The year 1994 belonged to Jim Carrey, as he starred in three major comedy films: *Ace Ventura: Pet Detective*, *Dumb and Dumber*, and *The Mask*. The latter, however, could have established him as a horror icon if one of the original outlines had been chosen.
The origins of *The Mask* trace back to the 1980s, when Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson collaborated with writer-artist Mark Badger to create a character initially known as the Masque. “The idea I had was sort of a combination of a Steve Ditko character, the Creeper, with a Joker sense of humor to it,” Richardson told *Forbes*.
Through a shake-up of the creative team, Masque evolved into the horror-comedy series known as *The Mask*. It featured Stanley Ipkiss, who puts on a transformative mask that imbues him with outrageous and mind-bending powers. Eventually, the series was optioned for film, and Richardson worked with others for over half a decade to bring it to life.
However, one filmmaker saw the opportunity to create a movie franchise akin to *A Nightmare on Elm Street*, suggesting a more sinister use of masks. “There was one version where it was about a mask-maker on the edge of town, cutting faces off corpses and putting them on teenagers and turning them into zombies,” Richardson said. “As you can imagine, there wasn’t a lot of excitement on my part for that. So, I nixed that.”
When filmmaker Chuck Russell—best known for directing *A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors* and *The Blob* remake—was brought on to direct *The Mask*, he recognized the *Elm Street* parallels, especially given that *The Mask* comics were much more violent. Additionally, the Mask’s sense of humor mirrored the personality of Freddy Krueger.
Russell wondered if placing a pure comedic talent like Jim Carrey into a gore-fest would have been the right choice. “So it was just like, ‘Do we really need to do another grotesque film when there’s this guy, Jim Carrey, out there? Here’s an opportunity to light the world up with a new comedian,’” Russell told *Forbes*.
In a separate interview with the *Talks from the Crypt* podcast, Russell explained that he didn’t want to rip off *A Nightmare on Elm Street* with a new Freddy Krueger, especially since Robert Englund had become synonymous with the role. He also had a personal reason for stepping away from horror at the time.
“I’d also had a death in my family,” Russell shared. “My father had died fairly recently, and I just was over horror for a minute.”
https://www.looper.com/2018399/jim-carrey-the-mask-originally-elm-street-style-horror-movie/
