“We’re not actually going to make this”: Jim Carrey’s bizarre abandoned detour into found footage horror
Bursting onto the scene as a comedic heavyweight in the 1990s, Jim Carrey starred in movies like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Dumb and Dumber, The Mask, and Liar Liar, gaining a reputation as one of the funniest guys in Hollywood.
Of course, all good actors need to show a level of versatility, and Carrey has proven himself to be a worthy star by also appearing in more dramatic roles like The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, The Majestic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Love You Phillip Morris, and The Number 23. From Bruce Almighty to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, the actor has starred in countless beloved movies throughout his career.
Yet, before he became this renowned actor, he demonstrated his skills on the sketch show In Living Colour, playing everyone from obese women to sci-fi stars, much to the delight of audiences. Proving himself to be effortlessly creative, not just as an actor but as a writer, too, Carrey has come up with his fair share of bizarre ideas for movies and sketches.
However, one of the strangest is perhaps his idea for a found-footage-style horror comedy set during the production of Dumb and Dumber To. It would’ve been a reimagining of behind-the-scenes documentaries, with the Daniels, who would later go on to make Swiss Army Man and Everything Everywhere All At Once, propositioned by Carrey to make the film.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, one-half of the directing duo, Daniel Kwan, shared the story. “Very early in our careers, Jim Carrey reached out. He had just seen Paranormal Activity and was like, ‘Guys, it’s found footage and it’s horror — have you seen it?’ And we were like, ‘Uh-huh, we’ve heard of it. Where is this going?’ And he was like, ‘I haven’t seen anyone do that — but with comedy. And I have this great idea.’”
Carrey’s idea was ambitious, to say the least. “Basically, the set of Dumb and Dumber was famously a haunted set — it was in the same hotel that The Shining was inspired by — and he’s like, ‘The whole time we were shooting, things were breaking, people were getting hurt, doors were swinging, and it felt haunted. We’re going to shoot Dumb and Dumber To, and I want you guys to do a found-footage horror comedy on the set. While we’re filming, you guys are going to make a feature-length, behind-the-scenes video that slowly becomes a horror film.’”
The movie sounded like an interesting idea, and the Daniels were actually down to make it. “We’re like, ‘OK, we’re in. This is amazing.’ We wrote a whole outline and were really excited,” Kwan explained. Unfortunately, no one was willing to greenlight the project. “Then we sat down with the producer, we pitched the idea, and they’re like, ‘We’re not actually going to make this. I’m sorry, Jim got really excited, but there’s no way the studio is going to let us do a movie while they’re shooting Dumb and Dumber To.’ And we were like, ‘OK …’”
Perhaps the film should’ve gone ahead. Dumb and Dumber To was negatively reviewed by critics, but if it was accompanied by a bizarre found-footage fictional documentary, maybe there would have been more sustained interest.
