Kevin Smith’s horror anthology Killroy Was Here aiming for fall release

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Kevin Smith has been so busy making JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT, taking the movie on tour, and talking up the possibility of CLERKS III and TWILIGHT OF THE MALLRATS that the fact that his next movie has already been filmed tends to get overshadowed. This is a movie that he shot before JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT, back in 2017 and '18, and one that continues the horror streak he was on for a while. The anthology film KILLROY WAS HERE.

Written by Smith and Andy McElfresh, KILLROY WAS HERE was originally announced under the title COMES THE KRAMPUS, or alternatively ANTI-CLAUS. After Michael Dougherty's KRAMPUS was released, Smith and McElfresh decided to replace the Krampus with Killroy, a monster that lives in the swamps of Florida, inspired by the "Kilroy Was Here" graffiti of a bald man with a large nose peeking over a wall. Killroy was a soldier working special ops during the Vietnam War when things went terribly wrong, and now he has become something that Smith has described as being like "the Golem, the Boogeyman, and the Grim Reaper combined".

When it was COMES THE KRAMPUS, the anthology was going to have a different director for every segment, and it was broken down like this: 

Andy McElfresh will direct the “The Krampus vs. The 3rd Grade” episode (SO f*cked up), Jason Mewes (yes – THAT Jason Mewes) will direct the “Hitler’s Krampus” episode (twisted period piece), (Smith) will direct the “Mask Maker” episode (the Gothic horror piece), Carol Banker will direct the “The Proposal” episode (which is f*cking nuts), and Jennifer Schwalbach will direct “The Bad Babysitter” – which is the framing device that holds the whole mess together. 

It's not clear how those segments changed when Krampus was replaced by Killroy and Smith directed each one, but it is known that the Hitler segment was dropped completely, since Killroy's story doesn't start until the Vietnam War.

KILLROY WAS HERE is rather unique in that Smith made the film with students from the Ringling College of Art & Design in Florida. So it's fitting that students from that college were the first to get a chance to watch the trailer. Smith screened the trailer for them during an hour-long talk at the school on Monday night… So if the trailer is in good enough shape to be shown at that event, hopefully it won't be much longer before it gets shared online as well.

According to Sarasota Magazine, 

The trailer for the film was plenty bloody, but also included some of the humor Smith has been known for throughout his career.

Reports from the event note that KILLROY WAS HERE is currently aiming for a fall 2020 release.

The cast of the movie includes Harley Quinn Smith, Azita Ghanizada, Ryan O'Nan, Chris Jericho as a character called The Gator Chaser, and Justin Kucsulain as Killroy.

Early on, Killroy had been referred to as "a baby-eating monster", but during his talk at Ringling Smith revealed that a suggestion from crew member and Ringling student David Woodward changed that approach. 

Woodward noted that children were a recurring theme in the film and that maybe the monster was working on behalf of children instead, an idea Smith adopted.

So it seems he has more in common with Gamera, "friend to all children", than with Pennywise.

We'll keep you updated on KILLROY WAS HERE as more is revealed.