Long before Jim Carrey transformed The Mask into one of the biggest comedy hits of the ’90s, the character was headed down a much darker path.

Originally published by Dark Horse Comics, The Mask debuted as an ultra-violent, splatterpunk horror series packed with graphic kills, black humor, and a supernatural mask that turned its wearers into unstoppable psychopaths. When New Line Cinema picked up the property, the studio initially envisioned it as its next horror franchise—something that could fill the void alongside Freddy Krueger.

That all changed when director Chuck Russell (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob) stepped in.

Speaking about the project in a previous interview, Russell revealed that turning The Mask into a comedy was a major creative battle. According to the filmmaker, New Line originally wanted another Freddy-style horror icon, with the masked character delivering one-liners while brutally murdering victims.

Russell felt that approach leaned too heavily into A Nightmare on Elm Street, so he pushed the film in a completely different direction. The result was the colorful 1994 blockbuster starring Jim Carrey, while the original comic’s gruesome tone was left behind.

Now, more than 30 years later, another filmmaker wants to bring that nightmare version back.

During a recent Reddit AMA, Evil Dead Burn director Sébastien Vaniček—who previously terrified audiences with the spider horror film Infested—revealed that The Mask is one franchise he’d love to tackle next.

“I think I would dig into The Mask, but make it closer to the comic books,” Vaniček said, noting that the original source material is “very, very violent and dark.”

For horror fans, that’s an exciting prospect.

A faithful adaptation wouldn’t resemble Jim Carrey’s cartoonish comedy at all. Instead, it could embrace the comic’s brutal violence, twisted black comedy, and supernatural body horror, finally delivering the terrifying version of The Mask that was originally envisioned decades ago.

Would you watch a blood-soaked, horror-accurate adaptation of The Mask? Let us know in the comments.