17 Movies That Were Going To Be Waaaay Darker Originally

Some of these would have been upsetting to say the least!

1. Beetlejuice

Warner Bros. Pictures

Lydia was going to die in a fire and then get to be with Barbara and Adam in the afterlife, but it was decided that portraying Lydia's death as a good thing probably wasn't the best message to be sending out.

2. Zootopia

youtube.com

A deleted scene shows a coming-of-age party where a young bear is given a shock collar he must wear. After getting over-excited, he receives his first shock and realises what the party, and collar, are really about.

3. The Santa Claus

Buena Vista Pictures

The Christmas movie was originally going to start with Tim Allen's character shooting and killing Santa Claus after mistaking him for a burglar, which would not have been very festive.

4. Deadpool 2

20th Century Fox

For those of you that have seen the post-credits scene, Vanessa comes back to life after being shot in the movie. However, her death was intended to be permanent and the decision to resurrect her was only made later on.

5. Pretty Woman

Buena Vista Pictures

A former Disney studio head has said that "in the original version — it’s pretty dark — I think she died of an overdose." Even with the lightened-up version of the movie, the original ending didn't include a kiss but rather Edward throwing Vivian out of the car, throwing money on top of her and then driving away.

6. Halloween (2018)

Universal Pictures

Laurie Strode was going to be killed by Michael Myers, leaving behind her daughter and granddaughter to continue any possible franchises in the future. While it may have made for a dramatic last stand-off between Laurie and Michael, it also would have been a very different movie.

7. Frozen

Disney

Anna and Elsa weren't even going to be related, and Elsa was going to be more of a pure-evil villain, who at one point would create snow monsters to fight as part of an epic battle. However in both that version and the one we got, Hans always remains terrible.

8. Avengers: Infinity War

Marvel Studios / Walt Disney

Okay, I know you're thinking "um...pretty tricky for that movie to get any darker isn't it????" but an earlier version of the ending saw the scene where Thanos walks towards a young Gamora go a bit differently – he was walking on a river of his victim's blood.

9. Hocus Pocus

Buena Vista Pictures

The original plan had been for the main characters to be younger children – aged twelve instead of being teenagers – who were in more jeopardy. According Mick Garris, who wrote the first draft, it was more "explicitly frightening" than the comedic version that was ultimately made.

10. Get Out

Universal Pictures

The movie was going to end with Chris ending up in jail, to show the injustice of the current system. Talking about the original plan, Jordan Peele said 'when I realised the original, downer ending wasn’t working, I didn’t freak out. I looked at it as an opportunity to come up with a better ending.'"

11. Gremlins

Amblin Entertainmen / Warner Brothers

The movie was going to be more of a horror film at first, with scenes including Billy's mum being decapitated and her head rolling down the stairs, and the Gremlins eating the family dog. The beloved film certainly ended up a bit more...palatable.

12. Interstellar

Warner Bros. Pictures

According to Nerdist, the movie's co-writer Jonathan Nolan said his version of the ending was pretty straightforward, with the implication that there would be no return home for Bradley Cooper's character who instead would sacrifice himself and be stuck in a black hole.

13. Groundhog Day

Columbia Pictures

At the end of the film, Rita would have rejected Phil's love and then would have ended up stuck in a time loop of her own.

14. Passengers

Columbia Pictures

The original ending involved 5,000 descendants being pushed out into space as the ship's computer vents out the cryogenic pods. Jim and Aurora try to save the captain but fail, and the movie ends with them alone on the ship.

15. Alien

20th Century Fox

The final scene of the film was going to involve Ripley's head being ripped off by the alien, before the creature takes command of the ship and mimics Captain's Dallas' voice. It turns out that the studio wasn't a huge fan of this idea.

16. The Mask

New Line Cinema

The movie was going to be a horror film, with Stanley being a Freddy Krueger-type character who kills people. The director pushed for it to be a comedy as he thought otherwise it was too similar to the Freddy Krueger films.

17. Holes

Buena Vista Pictures

The script was originally sold to Donnie Darko writer Richard Kelly who wrote a dystopian, post-apocalyptic screenplay for it in 1999 . It was very different from the book, and the mostly true-to-the-book adaptation that Disney released, but it doesn't sound half bad!