There Was Almost a ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Cheech and Chong’ Crossover, but Some Producer Decided to Be a Total Buzzkill

Jason Voorhees met Freddy Krueger in that classic crossover slasher we all know and love, but you know who the machete-wielding psycho never encountered? Cheech and Chong. According to “Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI” director Tom McLoughlin, that dream matchup almost happened following his 1986 contribution to the enduring slasher franchise — but producer/buzzkill Frank Mancuso wouldn’t hear of it.

During an appearance on the Post Mortem podcast, McLoughlin says that Mancuso “wanted me to do another film after we did Jason, and I said, ‘What are you thinking? I don’t know what it could be now.’ And he said, ‘Well, what do you think about Freddy and Jason?’ And I go, ‘But Freddy’s at New Line and the guys at Paramount have [Jason].’ And it’s like, ‘Well, we’re going to try and see if we can work something out.'”

There was one problem with that, however. “I started thinking about that, going, It doesn’t make sense. I mean, he lives in one realm and — you know, I take this stuff very seriously, what realm a monster’s supposed to stay in. And he came back, he goes, ‘Eh, forget it, it’s not going to work anyway.’”

Though McLoughlin takes monster realms seriously, he’s apparently more lenient when it comes to stoners. That’s when he had his idea: “And I said, ‘You know what? You guys own Cheech and Chong. What if we do Cheech and Chong-meets-Jason? They’re like camp counselors or something. It’s like, ‘Hey, man, I saw Jason out there.’ ‘No, man, that’s a myth.’ But he said, ‘You know what? No.’”

Bummer, man. Listen to the full podcast here.