Landis felt it was too nihilistic, even for a horror-comedy. He opted for the abrupt, tragic freeze-frame instead.
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However, in an earlier draft of the script, Landis had a darker and more controversial encounter in mind. David was to stumble upon a troupe of midgets (little people) who were staying in a small cottage. The scene was intended to be a darkly comedic and horrifying sequence where David, in his werewolf form, would attack them. Landis felt it was too nihilistic, even for a horror-comedy
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According to Landis and Baker, the scene was shot and completed with effects. However, early test audiences reacted with laughter —but not the intended nervous laughter. They found it goofy and bizarre rather than terrifying. The scene was deemed tonally dissonant, feeling more like a Monty Python sketch about teen horror than the visceral nightmare Landis wanted. The final film’s dream sequence (a naked, blood-soaked David waking up in a forest, being hunted) replaced it. The footage of the "Slumber Party Massacre" is rumored to exist in a Universal vault, but has never been officially released. Only a handful of grainy, black-and-white production stills survive, showing Rick Baker’s incredible skull masks.
The theatrical ending has David dead, then a freeze-frame. The original script ended differently.
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