Original Cooties ending

Question

Cooties, a horror/comedy film was released both in theaters (very limited) and pay-per-view this last weekend (September 18). It was produced by Glacier Films and SpectreVision, a production company focusing on the horror film genre co-founded by Elijah Wood, who also stars in the film.

Without going into much detail, the film is about a bunch of fourth-graders (i.e. 9 and 10 year-olds) who catch a highly contagious virus originating in an infected chicken nugget. They turn into zombies and kill several of their teachers as well as each other. Meanwhile teachers are killing children. Lots of dismemberments, face eating, disembowelments, exposed brains and other good fun. (The movie was filmed in 2013 and is rated R, which means the kids theoretically won't be able to watch it until 2020 when they're 17. But I'm sure many have seen it already or will shortly.)

Cooties premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, and was picked up by Lionsgate. Lionsgate decided to reshoot the ending, given their additional financial resources.

Since the new ending didn't look all that expensive to film, does anyone know what the original ending was, as screened at Sundance? I can't find any mention other than "they filmed a new ending".

Answer 1

Wikipedia did presented both the endings. As you confirmed that the theatrical ending was with Wade, which goes like:

After killing a stowaway Patriot by crushing him against a tree, the group arrive in the nearby town of Danville, only to discover it has been similarly overrun by the infected children. The group realizes that the infection has spread across the United States, with schools burning to the ground and reports of violence and destruction caused by children, and they are attacked by a horde of infected children. They barricade themselves inside a funhouse and manage to retrieve a chicken nugget contaminated with the virus, which Doug will use to possibly make a vaccination for the virus, but discover that the infected children, including Shelly, are inside the funhouse. However, Wade and Mr. Hatachi arrive and rescue the group, setting the infected children on fire with gasoline. They then escape in crossing guard Rick's (Jorge Garcia) van, driving out of the town to "someplace kids don't wanna go". They are briefly pursued by a flaming Shelly, but she falls down and burns to death.

The Alternate Ending or the original ending is:

After killing Patriot, they realize they are out of gas. They venture on foot and eventually find a deserted campsite. They enjoy themselves. Clint throws his novel in the fire and tells Lucy that he is not a writer and says he is actually a teacher, living in Fort. Chicken. Clint has a strong feeling of dread and tells the others to join him. They find the leader's dead body, and the other infected children find them. Then you see infected Boy Scouts, led by Shelly, looking even worse than ever; her eyes are hollow black with more blisters. It's unknown what happened to everyone after the encounter.

Carnival music begins playing as three managers from an amusement park, a theater and a family fun center, respectively, get the chicken nugget boxes out of a truck carrying them. Because this ending was never shown, it is possible that the nuggets were also infected with the virus and is responsible for the outbreak.