New Line considered making Freddy vs. Jason vs. Kid ‘n Play

For a time in the early '90s, hip hop duo Kid 'n Play (a.k.a. Christopher Reid and Christopher Martin) were also a successful comedy duo, mainly thanks to New Line Cinema's HOUSE PARTY films. Around the same time that New Line was collaborating with Kid 'n Play on that series, the studio also acquired the rights to distribute new films in the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise… the idea being that they were going to have F13's slasher Jason Voorhees face off with their NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET star Freddy Krueger. Of course, FREDDY VS. JASON – an idea that had been kicking around since the mid-'80s – was finally made and released in 2003. But when New Line was first coming up with ideas for the battle between their new acquisition and their in-house horror icon, it seems they considered dropping Kid 'n Play into the middle of the fight.

This information comes from visual effects artist Al Magliochetti, who worked on New Line's 1993 release JASON GOES TO HELL. Speaking with Jason Bene for Bloody-Disgusting, Magliochetti revealed, 

I’d actually heard rumors about a Jason/Freddy mash-up about a year before I got involved with Jason Goes to Hell, but at the time it was being talked about as a comedy with Jason and Freddy matching wits (or half-wits, as the case may be) with Kid n’ Play (remember them?) in a kind of an ‘Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein’ spoof. Obviously that never came to pass."

This idea is reminiscent of the alternative to FREDDY VS. JASON that JASON LIVES: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI writer/director Tom McLoughlin had once pitched to Paramount – "Jason Meets Cheech and Chong".

Having Freddy and Jason stalk Kid 'n Play does make slightly more sense than the Cheech and Chong idea because, unlike Cheech and Chong's middle-aged (in the '80s) stoners, in the early '90s Kid 'n Play were actually playing characters the same age as Freddy and Jason's usual victims. 

It's fun to ponder what the films would have been like if Cheech and Chong or Kid 'n Play ever had encountered Freddy and/or Jason. I love ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, so I'm not at all against the idea of horror icons running into a comedy team for some mash-up amusement.