Cool News stated when the film was announced that it would be “an extremely Hard R—serious-minded Americanization of BATTLE ROYALE.”

 “an extremely Hard R—serious-minded Americanization of BATTLE ROYALE.”

The film eventually came to a halt after the Virginia Tech tragedy and became cancelled all together.

2. Halloween: The Missing Years

Before the Rob Zombie Halloween remake was green-lit, a prequel film was pitched to the studios. The plot of The Missing Years would have focused on Myers’ early days in the asylum. After the release of RZ’s two Halloween films, not much was heard on the prequel again. Other Halloween films that were never made were Halloween 9, Halloween 3D and a Pinhead vs. Myers crossover film.

3. Worst Case Scenario

Set to be a Dutch zombie horror flick, Worst Case Scenario made it quite far in the movie production process. The plot was about a fictional World Cup taking place between Germany and The Netherlands. After Germany loses, they retaliate by sending zombies towards the winner’s way. In response, a few friends try to escape from the chaos and move to a small island, where unbeknownst to them, zombies are awaiting.
A few trailers were even released and the film gained internet fame. However, due to numerous financial issues, the film never recieved a proper release, and was eventually cancelled. The director Richard Raaphorst instead decided to focus on Frankenstein’s Army.
Even though the film was cancelled, a very limited promo version was released on DVD– which sold out rather quickly, and are now considered a rarity.
For those interested, Here’s a link to the trailer. 

4. David Fincher’s Torso

Based on the dark Graphic Novel of the same name, Torso was a film that was rumored to star many big names. Matt Damon, Gary Oldman, Casey Affleck and Rachel McAdams were cast and Ehren Kruger was hired to write the script. Torso, based off of a true story, would follow the unsolved “Cleveland Torso Murders” that plagued Cleveland, Ohio in the 1930’s.
After Fincher’s release of Zodiac in 2007, which follows a similar type of story as Torso, he seemed to have lost interest in Torso and began working on other films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake.

5. George Romero’s ‘Resident Evil’

Before Paul W.S. Anderson was hired to write and direct the video game adaption of the widely popular video game Resident Evil, George Romero had the job first. He wrote a screenplay, which was ultimately not what the studio was looking for. Romero’s screenplay was very horror orientated and the studio had wanted it to be more war-like, and thus, fired Romero from the movie.
Apparently, this is the script he wrote.

6. At the Mountains of Madness

Set to be produced by James Cameron and directed by Guillermo del Toro, this 3D horror movie would have been based off of H.P. Lovecraft’s book of the same name. Tom Cruise was also announced to have starred in the movie. Due to Guillermo’s need of the movie being rated R, instead of PG-13, he faced troubles with the studio. And after the release of Prometheus, which follows a very similar story, the film was pushed aside to never be finished. Rumors are still out there that another studio may pick the film back up, but not many details are known at this time.

7. The Tourist

The Tourist’s plot was about an alien disguised as a human in New York City, in the 1980’s. Artist H. R. Giger created some beautiful, spine-chilling concept art for the film but sadly, the film was never made. Many speculated it would have been “a masterpiece” if the film would have seen the light of day. The rumor was that the film was cancelled due to disagreements amoungst the film makers.
Much more info along with more creepy concept art can be found here.

8. EI8HT

A sequel to the highly-sucessful dark crime thriller Se7en, EI8HT would have followed only one of the original characters from the first film– Somerset who would have been forced out of retirement to solve more copy-cat murders once again. The script was laughed at by most and eventually scrapped.

9. Twister 3D

Bill Paxton, star of the box-office success Twister, really wants this one made. His idea that he has pitched to any studio that’ll listen, is a much more dark story than the original film. Well, in Paxton’s words “a film that has consequences.”

“a film that has consequences.”

However, Speilberg holds the rights to Twister along with any other sequels that may come along with it and so far has not accepted Paxton’s idea… Which leaves this movie with a very shallow chance of ever being made.

10. Quentin Tarantino’s Friday the 13th

Yes, that’s right, Quentin Tarantino was announced to direct a new Friday the 13th movie back in 2004. The studios were hoping to breathe new life into the series and thought Tarantino would be the right guy for the job due to his name attracting audiences from all over. However, after little to no development with the film, Tarantino stated (contrary to what New Line Studios had said) he had only ever been talked to about the movie and was never actually hired to do anything. He also stated he had no desire to direct a Friday the 13th film but would love to do a horror movie someday.