When Kevin Smith's upcoming horror anthology KILLROY WAS HERE was originally conceived, it was going to be a Krampus movie called either COMES THE KRAMPUS or ANTI-CLAUS. That plan changed when Michael Dougherty's KRAMPUS was released; Smith and co-writer Andy McElfresh decided to replace the Krampus in the story with a character called 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 "a kid avenger – if you f*ck with kids KillRoy will show up".
During his Comic-Con@Home panel, Smith unveiled a trailer for KILLROY WAS HERE, and that trailer can be seen above.
KILLROY WAS HERE was made with students from the Ringling College of Art & Design in Florida. The cast includes Harley Quinn Smith, Jason Mewes, Daisy McElfresh, Azita Ghanizada, Ryan O'Nan, Betty Aberlin, Chris Jericho, and Ralph Garman, with Justin Kucsulain as Killroy.
When this was going to be a Krampus movie, the plan was for each segment to have a different director. The line-up was:
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.
Smith ended up directing KILLROY WAS HERE himself, and it seems the segments were changed significantly when KillRoy replaced the Krampus. We know for sure that the "Hitler's Krampus" segment was removed from the script entirely.
As Smith said after showing the trailer, KILLROY WAS HERE does look fun, spooky, creepy, weird, and inexpensive. The plan had been to get the film released sometime in the fall of 2020, but due to the pandemic Smith is now aiming to get it out into the world in early 2021 – maybe by the end of 2020, if the situation improves enough.